Launching Your Website

You can have the world's best website, but it won't do you a lick of good if no one notices. How do you distinguish your business from the millions of web pages online? Must you pay out the nose for banner ads or hire a PR firm? No, says InterActive Agency's Alan Wallace. His web-savvy public relations company has launched websites for clients as big as HBO.com and Universal Studios. Though InterActive Agency usually plays with the big boys, what Wallace knows can help you launch your site too.

"It makes no sense whatsoever to spend a ton of money on your product or your marketing tool if you don't plan on being able to get that out into the public," Wallace says, but he claims small businesses don't have to spend millions or even thousands on that effort. Instead, he says, use the techniques of big business on a smaller scale that suits your business.

Beating the Search Engines

Big businesses have employees who make sure their site shows up in search engine returns, but even smaller businesses can easily use search engines. "Search engines are a wonderful tool, either for you or against you," Wallace says. "A lot of people use a lot of different techniques to position their sites higher and sometimes position their sites in your category whether they have anything to do with that category or not. There are some unscrupulous tricks too, but we don't advise those. What you can do are things such as repeated submission and going to folks who are Internet marketing gurus who know how to go through and manipulate things about the pages and place them higher in search engines."

Using Newsgroups

The unrestricted forum can be a place for happy customers to spread the word on your services - or for unhappy customers to slam you. Wallace advises small businesses to monitor newsgroups and practice damage control. Not only can businesses use newsgroups to monitor bad press; they can use them to market their products. "News groups can also be a source of creating buzz," Wallace says. "You go into a news group about MP3 and you mention that your site is now the latest site for MP3 and we're not here to spam you, but we just wanted to let you know. Chances are you're not going to get flamed and you might get a few people that come by and really like your website."

Inexpensive Tools For Pricey Jobs

Even tiny business that can't afford pricey PR can do a decent job of it themselves, Wallace claims. They just have to use the tools available to them.

"If you want to be able to communicate with your audience, personalization is still important," Wallace says. "Have a form that collects data on your website and then use that data and use a product such as MailKing to personalize out-bound email. MailKing does not allow you to easily offer such things such as update, subscribe or unsubscribe. A more powerful tool like Revnet Express or UnityMail works for that and these are a bit more expensive. But even those tools are very affordable and allow you to be able to personally communicate with the audience."

Wallace advises those looking for e-commerce solutions to find out about tools like DXSHOP and DXCART, both from DXSTORM. Similarly, he touts the benefits of the Copernic search tool for research and SubmitIt! for submitting sites to search engines. "Essentially you're doing everything a big business does on a smaller scale within a small budget," Wallace smiles.

It is possible to market your website on a shoestring budget. You don't get to take the easy way out like big companies that can afford outside PR and marketing agencies, but it can be done. All it takes is a little elbow grease - and the know-how that Alan Wallace and StrategyWeek provide.