Marketing 101

You want to promote your web site - probably selling a product or service.
You want to use the Internet search engines and directories to help you.
You know a little about the HTML language.

Promotion involves what is generally called marketing. In this chapter let us review a few basic principles about marketing.

Marketing - all business activity involved in the moving of goods or services from a producer to a consumer. It includes selling, advertising, and packaging.

If you have any kind of business activity, marketing is an essential part of this activity. Even a non-profit organization such as a political organization or a benevolent organization is still involved with "marketing" in its own way. Now what you just read is a pretty dry definition. What you are really trying to do (with, for example, a selling site), to paraphrase marketing guru Jay Abraham, is:

Increase the number of your customers
Increase the amount they order
Get them to keep on ordering

Creating the Plan

Before getting too excited about promoting your web site using the search engines, take some time to clarify specifically and objectively what you are trying to do. There are literally billions of web pages out there in the search engines. Google indexes over 8 billion web pages. Take some time to define your site and how you see it as unique.

This strategy is basic marketing: First, take some time to write your business plan. This may sound scary, but it really doesn't need to be some 50 page thesis in most cases. You may want to check your library for some examples, but here is a sample outline:

Core Values - What are your core values?
Vision - What is the dream, the passion?
Mission Statement - who, what, when, why, where?
Goals - What are your measurable objectives? Purpose?

Who are you trying to reach?
Is there a geographical boundary?
What are their demographics? (gender, age range, education, etc.)
What are the socioeconomics of the market? (what do they wear, drive, eat, …)
What else do you know about this audience?
What are their wants? (not their needs, you need to define their wants.)
How can you motivate them to act now?

The way a man searches on the Internet is different that how a woman searches. The way a young man or young woman searches on the Internet is different that how an older man or woman searches. The price of a product affects how a person searches.
It is a proven fact that if your goal is fuzzy and you don't know who you are aiming at you just won't hit much. The more strategic you can think and the better you can aim will get you the most results.

An Example

One lady in Portland, Oregon went through a bitter divorce and decided she either had to get counseling or a dog. She got the dog. After the divorce she was 1 million dollars in debt. After four years of serious business she had a Web site that moved over $50 million a year in witty greeting cards (http://www.zeldawisdom.com). She dresses the dog up in any of 300 costumes and puts the dog on the cards with some type of witty saying. She had a Christmas card showing the dog dressed in a Santa hat and a caption "For Christmas I got a dog for my husband. Good trade, huh?" She's been on "Good Morning America" twice and "Oprah" once. An elderly lady does the dog's costumes, and a friend does the photography. The dog loves it and is a real ham with the camera. The dog has an honorary degree from Harvard and (the dog) is a certified therapist.

One important point here is that the web site is a tool, or vehicle. It is not the end goal in itself. A few businesses have survived when the Internet was the goal - Amazon, eBay, Google. For most of us, the Internet is a vehicle for leveraging a creative idea in a new way.