Hi all, I was hoping I could get some advice here on marketing my website. Currently we have clients, who we have mostly sourced offline and through word of mouth, and occasionally they find us online. I would like to take us to the next level and really go out there and get clients. Our business is called nEquity. We are a website investment advisory business. Basically our main service is to provide valuations. We provide valuations on what the site is worth to the clients, we provide on waht likely market value is etc, and compile this all in professional research reports. The other arm of our business is providing website brokerage services. That is we sell websites for clients by creating a 'pitch' document and doing out and finding possible interested parties. Our web address is www.nequityonline.com So I would be interested in finding out how we could successfully market our services to start bringing in more revenues to our site. Preferably I would like ideas that are free to implement, although we do have a small advertising budget. Look forward to hearing from all you guys and girls.
well obviously your first target should be getting traffic to your site and having your site be known as an authoritative figure in your industry. keep in mind that not all the traffic is going to convert to sales and not any traffic is good, specially for your service. but getting your site out there and letting people know your site exist is the way to go. here are some free ways you can promote your site and get more traffic to it. Submit your site/blog to directories in your niche. submit your site/blog to all the free directory and search engines. Submit your site/blog to free website review sites like coolsiteoftheday. submit your articles to article directories like article base and associated content (change the article 20% to 30%, so it wont be picked up by SE as a duplicate content). write informative articles related to your industry and that will bring you loads of traffic, which will be a targeted one, since they came after reading your article, obviously the are looking for such service. write related articles on WikiPedia with your blog url in it. make a hubpage for your site/blog, with a little bit information about your blog. make a wiki page for your site/blog. make a squidoo lens or more with a link to your site/blog. create a myspace page for your site/blog. create a facebook page for your site/blog. create a hi5 page for your site/blog. post related how-to videos on you tube with your site/blog address on the bottom of the screen or at the end or beginning of the video. use yahoo answers to answer questions related to your niche, leaving your link in the resource box. join as many forums as possible, especially forums related to your niche, and be helpful to other. use sites like vista print to make free business cards ($5 shipping for 250 free BC which is worth it) with your site url on it and pass it around. make a free favicon to be easily found in your readers favorites file. (people like to find what they want fast. i myself sometimes give up finding a particular article or site in my huge favorite file, simply because i don't want to spend 5 minuets to go through the whole list. a favicon is like big spot light focused on you between hundreds of other people! use free press release services to gain visibility. use free advertising sources like craigslist and backpage to post ads about your articles or blog in related categories. if you have any other blog or site, place a link to your site. (you can even create a blog to talk about your journey with your blog/site). Put your blog URL in your forum signatures. put your site/blog name and url on a bumper sticker or something like that, and attach it to your car. big corporations pay people to place their ads on their car, you don't have to pay anyone, use your own car and also give some stickers to your friends and family and ask them to stick it on back bumper. make flyers with your site/blog name and a short captivating headline style description and pass it in the mall or parking lots. if you use a good headline, at least 60-70% of the people will visit your blog out of curiosity, and who knows how many will become your diehard fans!(readers) last but not least, be patient and give it some time. no one goes from 20/30 visitors a day to hundreds and thousands of visitors, over night. i hope this will be helpful.
Great post, satrap. Many recommend to use Twitter. It's free! Gaining followers in your niche is difficult but possible. Search this forum for excellent recommendations.
thanks webrotate360, and yes twitter is a great way to increase traffic, if you spend time get good amount of followers and build relationship with them.
Hi nEquity Another good way to generate targeted traffic for free is to create a squeeze page, and give a way a free gift of value to people who would be interested in your business, as an incentive to sign up to your list. In your case all webmasters and owners of websites (huge potential). The squeeze page can be part of your website or a separate stand alone page. The whole object of the squeeze page should be to capture their email contact details of visitors to the page, there should be no other links on there, for them to click away. Needless to say you must have compelling copy to get them to sign up. Start to build a list of subscribers. The free gift could be an eBook or information product related to your business. 90% of your sales will come from this opt-in list, because they have already shown an interest in what you have to offer, and you will have established a relationship with them, through a weekly newsletter. Spending about 6 months just building a list is time well spent in the beginning, even though you aren't selling anything. If you look after your subscribers well, offer lots of unadvertised bonuses and keep in contact with them on a regular basis, then you will find it easy to up-sell a product/special offer service, to them when you feel the time is right. It does take longer, but the dividends are well worth it. Plus this list is for life, which means you can up-sell to them whenever you want, with quality products/special offers that are genuinely useful, and the list will just get bigger and bigger over time - instant targetted traffic
Hello! I will create a unique video JUST for you/valuations/. It will be watermarked with your url, so it can't easily be stolen. I will then upload it for distribution to the following video sharing sites. YouTube HowCast DailyMotion Sclipo MetaCafe Veho Viddler Facebook Revver Yahoo Vsocial Photobucket Vimeo 1. Cost is $25 (via paypal) 2. Delivery approximately 24hrs 3. To help make the project unique please furnish 20 to 25 photos/slides/ppt 3a. #3 is not mandatory and I can find the pictures, but you might have a better collection and idea of what you want. 4. I don't offer refunds on this service, but will do my utmost to ensure customer satisfaction. 5. Video length will be determined by the number of photos available, but will range from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes. 6. Video Optimization: YOU furnish the title, keywords, description . 7. Music is licensed/or unique/ 8. You own the raw video and can further distribute if you wish. Any other questions, just ask.
There are a lot of great ideas in this thread, but I can't stress this enough . . . do your keyword research first. The right keywords are to your marketing what a foundation is to a home. By choosing the right keywords, all of your efforts will be maximized. Keyword research is free to do, but many marketers skip this step then wonder why they're not getting traffic and sales. Don't let this happen to you.
Another tip - create your usp and put it on all of your marketing materials. The best way to create a usp is to write down what you think your usp is, then record what your employees see as your usp. Next, ask 5-20 of your customers why they chose to do business with you as well as why they continue to do business with you. Put all of the information together, and you'll have the basis for your unique service position. Write down your USP in 90 words or less and include it on your website, in your brochures, when answering the phone, and in your sales presentations. If you haven't done this already, you'll probably be surprised at how much incorporating your usp in all of your marketing will increase sales!