improving the visibility and marketability of your web site giovanna genard,...

Improving the Visibility and Marketability of Your Web Site

Giovanna Genard, gmg11@psu.edu

http://www.alumni.psu.edu/web2001/marketing

Effective marketing strategies will increase the visibility and awareness of your

departments’ offerings.

Defining Objectives andTarget Markets

• Define site objectives

• Develop appropriate marketing techniques– Existing server log data– Web, e-mail, and telephone surveys– Benchmark with other departments

Offline Publicity Venues

• Market the site’s up-to-date information– Events– Benefits and services– Learning opportunities– Product information

• Prominently display Web site address

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

• Create print ads

• Brochures– Mailings– Info packets– Appropriate publications

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Offline Publicity Venues (cont.)

Online Publicity Venues

Other than a search engine or directory, there are many online publicity venues that help a site gain

visibility.

Georgia Tech survey• Links from other sites – 88%• Search engines – 85%• Friends – 65%• Printed media – 63%• Directories – 58%• Signature Files – 36%• Television – 32%• Usenet – 30%• Other – 29%• Books – 28%

Online Publicity Venues (cont.)

Using the information from the survey, marketing techniques can be applied to

help people find your Web site.

Online Publicity Venues (cont.)

• Monthly e-newsletter

• Link exchange page

• Awards– Image that links to you site

• Favorite Icon– 16 x 16 pixels

– Automatically displayed in Internet Explorer 5

Online Publicity Venues (cont.)

For more information on Favorite Icons visit: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/18/index1a.html

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders

• Free web offers– Screen savers

– Icons or images

– Sounds

• Merchandise with URL– Bookmarks

– Pens

– T-shirts

– Mousepads

• “FAQ” or “How do I” section• Discounts

– Coupons for visiting the Web site– Student discounts

• Contest/Giveaways– Change frequently to encourage repeats visits– Gather information from visitors– E-mail all registered participants– Visitors may not be the target audience

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

• Surveys– Informational value to participants– Publish results

• Interactive tours– Html– Flash– Streaming video– Department– How a product is produced– Related to research topic– Educates visitors

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

• Online Postcards– Processing a form– Use Perl, ASP, PHP, CGI scripts– Free software– E-mail to recipients

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

• Create online communities and send press releases to promote them to other departments, students, faculty, or staff.– Forums

• Like a guestbook

• Threaded discussion board

– Chat in “real time”

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

– Sound/Video/Downloads• Recent events

• Student or faculty testimonials

• Screen savers

• Push Marketing: e-mail is still the preferred communication.– Signatures– Listserves

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

– Future Trend: “word of mouth marketing”• No cookies

• No violation of privacy

• Gizmoz: (http://www.gizmoznetworks.com)– Streaming audio

– 2D and 3D animations

– Text and other web media

– Easy to copy and distribute

– Based upon shared interest

– Virtual instant messaging between business and consumers

Customer Enticing Traffic Builders (cont.)

Conclusion

As users become computer savvy, they will rely on your department to provide quality online services and information.

Conclusion

Prepare site descriptions and keywords, and submit the site aggressively to

search engines and directories.

Conclusion

Reinforce marketing initiatives through offline venues describing your online

services or information.

Conclusion

Track the success of these marketing strategies to measure the improved visibility

and marketability of your Web site.