Internet Marketing
IM Basics
Anyone who markets on the Internet needs to know the basics.

Effectively Promoting Your Web Site
Think That Simply Building a Great Site Will Make it a Successful Site? Think Again. Successful Sites Need to Be Promoted.

Building Your Own Web Site
Help for the DIY'er

Advertising/
Collateral Materials
How To Write a Good Advertisement
Author of the best selling Copywriter's Handbook provides tips on writing ads that get results.

Robert W. Bly's Business-to-Business Copy Clinic:
7 Ways to Create Business Publication Advertising That Gets Results
If you are in business to business marketing, you should  be

More Tips On Using Testimonials
Testimonials make for powerful advertising campaigns - tips on how to make sure your doing it right.

Stalking The Perfect High-Tech Brochure
High-tech collateral pieces deserve to be treated specially. 

Direct Response/
Direct Mail
The 12 Most Common DM Mistakes
Must reading before sending out your next mailing.

Publicity
In Search of Ink - Getting Your Company's Message Into Print

Marketing and the Law
Copyright Basics
Every marketer should read and know these or be ready for an onslaught of legal problems.

What Web Site Builders Need to Know About Trademark Law
"Copyright-free" clip art web sites, a web site domain that is not protected by a national trademark, did your web designer use a competitor's name in the meta tags when building your site? A simple trademark oversight that cost computer giant Compaq to pay three million dollars to the registrant of AltaVista.com to purchase their $35 a year rights. 

If these issues don't yell "danger," you should read this article to find out why they should.

Trade Secret Law
In the information age, information is the central nervous system of your business. Treat and guard it accordingly.

The truth is, simply having a web site on the Internet doesn't mean anyone visits it. The majority of the millions of web sites on the Internet struggle to reach over one hundred visitors a month. Further, consider that the biggest search engines are spending millions of dollars, and often as much as 75% of their  ad budgets, on non-Internet advertising. As the old adage goes, it takes money to make money. The Internet is no exception to that rule. But sometimes, ingenuity can be substituted for some of that money.

First, the very basics.

Make sure your customers know about your web site. Put your URL (web address) on your company's stationary, ads, mailings, products/packaging, invoices, fax pages, trade show displays, company vehicles, apparel, advertising specialties, checks, notes, on your phone's on-hold message -- almost anywhere and everywhere you can think of. Send out postcards to your customers and prospects about your site or new features. Web Cards only charges $95 for 500 postcards they make from your Web site.

One of the most effective means of getting traffic to web sites is through publicity and word-of-mouth. Sending out a news release simply about your company having a web site is unlikely to get your company much publicity unless you have a very high profile company. Do something special at your site that will get you free press.

If your business does not have a full time PR person or   agency - and even if it already does -  you really should consider the Internet News Bureau. The Internet News Bureau is an agency that has recently received a fair amount of publicity itself for its extremely useful and inexpensive service. For less than $250 The Internet News Bureau will distribute your press release to to their resource of media contacts. For an additional $200 they will even write your press release.

Finally, make sure your site is optimized and submitted to all the leading search engines. Getting this done through companies like Submit-It and keeping track of your standings through companies like Position Agent is inexpensive and can result in significant traffic to your site for significantly less than the cost of advertising.

Disclosure: Some of the above linked companies are advertisers at MarketingToday.com. But MarketingToday.com only features products and services we truly find of true value to our readers. In fact, we have used and continue to use many of these services personally.

Peter De Legge is an Internet Marketing Consultant and Developer with over 10 years of Marketing/Marketing Communications experience, primarily in the business to business arena. Prior to the advent of the commercial Internet, Mr. De Legge worked mostly with print advertising, direct mail, trade shows and collateral pieces. He presently lives in Chicago and handles both business to business and consumer Web site development and strategy for a number of companies. To learn more about his services, visit his Web site at http://www.businessmarketing.net. 

© Copyright 1999, Peter De Legge. All rights reserved.

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