Starting An Internet Business: Web Site Promotion And Marketing

Why an internet business plan starts with...

Web Site Promotion... and Marketing

By Wendy Maki

Web site promotion and marketing is the foundation of any internet business plan because your internet business will not exist unless someone ASKS for it. This is not an empty exaggeration to make a point about the importance of web site promotion and marketing. It is a factual description of the 'reality' of the World Wide Web:

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A web site literally does NOT exist UNTIL someone requests it.

It is the bottom line difference in doing business on the internet, and it has very practical implications.

A web page - and your internet business - is just a jumble of raw code until SOMEONE sends a REQUEST to the server where the code for your page is stored. Someone can request your web business in 2 ways:

clicking on a link to the web page, or
typing the web page URL into a web browser address bar.

No request to the server = no web page = no web business.

BEFORE your internet business can exist, someone has to

KNOW about it, and

ASK for it!

This is one area where off-line assumptions simply don't work on the internet. Assuming that a web site exists - with or without visitors - causes two common misconceptions. Businesses who start from these misconceptions build web sites to "advertise" their business, or as the "location" for a business.

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Misconception #1: A web site is "advertising."

The reality: A web site does NOT "advertise" a business.

The web site ITSELF needs to be advertised, promoted and marketed.

Misconception #2: A web site is a "location."

The reality: Although a web site has an "address," a web site is NOT the "location" of a business. The domain name and the server where the web site code resides are also NOT locations in any meaningful sense.

A web site is not something you can build in a specific PLACE where people can stumble across it, the way they could a brick and mortar building. If a visitor could go to the place where your web site is stored, he or she would not find it there if they don't specifically ask for it.

Your web site is the RESPONSE to a REQUEST by a VISITOR. It appears as the RESULT of a visit. The visitor comes FIRST. A brick and mortar building remains standing after the last customer has gone home, and the lights are turned out. It exists independently of its customers. Your web site is quite different. When a visitor leaves, it dissolves back into the raw materials it is created from, collapsing into a jumble of code.

This means 2 things for your internet business...

#1 - An internet business does not exist without promotion

Without promotion, no one will KNOW about your internet business, and no one will be able to ASK for it.

"Promotion" is anything that places a LINK or URL for your web site in front of a potential visitor. There are many types of promotion available, some distinctive to the internet.

advertising
search engine listings
sponsored listings
word of mouth
e-mail
recommend a friend
directories
link exchanges
web rings
publicity releases
viral marketing
article writing
all the various types of off-line promotion.

What promotion really does for your web site

"Promotion" serves the SAME TWO FUNCTIONS for a web site as the "location" of a brick-and-mortar building does for an off-line business. These 2 functions are:

to place the business where the TRAFFIC is, and
to limit the competition between businesses for that TRAFFIC.

For an off-line business, a poor physical "location" means...

no traffic, or

too much competition for the traffic.

(Mail order and direct response marketing businesses are off-line exceptions that do not rely on location for traffic.)

On the internet, it is promotion that puts a business in the path of traffic. Promotion places links and URLs where people can use them to make the request that brings the web site magically to life. Promotion can also limit the competition between internet businesses. Online, where traffic is potentially unlimited, the competition for that traffic is also potentially unlimited. Thousands, even millions, of web sites often appear on a single search engine results page, each one competing for a visitor's attention.

For an online business, poor "promotion" means...

no traffic, or
too much competition for the traffic.

Sound familiar?

The key to the value of any business is TRAFFIC - whether it is on the internet, or in the "real" world. Internet entrepreneur Corey Rudl put it this way in an interview:

"Without traffic, nothing you do will make your online business a success."

Promotion (online) and location (off-line) is HOW that valuable traffic is acquired.

#2 - Promotion is not enough

Promotion will place your web site's link or URL in the path of a potential visitor, and it may convince him or her to ask for your web site, but your business web site continues to exist only as long as the visitor CONTINUES to request it.

Web sites - and the internet businesses they represent - blink in and out of existence, as surfers regularly abandon web pages that have barely begun to load. Your web site, too, will vanish the moment a visitor STOPS ASKING for it.

Also, you have just one chance with most visitors. Few will request a web site a second time. An internet business does not have the benefit of the location-based repeat traffic of an off-line business. Online, there are no physical limits to where visitors can go, so they rarely go down the same 'streets' twice. Online, repeat traffic is based solely on continued promotion.

This means...

Your web site needs both promotion... and marketing

Promotion - placing the links in front of traffic - is simply the first step in marketing. Marketing your internet business is not only how you first promote your business into existence, but it is also how you make sure it REMAINS in existence.

"Marketing" is simply a system of HOW your business:

first makes contact with a potential customer,
maintains that contact or develops a relationship,
converts that prospect into a customer,
continues the relationship after the conversion.

Overall, your web site marketing plan looks at two things:

your promotional strategy to get the links and URLs in front of the traffic, and convince visitors to click on them, and
the continuing interactions between your business and those visitors.

Your internet business plan needs to start with web site promotion and marketing because that is the very foundation on which an internet business is built.

NEXT: (Part 2) Why an internet business needs direct responses from visitors ť

Dig Deeper (into this topic)

Marketing, Internet.

Nitro Webcasts. Audio.
Regular webcasts on internet marketing subjects, including promotion. Browser access. No dial-in or long-distance.
FREE SIGN UP to be notified of Next Broadcast.

Rudl, Corey. "Interview With Corey Rudl." Web page.
Discusses how Corey Rudl built his multi-million dollar internet business, what he considers important for success, and why internet businesses fail.

Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet. Internet Marketing Center. Home Study Course.
Flagship internet marketing home study course originated by Corey Rudl and regularly updated by his successors.

Picks & Shovels (internet small business tools)

Web Hosting, Small Business.

Site Build It!
Automatically submits newly built pages to search engines. One of many features to help with site promotion. Site building and hosting package designed to help build small internet businesses from the foundation up, starting with brainstorming ideas.

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