Driving More Site Traffic through Cross-Promotion
It is essential to ensure you are cross-promoting your web site properly through existing advertising/marketing channels. It cannot be said emphatically enough: there is no reason whatsoever to spend additional capital driving more traffic to your site with SEO or PPC if you have not already taken some very rudimentary (and more-or-less free) steps to ensure your site is touted in your existing advertising outlays.
Advertising – Make sure all of your current advertising and mentions your web address. Everything from radio, television, yellow pages, newspaper ads, billboards, and business cards should mention your web address in some fashion or another. And, no, don’t print new stationery if it doesn’t already have your URL on it. Rather, just make sure that next time you get more stationery, it is added to it. Or get a rubber stamp.
Branding – Put your web site address on everything you print, from brochures to stationary to envelopes, to business cards. The mention does not have to detract from the core message you are intending to convey in order for its inclusion to be an effective traffic driver.
Awareness – Make sure all personnel know your web site address. The most important thing you can do is to explain the difference between an email address and a URL (web address) to your receptionist. When folks call and ask about the web site address, they should not be given an incorrect URL or an email address by accident. It would shock you to know how often this happens.
Voicemail – Make sure your web address is mentioned in voice mail greetings and on-hold recordings. You’d be surprised to know how many folks are sitting in front of computers while they’re on hold.
Roadside Visibility – Include your web site address on your signage and office windows, vehicles, et cetera.
Email Signatures – Include your web address with your contact information whenever you send out email correspondence (in the “signature” of your email). And, in keeping with this, presentation is important when it comes to email signatures. They should be standardized across all personnel who have corporate email addresses. Additionally, if you don’t already have corporate email, it’s time to pony up. Email providers are cheap and reliable these days. Nothing says unprofessional like an aol.com address.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Does all of our current advertising mention our web address (including radio, television, yellow pages, newspaper ads)?
- Is our web site address on everything we print, from brochures to stationary, to receipts, proposals, and business cards?
- Do our sales staff and front-line customer care personnel know our corporate web site address?
- Do all of our sales staff and our front-line customer care personnel know what information is on our site?
- Does everyone on our staff know the difference between an email address and a URL (web site address)?
- Is our web address mentioned in voice mail greetings and on-hold recordings?
- Does our signage mention our web address?