Free. There's nothing like it. Free works when you market to others, and free can work for your marketing. Use these free techniques to bootstrap your Web marketing effort. As you make money from your Web investment, you'll have the funds for paid advertising and other techniques.
Put your URL on all stationery and packaging
There's no added cost to include your URL, YourDomain.com, on absolutely every public piece of paper that leaves your office: business cards, letterhead, invoices, packing slips, presentation folders, marketing collateral, spec sheets, and press releases.
Don't forget to include your URL on PowerPoint presentations and in the footer of white papers and proposals. Be sure your URL appears in all advertising, whether promotional items, print, radio, billboard, or TV. And of course, include it on all forms of packaging: cartons, labels, lids, bags, wrapping paper, ribbon, tissue, and any other containers.
Include your URL in your e-mail signature block
E-mail programs allow you to create a signature block that appears on every e-mail you send. In addition to your name, title, company name, address, phone number, and fax number, include your five-to-seven word marketing tag and a link to your Web site. If you use the format YourDomain.com, the text automatically becomes a link in outgoing mail.
Use calls to action in your text
Calls to action are imperative verbs (such as buy now, save, register to win) that encourage your visitors to take a specific action on your Web site. The word free, as well as a textual link, is an implicit call to action. Use links and calls to action to help visitors navigate your site and to let them know what you'd like them to do. If you don't tell them, they won't know.
Collect customer testimonials
Recommendations from customers are golden! Whenever customers spontaneously offer praise, ask for permission to include their recommendations on your site. You don't have to identify the individuals in detail, but you need something more than "anonymous" as a source. You can collect testimonials from letters you receive, notes in a guestbook, or comments on a blog. Scatter the testimonials throughout your site on pages with related content rather than place them all on one page.
Conduct a link campaign
Inbound links from other Web sites not only bring you targeted traffic from other sites but also can improve your ranking in Google's search results. This is a time-consuming but free method of bringing high-quality visitors to your site.
VickiH
CJ_The@rkitekt