MAKING WEB PAGES WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR CLIENTS

PART II - GETTING THE WORD OUT AFTER OPENING A WEB SITE

E-mail advertisements

Most e-mail programs allow small files of text that append to the bottom of e-mail messages that are sent.

Example: the end of each e-mail message can say something like
"XYZ Company, meeting your real estate needs since 1944."

This file is a "signature file," and any Web site should include the URL and a brief description of the site in key company employees’ signature files.

Every e-mail sent could include an ad like,
"Visit our Web site at "http://www.newproperty.com" to play Land on Boardwalk!

The key to effective signature files are keeping them short, limited to four
lines or fewer. Some people create elaborate signature files, drawing pictures or quoting passages from books or poems.
Files like this take up space, and hardly get read after the first time. But short files usually get glanced at every time, prompting the message to be remembered.

 

Direct e-mail.

Set up the company’s site to collect the e-mail addresses of visitors.
Add a question asking if they’d mind receiving e-mail notifying them of changes to the site, or changes to the industry, or changes and updates to key information the site offers.

Armed with a list of users wanting to receive e-mail, send it to
them. Don’t abuse their trust by overwhelming them with every minor change that is made to the site, but put together a mailer, once a month, pointing out new products available on the site or key issues discussed there.

Don’t let the mailers steal the site’s thunder.  It should be a teaser making readers want to visit the site.
Keep it very short and very current.

 
On-line billboards.

Internet discussion groups, known as "newsgroups," work like bulletin
boards–people can post messages on certain topics.

When visiting the newsgroup you can read all past messages and post messages.  

With more than 20,000 newsgroups, focusing on specific topics, such as pet health care, foreign car repair, Web-page development, computers for sale, or fan clubs for rock musicians.
This area of Internet is noncommercial, and users hate posted advertisements.

Despite this, some companies market to newsgroups successfully.

 
Part 3