Marketing For Web Sites That Don't Sell Anything!
By: John Skorczewski
Hello,
And a Happy Valentines Day to you! You didn't forget to buy your significant other a Valentine's gift did you?
If so there's still time...run...run!
Last Issue I talked to you about how to
get a better search engine ranking.
This week I want to talk to you about basic marketing strategy that's very important.
Every week I get tons of email from subscribers with questions about marketing, web promotion, search engine submission,
etc. Answering questions from subscribers is one of my favorite things to do (so keep 'em comin!).
Last week I got a question about promoting a non-profit web site.
The person asked how I would promote a non-profit web site as
opposed to a web site that sells stuff (for-profit).
Since many of you may run non-profit web sites, I thought it would be a good topic
for this week's issue.
So how would I promote a non-profit web site?
....I'd promote it the exact same way I'd promote a for-profit web site....a web site selling a service,
or a web site selling a membership subscription, or a web site selling software, or a web
site selling books, or a web site selling ninja-throwing stars...
The basic promotion model is the same no matter what you're promoting or what you're
trying to sell (or not sell!).
So what's that basic model? Glad you asked! I'd break it down into these basic steps:
- Define your target market - Exactly who would be interested in what you have to offer?
Is it boys between the age of 9 and 15, young married women, dentists, comic book readers?
Defining who is interested in what you have to offer (whether that be a product, service, or non-profit
info/membership/fundraising etc) is the most important step.
- Determine where you can find your target market - You've decided that your target
market is dentists...where online might you find a group of dentists? Is there a dental message
board somewhere? Is there an ezine or newsletter that discusses dentistry? Is there a membership
organization of online dentists somewhere? Make a list of all the places you can find
groups of your target market.
- Determine how to reach out to your target market - You've defined your target market,
you've determined where to find them (let's say an ezine dedicated to dentistry) now you have
to figure out a way to get your sales message to that group! Does the ezine offer advertising? If
so buy ad space! If not, contact the publisher, offer their subscribers a free gift or something...
Here's where we could branch out and talk about specific marketing tactics...which is for another
issue.
And that's all there is to it! Sure I could write whole books (Cyber Wealth)
on different tactics you can use in step three to get your message to your target
market....but you don't need to know tactics to understand this basic marketing strategy.
And this basic marketing strategy can be applied to whatever industry you're in, whether
it's for-profit or not-for-profit.....selling a product, a subscription, a service, or whatever.
That's all for this week. See you next Monday!
John Skorczewski
(pronounced Score-Chess-Key)
Editor, WebPromotion-Weekly
http://www.WebPromotion-Weekly.com
Want to use this article in your own ezine or web site? You can...as long as you add this signature line
(including the links):
John Skorczewski is the publisher of WebPromotion-Weekly, a free ezine about Internet Marketing,
Promotion, Advertising, And Search Engine Submission as well as the creator of the popular Web Site Promotion software,
the Submission-Spider
