Websites 4 Small Business Newsletter
1 May 2006

30 Ways to promote your website
on a shoestring budget - Part 1
by Ivana Katz

You are very excited!!   You have finally created your own 
website!! But the trouble is customers aren’t knocking on your 
website door.  Why?  What should you do?

The most probable answer is that your customers don’t know about 
your website.  Creating a website is like building a house.  
If you don’t tell your friends they won’t know you’ve built 
a house.  Even if they do know you’ve been building it, if 
you don’t tell them your address they’ll never find you. 

And the same goes for your website.  There is no magic internet 
fairy who will knock on people’s door to announce your website’s 
arrival.  The task is up to you.  To get your website marketing 
off the ground you either need to spend time learning and doing 
it or spend money and get somebody else to do it.

There are hundreds of ways to promote your business.  You can 
do it on line or off line or a combination of both.   Much will 
depend on your budget and the time you have available.   
Choose as many options below as your time and budget allows.  
Test as many methods of marketing as you can and see what brings 
you best results.  Website marketing is not a one off exercise.  
You need to constantly work on it, fine-tune it, discard 
methods that are not working and implement new ones.

1. Email Marketing

Your first step should be to send an email to your existing clients 
announcing the arrival of your website. In your message, you can 
even ask them to forward your email onto their friends, family 
and colleagues.

If you are starting a new business and don’t have any customers, 
send an email to people you know who may be interested in your 
offer.

The next step should be to send your announcement to an opt-in 
email list.  Opt-in email lists contain people or businesses who 
have requested to receive information about a certain topic(s).  
There are many companies who can provide you with these lists.  
For more information visit:

www.prospectshop.com.au/email_lists.html

www.4webmarketing.biz/email.htm

www.ezemail.biz/list_power.html

www.ezemail.biz/list_consumer.html

www.webfirm.com.au/email-marketing-australia/

Under no circumstance should you EVER send unsolicited email (spam) 
to people you either don’t know or who have not requested to receive 
your information.

2.  Leads

There are many companies who will provide leads or prospects for 
your business.  For a fee, they will display your advertisement 
(similar to a classified ad) and when someone clicks on it, they 
will be taken to your website.  The great thing about these targeted 
leads is that you are only paying for the people who want to know 
about your business and products.  If you work out the cost of a 
lead versus regular advertising, you will no doubt come out on top.  
Generally the cost per lead is between $0.50 - $1.00.  If on the 
other hand you advertise in a newspaper or a magazine and pay $200 
for the advertisement from which you get 20 enquiries, the cost per 
lead is $10.

Check out:

www.getresponse.com

3.  Search Engines & Directories

A search engine is a searchable database of websites collected by a 
computer program (called a crawler, robot or spider). When you enter 
a keyword, the search engine looks for keywords in its database, and 
any relevant records are displayed.  Currently there are thousands 
of search engines and directories on the internet.  Some of the main 
ones include:

Google - www.google.com

Altavista - www.altavista.com

Yahoo – www.yahoo.com

Excite – www.excite.com

AllSearchEngines - www.allsearchengines.com

Northern Light - www.northernlight.com

DogPile – www.dogpile.com

AllTheWeb – www.alltheweb.com

Lycos - www.lycos.com

When submitting your website to the search engines, you can either 
do it manually by going to the search engine website and adding your 
URL (website address) or you can employ the services of a Search 
Engine Submission company, who will do it for you.

www.submitexpress.com

www.wpromote.com

www.website-submission.com

Search engines try to list sites that contain good content, so you 
need keywords and phrases on your pages that best describe your 
service and products.  For example, if you are a florist, use the 
words such as florist, online florist, virtual florist, wedding 
florist, florist in Sydney, florist on line, flowers, floral, 
bouquets, floral arrangements etc as many times as possible to 
ensure high search engine ranking.  To find out what keywords your 
customers may be searching on ask your family and friends or go to:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
http://www.wordtracker.com

Once you decide on the keywords, use them in

(a) Your website’s domain name

(b) The title of your page – This is displayed in the top bar of 
your browser window

(c) The heading of your home page

(d) The first paragraph of your home page

(e) Meta tags – Keywords, page title, description

(f) Titles of your graphics

Whilst it is important to use keywords as much as possible, it is 
also important you use them only if they are relevant and do not 
sound awkward.  If you spam your keywords you may be penalised or 
even banned by some search engines.  

If this all seems too overwhelming, you can employ the services of a 
Search engine optimization company, who will make your website’s 
content more search engine friendly to make it rank higher.

www.websight.net.au

www.bmcoptimise.com.au

www.e-channel.com.au

4. Link Exchanges

Find websites whose business complements yours and add their website 
to your links/resource page.  Then contact the company and ask for a 
reciprocal link.  For example if you are a wedding dress designer, 
you could contact businesses that sell wedding cakes, jewellery, 
flowers and also venues, celebrants etc.

By doing this your website will become a valuable resource for your 
visitors, as it will provide information they need.  They may return 
to your site over and over to find more information.

On the other hand, you will have visitors coming to your website 
when they following a link from your link partners.

Results in search engines are determined by the material you have 
presented on your site and by other off-page factors such as how 
many other sites link to your site.  The more links you have 
pointing to your site from relevant websites, the higher your site 
will rank.

If you need help with this task, you can employ the services of a 
Link Exchange Company.  They are generally inexpensive and can save 
you hours of time.  Some of these include:

http://www.linkexchanged.com

http://www.powerlinks.com

http://www.links-pal.com

5. Banner Advertising

Banners are graphics, which are linked to a website.  You can create 
your own banner and either exchange it with someone, so that you 
display their banner on your site and in return they display your 
banner on their site.  Whenever someone clicks on the banner, they 
are taken directly to the advertised website. 

To save time, you can join a Banner Exchange programs, such as: 

http://www.linkbuddies.com

http://www.showyoursite.com

http://www.yesnexus.com

6. Email Signature

Every email you send should have an email "signature."  This is text 
that is automatically attached to the bottom of your email message.  
This text can be used to publicise your business.  You can include 
your name, business name, email address, street or postal address, 
website details, phone number, fax number, company slogan, 
description of your company and its products/services.  You can set 
up different signatures for different purposes.

To set up your signature using Outlook Express:

Step 1: Select Tools > Options from the menu bar.

Step 2: Click "Signatures".

Step 3: Make sure that you select "Add signatures to all outgoing 
messages" - within the "Signature settings" section. It is up to you 
whether you would like your signature to appear in "replies" and 
"forwards"

Step 4: Click "New" (you can change the name from "Signature #1" by 
clicking "Rename") - within "Signature" section:

Step 5: Type in the text that you would like to appear at the end of 
your email messages - in "Edit signature" section:

Step 6:  If you're happy with this, click "Apply" and "OK".

7. Feedback and testimonials

When you come across a great product or service on or off the 
internet, send an email to the business owner telling him/her how 
the product/service helped you.  Like you, most business owners 
appreciate receiving positive feedback and they will most likely 
feature your testimonial on their website and place a link back to 
your site!  You may even suggest it to the owner by saying something 
like “you have my permission to feature this testimonial in your 
promotional material and/or on your website”.

8. Giveaways

Offering free giveaways to prospects and clients is a powerful 
business building strategy that can result in a flood of new and 
repeat customers.  If your business is service orientated, you can 
“give away” a free consultation.  Your prospects will get to test 
your business risk-free.  Hopefully they will get “hooked” on your 
service and won’t be able to live without it.

By providing someone with a “favour”, people generally feel a 
natural obligation to return the favour by giving you repeat 
business.

For product based businesses, you may consider a “buy 1 get 1 free” 
or “buy one and get second one at a discount” or give something 
totally unrelated, for example ”Buy a pair of children’s shoes and 
receive a colouring book for free”.

Think about what you can offer free-of-charge that your prospects 
would consider valuable and that you can give at a low cost to you.

9. Trade shows

Trade shows are a very powerful marketing medium because they 
generally take place at a single location, have short runs (usually 
one to three days), and bring together thousands of exhibitors and 
potential customers.

Common reasons for exhibiting include: Generating sales leads and 
actual sales at the show, enhancing your image and visibility, 
reaching a specific audience, personally meeting your customers, 
competitors and suppliers, prospecting for new customers,introducing 
new products and services, demonstrating your product in ways not 
possible using other marketing channels, recruiting distributors or 
dealers, educating your target audience.

There are probably several trade shows in your industry worth 
visiting, and a select few worthy of a company booth. Start by 
researching which shows to attend. Identify the locations and dates 
of all the trade shows related to your industry. Request media kits 
on each show, which should tell you about its size, target market 
and typical exhibitors. If your direct competitors are likely to 
exhibit, your company may be conspicuous if absent.

It's a good idea to exhibit at least once a year just to get your 
name out there, especially if you're an early stage startup looking 
for publicity — or funding.

Once the show space specifics have been established, then you can 
move on to deciding what to take and how you can ‘show your stuff’.

The following are just a few ideas to help you get ready for that 
all important trade show.

a) If the trade show display table you have does not include a 
tablecloth, be sure to get one that complements your display and 
represents your company’s image and colour

b) Erect a stand-alone presentation board. On the board, you can 
show how clients can benefit by using your products/services. Be 
creative and make it stand out. Include pictures, if possible, and 
be sure your company name and logo are more than obvious.

c) Arrange your trade show display table in levels. Put the larger 
items at the rear, shorter items in front of those, and even shorter 
items in front of those.

d) Develop a PowerPoint presentation to display on your table. You 
can make it on your desktop computer and transfer it to a laptop, 
which you can rent or borrow if you don’t already have one. Your 
visitors will find this visually appealing and it will draw in their 
attention.

e) Have plenty of trade show giveaways, such as business cards, 
brochures, pens, magnets, and anything else that has your company 
name and/or logo on it.

f) Offer something a little different as a trade show giveaway… 
FOOD. Package your food in a way that will allow you to have your 
company contact information on it.

g) Offer Gift Certificates for some of your services as a trade show 
giveaway.

h) Have a draw for a prize. Offer a prize that in some way 
complements your business if possible, and appeals to anyone. Have 
visitors and entrants sign a guestbook, fill in a ticket, or drop 
their business cards into a fish bowl or gift bag. The great thing 
about this trade show giveaway is that you can then use this 
information at a later date to make a follow up contact.

i)  Have a portfolio of your work available as part of your trade 
show display. Print off some of your best projects, put them into 
plastic sheet protectors, and arrange them in a binder.

10. Classified Ads

Classified ads are one of the most inexpensive ways to advertise 
your products or service.  Unfortunately many people misuse 
classified ads.  They try to sell a product directly from the ad.  
The best way to use a classified ad is as a two step process. 

1. You place a classified ad in your local newspaper/magazine.  The 
ad should be simple and straight to the point.  It should then 
direct readers to call a phone number of your answering machine.

2.  Your customer will dial the number where they will hear a 
powerful sales message and at the end customers are directed to send 
an order to the address you give on the tape or they can leave their 
contact details.

An example of such classified ad would be:

“Double your mail order business’ profits.  Incredible recorded 
message tells secrets.  Call 1234 5678 24hours or visit 
www.yourcompany.com”

People read classified ads for a purpose.  They are specifically 
looking for products, services and information that appeals to 
them. 

The selection of words you use is the most important aspect of 
classified ad copy.  You need to choose precisely but don’t skimp on 
words to save the cost in the ad.

The best way to prepare copy is to first write about your 
products/services at length.  List all the major benefits and 
features.  Choose a powerful heading that points out the most 
significant aspect of your product.  Follow up with a few words or 
details and finish with a request to contact for more information.

For more information about writing effective classified ads, you may 
wish to download a free copy of “Classified Ads Secrets” Ebook 
from:  http://www.web4business.com.au/ClassifiedAdSecrets.htm 

There are many excellent ebooks on internet marketing.  I would 
strongly recommend you pick up at least one or two and start reading.  
For a list of some great electronic books and tools, which are 
available for instant download, visit:

http://www.web4business.com.au/BusinessTools.htm

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