B2B Website Promotion

Original Post  - Nov 15, 2007

You have your website optimized for usability, customer-centric design and search engines. What else can you do to promote your website and get more traffic? Advertise. There are a lot of options now. What makes sense for your business?

Cheap Methods of Promotion

• One of the best ways to promote your website is just to include the link to your website in any communications you send out: emails, enewsletters, quotes, RFPs, brochures, etc.
• Trade links with association websites and partner websites. Make sure you place links on your site in a place that makes sense for your visitors. Avoid link exchanges which place non-relevant ads on your site.
• Contextual advertising such as Google Adwords can be very affordable since you can set spending limits and place several different ads to target specific segments of your audience.

Brand Awareness

Once you have some traffic coming to your site, you might like to increase your brand awareness. You want your customers to think of you when they have a need you can fulfill. Here are some types of advertising to increase your brand awareness:

• Ads in newspapers, magazines, or other print periodicals. Properly designed, this type of ad can not only make your company more top-of-mind, they can also drive traffic to your website when people remember your name during a purchasing cycle.
• Ads on industry websites: trade magazine sites, association sites, etc. These can be especially effective because professionals typically turn to the web for research and news. Many websites are also very affordable for limited runs and smaller ad sizes.
• Sponsorships. Sponsor a round of golf, a charity event, a local event, etc. These can be great publicity plus a tax write-off. Your company will be seen as generous and in-touch with issues and/or the community.

Targeted Campaigns

You may have specific products or services you want to promote or a corporate event you want your customers to know about. This type of marketing requires a bit more targeting.

• Targeted ads on industry websites. Look for sections or features which target your customers and find out about advertising or sponsorship opportunities. You’ll get more impact from bigger ad sizes (skyscraper, medium box, leaderboard).
• Contextual ads. Find out if your industry’s websites use contextual ads to target your audience.

Don’t be shy about trying out a few different advertising methods. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to figure out what works best for your specific customers.