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Q&A: Promote Our Business

by Nelson Tan

Q: Hi, my name is Jennifer and my husband and I own a business called Write N Things. The website is http://www.writenthings.com. We offer laser engraving, gifts, and handcrafted pens/pencils. We also make promotional items such as color mousepads, magnets, mugs, name badges, bulk supply of BIC pens and pencils. For now we work out of our home. I am a stay-at-home mom, while my husband is a firefighter. We have almost no advertising budget. Is there any way to get our name out there on the internet? We would really like a way to draw business to our website. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

A: Hi Jennifer, I just revisited the yahoogroup so if there's any way I can contribute to the improvement of your site, it's all in this mail.

I believe there are 3 crucial elements to a site: the technicality, the commericality and the aesthetics.

Mature business sites tend to be sophisticated, though it is only the marketing proficiency of the site that determines whether customers are willing to take out their credit cards or not. It is natural for a site to grow along with the business in scale, but as long as it is stable and still easy to navigate, it passes the technicality test. And yes, make it easy for them to pay.

Commerciality: Someone once said, "Don't put content that doesn't PAY you!" Every word that sums up your business/marketing language on your site determines whether a particular sentence will make you a profit or a loss. As I notice that your business in product-driven rather than informational-driven, you can market from the angle of coming up with the long sales page tactic, i.e. direct selling.

Example: http://www.internetmasterycenter.com/magical-formula.php

Being 'informational-driven' means you create a content-based site (with an article collection) that presents a whole education out of using the stationary. When that happens, the site almost looks like a portal in that sense.

Example: http://www.internetmasterycenter.com/center.php

But the classic shoppers' site that has a product-driven layout may be your best bet for a case study: http://www.she-ki.com/.

Keywords: In school the English teacher used to say, "Don't write your composition longer than you are recommended. The more you write the more mistakes you create." In this case, whether it's a sales page or a portal, the more you write, the more you have a chance to put in keywords like 'stationary', 'rollerball', 'pen' 'handcraft', 'art', 'engraving' etc. Tailor-focus your content leading to these words throughout your web pages and not only visitors will understand what your site stands for, first-time visitors who search for these keywords may find your site more easily because the search engines can also pick up your site more easily as well.

Domain name: Keywords in domain names can significant boost your search rankings. You might want to change your domain to rollerballcentral.com, stationaryinthecity.com, etc. No joke, I used to think it's silly but use your keywords and make combinations that sound BIG.

Aesthetics: Nobody said this before, but I'm under a very firm impression that web design alone can not only boost your image, but also up your Alexa ranking and hence attract more visitors. Based on this account, you must get off to a good start. The dark red background and bright wordings provides too much of a contrast. Business sites tend to have a primary theme colour with white background in general, and its 'image' means business and is easy to the eye. Look at the no. 1 site according to Alexa: Yahoo.com. What can you emulate? Get ambitious and be impossible. Visit more sites for inspiration.

Your motto: "Something For Everyone!"...You sell to everyone, you will sell to NOBODY. You lose sight of a target market segment because you don't pay particular attention to any segment's unique needs. If you target salespeople, you would come up with an article like "How a Bethlehem Olivewood Stealth Rollerball can boost your dress sense, impress your clients and even close more sales for you next time you do your prospecting!" You can then confidently raise the monetary value of that type of pen. You should target working professionals because they have the money. :)

That's all I have to say. If there are more Internet Marketing resources you need to find out and in less time, check "The Handy Hyperlink Listbook".

This Q&A appeared in the Internet Marketing Center yahoogroup on 08/04/2005. Internet Marketing Center has more than 100 members and counting (up!). Join us, introduce yourself on how you come about knowing this group, tell us what do you want to gain out of participating in this group and be a part of this family where we give, take and prosper!

Nelson Tan is one-half of the Internet Mastery Center. Create Your Online Profits with the RIGHT Products, Environment and Mindset!

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