Web Marketing 101

Jul 7, 2009 8:50 am by Steve Allingham

Web marketing is easy - put your web address on absolutely everything that will ever come in contact with a customer, prospective customer, or someone you hope may one day be a customer. Yet, how many times have you come across business advertising and marketing that omits a company's web address?

I have a pen that writes well and I often use it. I picked it up from a medical wares company at a trade show. The pen lists the company's name and a toll-free number; I'd love to call up and say, "Hello - I'd like to speak to someone in marketing who has heard of the internet..." As someone who is not particularly interested in their product (at the present time) I would never call their number. But out of curiosity I would have browsed their website had they bothered to list it. Prospective customers can be found in stranger places.

Many businesses take care of the basics - putting their web address on company literature, but many omit obvious marketing opportunities like on an afterhours answering machine. Here are 25 places to put your web address - some may be obvious, some may not:

Business Cards - Make sure that all business cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your company's web address
Yellow pages
Billboards
Classified Ads
Radio ads
TV ads
Newspapers
Directly on the product you produce
Billing statements
Invoices
Answering machines, especially the afterhours message
Trade show banner/booth
Marketing material; mugs, pens, calendars, etc.
Company vehicles
Company uniform or dress attire
Your company’s signage
Company video
PowerPoint presentation material
All web advertising
Affiliated or reciprocal company web sites
Company Facebook and MySpace pages – you do have one don’t you?
Trade Journals
Signature line on all Employee Emails
In Articles for Publication
In Comments on Forums and Blogs
Bonus: the answering message on your company provided cell phone