Promoting product in cyberspace

Like in many countries, many producers in Indonesia prefer to introduce their brand-new goods or services by hiring alluring models, creating superb ambience and dear prizes to boot. Whether the slogans fall on deaf ears is another matter. Just what kind of marketing tool does one need to promote a product in cyberspace? Brian D. Chmielewski wrote the following article in www.UPromote.com.

As with any marketing strategy, planning precedes action. Launching your website can be a simple process if you simply plan. Let's break the marketing plan into three stages: Product pre-announcement, product announcement and post-announcement.

Product Pre-Announcement

No doubt about it, stage one of the product launch can be disheartening. It involves the most time-consuming and tedious tasks, but sets the framework for attaining success. Assuming that you already have a website, you should commence with this stage about two to three months prior to the scheduled launch date.

Four necessary ingredients of the online prelaunch are proper search tool listing, press release, strategic linking and fine- tuning traditional collateral material.

Search engine, directory and yellow page listings should begin as early as possible. This will be a great source of semidirect marketing traffic. For the best results, choose your keywords carefully and know how to treat each of the major portals independently.

Precision in placement during this step can amplify the amount of targeted traffic visiting your online business. Although many of the engines now index within under one month, you will need additional time to become familiar with the intricacies of each one and optimize your listing for launch.

A newsworthy release should be communicated to the press well in advance of launch.

Strategic linking is a powerful tool that builds branding, creates an indirect marketing channel and improves your relevancy in some of the major search engines. The more links you originate, the more popular your service appears to the human and search engine robot eye. Strive primarily to establish vertical link alliances -- alliances with sites within an industry. Secondary linking should take a horizontal linking approach, looking for similar and related categories to build additional streams of traffic upon.

For example, a company linking with an orange juice company since they compliment each other in the marketing of breakfast food. Reciprocal linking is fairly standard.

If you want a link, you may need to give a link. Rather than creating a single page for these, you may consider utilizing the directory format, implanting the links into their appropriate categories. Visitors will appreciate the added appeal of an industry-specific directory, a valuable tool to keep them coming back.

And since you have a Web presence, the world should know it.

All of your materials must clearly identify your Web address or URL. It is surprising to see Fortune 500 companies, who have expended large interactive budgets in the development of their website, failing to tout its presence in traditional ad campaigns or in its collateral material. Websites have the potential to capitalize on impulse, however they cannot accomplish this until their identity is established.

Launching a product requires that all messages are coordinated and connected between platforms. Accordingly, the homepage of your website should pique the curiosity of its visitors.

Text that reads, "We're releasing a new product soon. Come back in two weeks," is ineffectual, while, "Help us give industry X a facelift on June 15," has a direct call to action.

Allow your visitors the option of registering to be notified when the release takes place. Don't lose an opportunity to connect with a potential customer.

Product Announcement

On the day designated as product launch, you will concentrate on the influx of Web-generated traffic inquiring about your business.

There are three important promotional provisions to take advantage at this point: Opt-In direct e-mail, Banner delivery and Newsgroup promotion.

Each of these tools is cloaked with its unique shortcomings, but if you take care to use them properly, they will intensify your launch.

Opt-In direct e-mail is positively the best method for contacting people interested in your product or service. It is the marriage between those who request information on certain categories and the distributor of that information. Since the recipient requests/subscribes to the information, the odds of a positive reaction to your new product is greatly improved.

Product launches typically associate incentives, such as software websites inviting people to download the free demo, investment websites offering a 30-day free trial of their service, etc. -- which work well to drive traffic.

If your product or service really is essential to them, the customer may take the logical step to purchase your Web merchandise.

Effective e-mail copy is not easy to develop, so be patient and practice.

If you attempt to use bulk mailing systems that are not Opt- In, you risk damaging your company's reputation.

Targeted banner delivery is another great way to target your audience on the product launch date.

Remember from a previous article on banners that you can target in two ways: through the banner message itself and through sites that you choose to host the banner. Ideally, you want all potential customers at your website at product launch, so coordinate the distribution of your banner impressions. Simple is honest.

Do not employ misleading or trick banners to get people to click through. You will not get the conversions that you think. Be enigmatic.

Many people simply don't click on banners and it is not uncommon for one person to view multiple impressions of the same banner. Your banner could get poor placement, being counted as an impression when the page loads even though it may never be seen by human eyes.

Commercial posts are not always welcome and can damage your reputation in this promotional arena. Research the groups that may be appropriate for you and monitor them to understand their culture.

If you find a group that is appropriate, introduce yourself and list the benefits of your new product. Allow users to determine the value or your goods for themselves, offering an e- mail address and a URL in the body of your message.

Product Post-Announcement

Several weeks after the product announcement it is time to reflect -- and breathe again.

You should have experienced increased levels in both traffic and sales. Having implemented a system to allow people to register for further information about your site, you can now share updates, announce sale prices and other newsworthy information through a periodic newsletter. You may develop case studies on how the product has been used successfully and share them on your site.

Every online marketing campaign is unique.

Whatever type of campaign you are considering, the development of a perfect strategy is manifest in time, budget and product.