1. Search engine marketing. Google adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and
Microsoft adCenter on MSN and Bing search engines.
These are paid advertising venues where you pay based on when someone clicks
on your ad. You create small, simple highly specific ads and your ads are
displayed on search engine results based on the keywords you choose. These
keywords are searched by your customers and your ads display for them. Your ad is interesting and they click on it .
You pay per click so you can set a budget. Advertising this way is highly targeted to your customers. Just make sure the ad relates to your keywords and also relate
to your website. There is nothing worse then clicking on an ad expecting one
thing then getting on the website that is completely different what was expected. Not to bring up wasting your money on the ad.
2. Craigslist and other free sites.
There are many free advertising sites on the internet. Craigslist is one of
the biggest. On these sites you place written and image ads in different
categories like small business or want ads. You list your website in the ad
for your customers to find you. You can also just list an 800# or email
address. Other free sites include backpage.com and adlandpro.com. You can
search on the internet for free advertising sites to get a complete list.
3. SEO � Search Engine Optimization
This is the process of improving your website to invite more of the natural
or �un-paid� traffic. With this option on your website, people find you in
the natural listing on search engines based on the keywords they enter. This
is technical including programming in HTML. You will have to hire someone to
do SEO to your website. Do your research and pick a reputable service as
there are a lot of SEO scams out there.
4. Bandit signs or Yard signs
This is another very inexpensive advertising venue. You order the signs with
your message on them. Keep it less then four lines and put both your website
and 800# on it. Place 20-25 signs at a time in the area you want to market
on a Friday night for best lead generation. Place the signs at busy
intersections with stop lights so people have time to look at the signs. Also
target expressway exits.
5. Put website on all your printed materials
Put your website on all your printed materials such as your business cards
and marketing drop cards. Also brochures, flyers, newspaper ads,
newsletters, magazines, direct mail, posters and more.
6. Add website to your email sig
One of the simplest ways to get your website out there is to add it to your
email signature. That way you are connecting to your contacts already for
other reasons and if they are interested in what you are doing they can click
on your website. This way you are not selling them anything.
7. Write articles and link them to your site
This is another great free way of getting website traffic to your website.
Write articles of about 500 � 700 words based on your keywords on your
website. Write each article based on one keyword. Post the articles on the
article submission sites and link each article to your website. Articles
based on a specific keyword will show up higher in the search engine results.
8. Banner advertising
Banner advertising is those little banners on all the websites that have an
ad on them and are clickable. When someone clicks on the banner they are
sent to your website. As you are browsing the internet and come across a
site you like and want to advertise on with a banner you just click on the
link at the bottom (usually) that says advertise. You will need to pay
someone to make the banner itself and get it in the three or four standard
sizes for placement on websites.
9. Content Content Content
The simplest way of getting website traffic is to list high up on the search
engines in the natural (un-paid) listings. To move your website up in the
natural search engine results you have to put compelling and unique content
on your website. Compelling content is content your visitors find
interesting and stay on your site longer so they will do what your most favored
response is like filling in the contact form or signing up for your
newsletter.
This is just nine ways of getting website traffic directed to your website.
There are unlimited ways or driving traffic to your website. I recommend
choosing four and learning them until you are an expert. If you want more
then you can learn new ways as you have the time.
More ideas for
generating free leads. You can see
this article and others I've written on my blog.
