Are You Optimizing Your Press Releases?

Well-written, Internet-optimized press releases are a powerful means of getting publicity and attaining highly qualified leads for your business.

Press releases stay on the Web forever, gaining you traffic and qualified leads for months or even years to come.

In addition, the rules have changed for press release strategy due to the Web. The primary audience for the Web is not a handful of journalists, but the ability to appeal directly to your audience via Internet connections and access to search engines.

Press releases should be written with keyword-rich copy, links to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your Website, and optimized for searching and browsing.

Likewise, articles that mention your company are generally archived in the
e-publications on the Web. This, too, will help boost traffic to your Website.

Is Your Website Organized for You or Your Customers?

You need to organize your Website so that it will be easy for your customers to accomplish their goals. Don’t confuse them by organizing it by what you’d like rather than what your visitors and customers need and the information that they’ll be looking for.

Look at your Website just like you would your brick-and-mortar building, such as good location, storefront and interior. To ensure you reach your customers and prospects, you need a Website that has curb appeal and is easy to navigate. Maximize your layout. Customers only give you a few seconds to find what they want or they’ll leave and not return.

Your Website copy also must have powerful words that convince your potential customers to keep reading it and gain their trust. Features don’t sell, benefits do. Solve your customers’ dilemmas. Address their problems, interests, values and how they like to receive service. And, take action. A call to action is a crucial marketing strategy. Don’t let any reader go past any information on your site without being exposed to a call to action phrase. You need it to motivate a customer to convert them into buying your product or service.

Also, be smart about your Web design and navigation. Consider the pros and cons of elements such as frames, a big splash page or a shiny flash video. These represent a design aesthetic that is no longer appreciated; many times they simply annoy your customers. And even worse, using these features makes it harder for search engines to index your site, rank your Website and hinder your search engine optimization (SEO) abilities.

How to Stage a Successful Website Launch?

How to Stage a Successful Website LaunchYou’ve just created and launched your unique new Website.

Build it and they will come? Wouldn’t that be nice? As part of your Website design you should have a plan to promote it.

Once you have a Website that serves your organization’s goals, reaches your target audiences and gives visitors the content they want, you need a planned marketing strategy to launch and support your site.

An ongoing, proactive Web promotion is similar to the expense of any salesperson. Your Website is a 24/7 salesperson. It’s getting those feet on the street around the clock.

Publicize your Website launch with an integrated marketing and public relations campaign. You should reference your Website everywhere possible.

You should send an announcement to your e-mail lists. Print teasers in your newsletters. Tweet about it. Post it on Facebook. Send a postcard. Add a teaser to your e-mail signature. Create promotional items specifically for advertising your Web address. Distribute a press release to your local media and industry publications and much more.