Leveraging Technology to expeditiously promote your online businesses
For a successful internet presence, a perfect website and the right quality product is simply not enough. In fact, it does not make any sense to put up your website out there without being seen. The more the number of visitors to your online portal, the more is your chances to an ascending business. Conventional web promotional methods are proving themselves to be time consuming, exhaustive and ineffective compared to the modern technology-driven ones.
To add on, these are self sustained and most of the time it is bringing you leads, traffic and business even while you are asleep. We know that the future is not about just listening, it is Interactive Marketing. Advertising is not what is used to be and promotions have attained a phenomenal shift, technology being an uber catalyst. Even online advertising and paid searches have lost its glory. Statistics reveal that more than half of America’s consumers purchase a brand due to modern promotions, 8 out of 10 online consumers have entered a sweepstakes at least once, two-thirds of all consumers are happy to share their personal info if offered a chance to win something.
Let’s take a look at some of the successful technology-driven tools that bring in real people to your site:
Advergaming – Advertising + Gaming is nothing but employing video games for promotion. The word was coined in 2000 after it gained commercial publicity. It now plays an integral part of brand media planning and online advertising. This has evolved to include more of educational or informational purposes alongside entertainment. It promotes recurring traffic, ensures awareness, encourages registration of users for sweepstakes and promotions, aids in market research, and when gamers invite their friends, they endorse viral marketing and brand word-of-mouth.
Viral Video Syndication – Integration with videos, video sharing sites etc. When a clip is shared, ads are included and it uses social media to extend its reach through the leverage of viral marketing. These can be video clips, interactive flash, or a set of sliding images. YouTube gets more visitors every day than its owner Google. We know that the video portals are already packed with huge traffic and with this integration a portion of that traffic is diverted to your site.
Facebook Applications-Know the angry birds..? If yes, you know the potential. Imagine getting your details across to the user in the process and also receiving user’s personal information for free. This is now a growing trend used to create traffic and awareness. And since FB has also gone mobile, the promotional scope has only increased.
Social Bookmarking – Integration of your website to social bookmarking sites. You have already done social book marking if you have shared any link, which you found interesting, with your friends or family. It is like the usual bookmarking except that you do not save them to your browser but to the web where you can share to the public. Plus you view their favorite bookmarks and browse through their items based on most popular, recently added etc. This is a powerful promo tool.
Podcast Integration-Podcasts are radio shows or other audio programs available for download over the Internet. Exploiting this technology can deliver huge benefits with regards to web visibility, increased traffic and customer base. This can work as unique communication platform for your business beside the normal emails and newsletter channels. Moreover, podcast RSS feeds can get some good rankings on search engines. Podcast integration is a must do.
RSS feed integration-RSS feeds can be viewed as your modern day eZines, which definitely enhances your content reach and develops wider member base. You can make the content of your RSS feed available for others to publish which means it links back to our content which Google loves. You can also use buttons on your website, newsletters, email signatures or even mobiles to increase the subscriber base. Major benefit is that the users are opt-in. Also it lessens the burden of maintaining huge mailing lists. Any update to the content can be linked to the feeds. And the users feel this is better because they do not have to share their personal information in order to subscribe.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – It is the process of improving visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via natural or un-paid/organic search results. The more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO is a must do for any promotion. This is not just 3 simple letters – its HUGE and unfortunately the entire techniques used obviously can’t be included in the scope of this article.
Referral Program– The simplest and the best way to spread something is allowing the users spread it for you. You can include widgets for users to send out referral messages. Users can feed in contact details of their network or can simple “Tell a Friend”. It is systematic process to maximize word of mouth potential. This is guaranteed traffic and is a must have.
Social Media Integration– Being more of an integration tool, Social media, allows better communication and visibility. With a few shares, comments, likes, tweets, publish you can reach out to millions out there. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc are doing enough research each day to find out better ways to communicate and create unique user experiences. Social media is also like your friend next door’s endorsement. Consumers today trust the recommendations and feedback from their peers more than any campaigns.
Mobile Integration– The key point is that mobile is the very personal nature of mobiles. Plus the on-the-fly accessibility doubles the chances of conveying your message. As the subscriber base for smart phones is following an uptrend, this is most certainly your handy web promo tool kit. All apps and tools that you deliver online can be integrated either as device specific platform or a mobile compatible interface. Hence you can’t afford to ignore this integration.
Blog Integration – Throwing fresh information and reaping the benefits through ‘to and fro’ integrations is vital. Great content means frequent engine crawls. Blogs are known for the huge community presence, freedom of expression and authenticity. Hence the integration is crucial.
Coupons/Contests– Sites with giveaway promotions, coupons and contests are standing tall with regards to audience capture. People like things for free, so this is the major attracting factor. If this uses sweepstakes, you should ensure the legal boundaries of your state. Offers should be specifically targeted and you can see your visit & sale analytics grow rapidly.
Surveys/Opinion Polls– Surveys can render itself as a powerful market research tool and also as a great interest creating tool when you publish the results or club this with an offer. This can be further used to retain customers through focused marketing as your target group is revealed from the survey itself.
Affiliate Program– Affiliate programs are different from referral programs. In referral, the person referred could be your friend, family or colleague. Affiliate marketer would be interested in a larger set. This is majorly CPA or Cost per Action where you need to pay your affiliate once a desired action is performed. This is guaranteed sales compared to the traditional CPM (cost per thousand views), or pay per click (PPC) etc which are losing their charm because of hyperbolized traffic and disproportionate sale.
Widgets– These are light weight applications embedded in sites, forums, blogs etc. Widget equals good online PR, awareness and affiliate sales. Key is that it enhances user experience. It is interactive and also helps in SEO in many cases.
Auto responders, Email Marketing & Newsletter integration– Building lists and setting up html mailers and 5% conversions on it is nothing new. But it still works and deploys a good ROI.
Reviews/Rating/Voting System – This again, like the survey integration should be regarded in a promotion perspective rather than an analysis one. This enhances trust if utilized properly and a combination of other integrations can help in good online PR and endorsements.
Conventional invasive techniques like pop-ups, pop-under, delay page etc should be annulled as these might have an adverse affect on the campaign for instance an inefficient SEO etc. Same is the case with paid advertisements, banners etc. It’s important that when you shout out to the world, you should do it right. Hence right promotional technology identification is very essential.
OptiSol Business Solutions has been employing carefully handpicked most modern technology-driven promotional tools and mechanisms for clients applying thorough consultation sessions and end-to-end strategies in its engagement processes and has helped numerous online businesses make it big with real traffic, rankings and conversions for minimum investment. If you would like to know more or would like to do a trial please feel free to mail in your request to info@optisolbusiness.com
