You have a business. You need business cards, letterhead, envelopes…what else? There is so much more that can be used for marketing. This all depends on your budget and what you want to accomplish.

You know that marketing can be expensive. The printing, advertising, promotional products are just a start. The web is not any different.

Your web site is just one form of marketing your business to be used in conjunction with your other marketing efforts. Have you ever taken out an ad in the local paper or trade journal and received little, if any, response? It is widely known that PR, ads, articles, billboards, etc. all work together to bring you business. Just look at all the places you see ads or references to Coca-Cola - TV, magazines, radio, on movie screens before the movie, product placement in the movie, sporting events, and charitable sponsorships not to mention seeing their name on pop machines, containers, and the sides of their trucks. This is by no means a complete listing, just a quick brainstorm. The point is that all of these efforts leverage off each other for name recognition and brand image. A web site is one more thing to add to the list.

You want to promote your web site too because it is a great way to provide information about your company, product or service, and let people know how to contact you. It is a way to provide a lot of information at a low cost relative to other means. But, like your business you need to market your web site to make it effective. Search engines are just one way to market your site and it can be tough to achieve a top ranking due to the shear number of competitors out there. Here is just a small list of the ways you can market your web site:

• Add your domain name to business cards
  
• Add your domain name to letterhead
  
• Add your domain name to advertisements
  
• Add your domain name to your email signature
  
• Add your domain name to all of your business forms
• Send a regular E-Newsletter
  
• Write articles for business or trade journals and newspapers relevant to your area of expertise
  
• Participate in link exchanges
  
• Participate in online forums
  
• Optimize for the search engines

As stated above this is just a small list. There are many things that you can do - low cost ways to market your web site and in turn market your business.

© Cataluña 1999