10 Elements of Online Marketing 

by Jennifer Henczel

For 12 years, I was an international trade consultant and business trainer known as the Import Export Coach. I created ImportExportCoach.com which became one of the top import export business websites in the world.  Now, as a communication expert, I have over 140 domains.  I am often asked how I drive so much traffic to all my sites, which primarily focus on communication, motivation, and creativity.

The goal is to get links from other sources to link to your site in order to drive relevant traffic there.  SEO strategies are incorporated throughout the tips below. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means to create elements in and around your website that will optimize it for the search engines.  In other words, it will make it easier for the search engines to find, recognize, and list your site.  

All of these strategies work together to build on, what I like to call, your online equity.  By building the network of sites that link to your offerings you are increasing your power to reach people and create profit. The items listed below are not necessarily steps that must be conducted in order, but rather elements that work simultaneously.

1. Website and Content Development

SEO is an important factor in online content management.  Keywords are words and phrases that people use to search the web, and they should be built into your content throughout you site.  You should post new content at least once a month, including updates, information, articles, and resources that will compel people to want to visit your site.  This will establish you as a good source or expert on a particular topic and keeping your content fresh will attract repeat visitors.  For example, if you own a spa or wellness clinic, your website could contain articles and resources for skin care, body care, healthy foods, etc., in addition to your regular company information (more on article strategies below).   Also ensure that your tags are properly optimized with keywords for maximum results.  These can be found in the background code of your site, and the method for doing this depends on the type of website you have.  Navigation should be user friendly and links to key pages should be found on every page. 

Although, some techs may disagree, a combination of html sites and blogs is recommended to achieve the highest SEO.   To create an html website you can use FrontPage or Dreamweaver, and for a blog you can use Blogger or wordpress.  You can link back and forth from your main site to you blog.  But that’s from a marketing perspective, not a technical perspective, so you need to decide what the objectives are for your website.  This article focuses on tips for marketing your website and achieving the highest SEO possible.  Keep it simple.

2. Search Engine Submissions

Each search engine provides a place where you can submit your website URL for consideration to be recognized by their robots.  There is no formula to guarantee that your site will be placed at the top of the list for any particular keyword, however, by using the strategies provided in this article, you will increase your odds for getting the desired spot.  Submit It is a great resource for submitting you site to several search engines at once. You can test your site ranking buy using tools such as Google’s PageRank.  You can also check detailed traffic statistics through a free Google Adwords account.

3. Link Exchange Program. 

Invite people to link to your site.  This is achieved by creating a page titled “Link to Us” that describes how you want people to link to your site, and be sure to include titles for links, text descriptions, and banners.  Once this page is created, invite other related but non-competing sites to exchange links with you.  Ask them to link to you as specified on your “Link to Us” page.  You can create a template for this message in you email program so that you don’t have to re-create it each time.  You will also need to post their link—that’s the exchange part—so create a page specifically for this purpose.  They may ask you for the URL where their link is posted, so keep the URL for that page handy.  These strategies also enhance SEO efforts because it shows the search engines that you have other related websites and content linking to your site, proving that it is relevant.

4. Write and Post Articles

This article strategy works for you in two ways:  First, you should create an article section on YOUR website as described above, giving you the opportunity to incorporate even more keywords into your content.  Secondly, writing and posting articles on OTHER websites is a way to get links back to your website.  Provide tips and write about topics and you are familiar with and post them to article sites like these: 

Affective Communications

Business Smart Start

Click for Content 
Content-wire
Electronic Content 
Ezine Articles 
Ezine-writer 
Family-Content 
Free Sticky.com 
Go Articles 
Import Export Coach Ezine

Mag Portal 
Marketing-seek
Netterweb 
Webpronews 
Web-source 
Womans-net 
Writers and publishers

If you need articles written for you that are compelling, and will drive traffic to your site, please contact me.

5. Write and Distribute Press Releases

A press release can be optimized by including keywords throughout the copy.  Links to a website can also be placed within the press release, where appropriate. Click here for more information about writing press releases and here is a here for a press release template.  Write press releases which contain news and updates about your company and distribute them through any or all o these PR sites:

Free Press Release

PR Web

PowerHomeBiz  

prFree

Press Box

Press Release Network

PR Leap

Major News Wire

PR.com

PR.com Industry Listings 

In addition to distributing your press release, it should also be posted on the company website and feature it in any newsletters or ezines.  Adding this content and keywords to a website will in turn, also increase the SEO of the website.  It all works together, each piece enhancing the other.  I write press releases also, contact me today if you need help with this one. 

6. Domains

Your url is your website address, for example, if you have a domain it may look something like this www.yourwebsite.com.  Your marketing efforts will be much more effective if you have a short domain rather than a long url that may be confusing for someone to type in, and then they may not bother.  The idea is to make it as simple as possible for people to get to your site. 

Perhaps you have a site through an affiliate program and it comes with a long, difficult to remember url.  Well, all you have to do is buy a domain and direct it to that URL.  Then just tell people the new domain name and it will go to your affiliate site.  

First, everyone should acquire their “name” domain as quickly as possible.  It can be used for many purposes.  For example, Jennifer Henczel (www.jenniferhenczel.com) provides more of a personal view of my accomplishments and services, than my overall company website.  But it links to my company website and other online resources, creating more “online equity”.  

In addition, acquire as many domains as possible, within your budget, that are applicable to your service, brand, business, persona, or organization.  Start with your specific name of your organization, and then move onto more general domains that contain the words people may use to search for your website.  For example, for my website The Communication Coach I also have these domains directing to specific pages of the same site:

Communications Coach (www.communicationscoach.ca)

persona and services

Affective Approach (www.affectiveapproach.com)

brand, book title, theory, philosophy

Likeable Leader (www.likeableleader.com)

brand, book title, theory, philosophy

You can also use your domains to direct to your micro-sites, as discussed below.

7. Create Micro-sites and Online Resources

Once you get your main website established, you should consider adding a network of complimentary micro-sites.  A combination of html sites and blogs is recommended.

The idea is to create several small sites, called micro-sites that each have their own unique domain, and link to one another.   Micro-sites typically contain a long, one-page, compelling sales letters that includes benefits and descriptions to promote new products and services.  However, these sales micro-sites do not draw traffic; you need to drive traffic to them.  What I would like to suggest here is to develop online resources that are packed with information and tips about a specific topic.  Those are the types of sites that get listed in the search engines as useful sites.  They may not necessarily sell anything, but links back to your main site, or your micro-sites, where ever possible. For example, my Import Export Coach site deals specifically with providing import export business start up resources.  Marketing Motivator  offers marketing tips and information. Likewise, my Adult Educators site specifically includes tools for trainers, instructors, coaches, and adult educators of all kinds. 

8. Advertising and PPC

You can start getting visitors and potential customers today with these strategies!  Drive traffic to your site right away with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through services such as Google Adwords.  You sign up for account, create a small ad and it is placed onto other content relevant sites and in search results.  For off-line marketing, make sure to have your URL included in everything you print, including, letterhead, postcards, business cards, thank you cards, holiday cards, and promotional items.

9. Participate in Social Media

Social media is considered the driving force behind the Web 2.0 movement.  It allows people to interact with site owners, comment on articles, contribute to site content, and participate in creating and re-creating media, and ultimately, network with other people.  Basically we’re talking about forms of consumer generated media (CGM) and consumer generated content (CGC) such as blogs, podcasting, video casting, wiki, social networking, and social book-marking.  Messages are distributed through RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, and subscribers read them using services such as Bloglines.  To take advantage of this technology to generate traffic to your website you need to join or create an account at sites such as Facebook, Linked In, Youtube, iFilm, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us,  You should also consider adding a blog to your website to interact with your clients and customers.  I recommend using the blog in combination with your existing company site for maximum benefits.  You can use free programs such as wordpress to create your own blog.  Finally, click these links to view some brief videos that explain all of this technologies:  Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, RSS, and Wikis

10. Create an Online Newsletter or Ezine

Urgent!  Before you do anything else, start collecting email addresses from your clients, then by the time you are finished setting up all the other steps you will be well on your way to a good opt-in subscriber list.   Email marketing is proven to provide the best ROI (Return on Investment) than any other marketing available.  It offers the lowest cost method for reaching your audience with the most impact.  Amazingly, this strategy produces both short term and long term results, if produced consistently.  A regular bi-weekly distribution is recommended.  I suggest using a digest format that involves placing a title and brief paragraph, description, or summary into the newsletter which then links to the full content on your website.  You can design and distribute your newsletters using Constant Contact, which will also help you to collect more subscribers and manage your data.  However, it is an advanced online marketing tool and some clients find it overwhelming and complicated to set it up. Contact me today if you would like help with this process.  

About the Author

Jennifer Henczel has a Masters in Communications and specializes in interpersonal, organizational, and external/marketing communications.  Her focus is on communication, motivation, and creativity.  She offers personal coaching, professional development training, and communication skills workshops.  Other services include writing, training, speaking, and creating company ezines.  Contact her today:

Jennifer Henczel

The Communication Coach

jh @ TheCommunicationCoach.com
www.TheCommunicationCoach.com

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