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Your internet business is just like any other business – you’ll need effective marketing and promotion to gain and retain customers.  With the internet more and more important to real world businesses, and internet businesses increasingly expanding into real world enterprise, the ideas here are equally relevant to any business.

Add your web address to corporate stationery

And flyers, and posters, and advertisements.  Try to let as many people know about your business as you can, since your existing contacts will probably be your first loyal customers.  Don’t be shy, and try to think of new ways to tell people about your website.

Publish a newsletter

A newsletter is a cost-effective way to stay in touch with your contacts and customers, and a way to maintain contact with potential clients.  Newsletters and mailings should not be issued too frequently – too often and your subscribers will opt out, but a brief, useful newsletter should be issued on a regular basis.  Sometimes, a more frequent distribution can be OK, for example an industry news site might issue one news update per day, but for most newsletters, once a week should be a maximum.  Include unique, interesting content, and wherever possible try to have subscriber only content or special offers.  This will attract subscribers.

Offer a prize draw or other freebie

Something for nothing is everyone’s favourite deal, and by offering a competition, prize draw or money off vouchers, you can attract customers to your website.  You could have a prize draw for new subscribers to your mailing list, or offer a money off code for online shopping or even money off vouchers for instore purchases.  This freebie can be linked to the mailing list subscriptions, requiring customers to sign up to receive it.  This increases your number of contacts for your mailing list for a relatively small actual cost.  There are even special websites devoted to freebies and competitions where you can get free exposure for your promotion.

Provide useful, unique content

Internet users will come back to useful sites again and again, so make sure that your website is user friendly and offers something extra to your visitors.  Making your content as unique as possible will help – visitors have something to remember and come back to, while search engines give priority to pages with content which is not found elsewhere on the internet.  If you are a commercial site, why not publish How-To’s, or feature articles.  An image gallery can attract a lot of visitors, and so can interactive content (games, animations). 

Don’t be too flash

Visitors hate to be annoyed, and flashy, overcomplicated websites and animations can turn them off.  Keep it simple and easy to use, avoiding worthless animations which distract the eyes, and keep any noises to a bare minimum – late night surfers hate to wake their sleeping families because someone has put a 10 gabba track into their home page.  Using overcomplicated features such as audio, video and animations can also affect people’s computers and cause them to crash.  Keep all gimmicky effects to a minimum and warn people if there will be content such as videos, pdfs etc behind your links.

Get feedback, and act on it!

Responding to feedback is an essential part of business and nowhere more so than online.  You can ask your visitors to give you feedback directly, and you may also like to link to ratings site so that customers can rate your business on third party websites.   Encourage your visitors to leave feedback on your website by offering a promotional discount or item.  Always get permission in advance to use visitor comments for promotional reasons.

Keep track of your customers

On the internet, you can get a feel for what your customers think of your website by viewing your traffic logs and hit statistics.  A combination of Statcounter and Google Analytics should tell you everything you need to know about your visitors, the paths they took through your website, your conversion rate and the most popular parts of your website.  Examine this information carefully to find out which bits of your website work best for you, and try to expand on those areas.

Host, promote or attend events

Events related to your area of business are a great way to meet new people, and make new contacts.  You could add an events listing to your website to encourage returning visitors, and ask people to submit their events to you via an online form or email for inclusion in your events list.   If you have a physical presence, you could stock flyers for local events, a good way to entice people into your shop.  You may be able to attend events, and even take a stall, an excellent though sometimes costly way to promote your business.  Make sure you are kept up to date with industry events, and prioritise your attendance at the most important ones.  You could even host your own event, at your own premises if you have one, or elsewhere. 

Ask for recommendations

If you've got a satisfied customer, ask them to spread the word. Most people will be happy to help someone who has helped them, but many will be shy of referring you without being asked to. When the deal is all done and everyone is pleased, mention that you would be pleased if they would recommend you to anyone else they know who is looking.

Target your advertisements

Businesses waste a lot of money by advertising in the wrong places.  To make sure that your adverts reach your target audience, you have to do a bit of research.  Most importantly, of course, is figuring out just who your target audience is.  A lot of businesses misunderstand their target demographic or wilfully ignore it, hoping to change their customer base overnight.  Only advertise in places where it is appropriate to do so, or else your advert will be ignored.

Issue regular press releases

Gaining exposure in the local or national press is one of the best ways to promote any business. All businesses should try to create a network of media links and contacts, so that their press releases are given a good chance of publication. Press releases should be sent out to relevant contacts whenever something important or interesting happens. If nothing important or interesting has happened to your business for a while, make it happen by promoting an event, getting involved in your community or some other newsworthy activity. All press releases should be carefully targetted, and don't be afraid to send your press release to media contacts who aren't specialist in your industry, but who may be interested in an aspect of your activities. This cross-industry reporting can be a great source of new customers.

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