Web Content, Design, & Promotion

Amazing site makes it easy to say "Thanks" to customers and drive web site traffic

More and more marketers are discovering the power of postcard marketing. In the e-mail age, postal mail gets noticed and attracts immediate readership.

In a blink of an eye, a brightly colored, plastic laminated postcard, like those that AmazingMail can print and mail for you, attracts your prospect's attention and communicates your message.

Today, the best way to drive web site traffic is to go offline and send a colored postcard via First Class mail announcing new web site content or downloadable coupons. 

Visit AmazingMail and learn how to harness the surprise value of colored postcards sent via First Class Mail, but prepared on your computer. Moments after you arrive at the AmazingMail site, your first Thank you cards, promotional announcements, or opt-in registration incentive can be ready for First-Class mailing to your prospects and clients.

Print-on-demand color means no minimum quantities. You can send 1, or 1,000, or 10,000 postcards with a single click...and you can choose from thousands of free illustrations and artwork.

Using postcards to drive website traffic

There are many times when it makes sense to use postcards to drive web site traffic:

• Networking contacts. When you have just met someone at a networking event, a postcard announcing new content on your web site might be preferable to, and more effective than, an e-mail.
• Legacy clients and prospects. Your filecabinets likely contain invoices and corrpondence with clients and prospects who have given your their postal address, but haven't shared their e-mail address and permission to send them e-mail.
• Purchased mailing lists. If you can define the characteristics of your best clients and customers, a list brokers can probably assemble a mailing list of likely prospects for you to communicate with. "Cold call" postal mailings are always received more favorably than  unsolicited e-mails.

Click here to download a free Roger C. Parker Guerrilla Marketing & Design newsletter describing how to send First Class postcards from your computer!

Assessments build newsletter sign-ups

Assessments make better Permission Marketing incentives than tip sheets or special reports.

When visitors sign up for an information incentive, you don't learn anything about them. But, when visitors take an assessment on your web site, you learn a lot about the "person behind the e-mail address." 

You can easily find out their problems and goals, the extent of their knowledge, and their previous experiences. You can even ascertain their willingness to pay, and their urgency--or intention to buy.

Get the full assessment story here!

3 Reasons for an alias

An alias, or re-direct, is a URL that automatically directs traffic to a different website address. They are extremely important in three different types of circumstances:

1) Misspelled words
If your name can be easily misspelled, create an alias for every alternative spelling. That way, if  visitors enter  www.tomhartman.com or www.thomhartman.com, but your URL is actually www.thomhartmann.com, they'll still arrive at your correct URL.

2) Numbers
If your URL begins with a number, i.e. www.1shoppingcart.com, create an alias for people who spell-out the number, i.e., www.oneshoppingcart.com.

3) Blog addresses
ISP's hosting blogs often create long URLs based on a combination of your their name and the name of your blog, i.e., http://rogerparker.typepad.com/upcoming_events. This, obviously, is not a title you would want to give out in a radio or TV interview. Instead, select an alias that's easier to remember, i.e., www.rcpevents.info.

Submit a comment, below, if you can think of another reason for using an alias!

Proof that Star Battery's approach works

When I first visited the site less than two weeks ago, PDFs of owners manuals were free.

Now, they're downloadable for $1.99, which we can assume is proof that the strategy is not only working in attracting site traffic, but download fees can help offset marketing costs.

Using information to drive search engine traffic

Star Batteries has done an excellent job of attracting camera buyers to its site, by offering information large segments of its market wants.

The idea behind their campaign is simple: What kinds of people are likely to need batteries? Camera owners are likely candidates. 

What kinds of information do camera owners need? If my experience is representative, "owners manuals" are of interest--both before a specific camera model is purchased, as well as after the camera purchase.

So, if you enter "Canon 20D owner's manual" into Google, the first entry that comes up is for Star Battery's web site! Same thing if you enter "Nikon F5 owner's manual," etc.

Morale? What kinds of information could you place on your web site in order to attract your market?

The nice thing about this approach is that you don't have to write everything on your site: you can just make it available--and searchable!