How to Promote Your Web Site - The Chad Barr GroupThe Chad Barr Group

I get asked this question a lot: “Chad, now that I’ve launched my site, how do I best promote it?” A while back I wrote You Just Launched Your New Site, Now What? where I reviewed some key elements to promoting your site. Today, I am going to dive much deeper and give you the recipe or menu options to choose from. So although a longer article, this is a good one, so here you go:

Create Your Contact List – Collect and assemble all possible contacts you have, such as: current and past clients, prospective clients, colleagues, friends, family, and partners. Load them all into a database such as Excel. You should also export and merge your email database (outlook or such) and then upload all these contacts into an online email marketing program. Consistently and constantly keep adding to this database.
Add Contacts – Allow your site and blog visitors to easily add themselves to your contact list. Also enable visitors to register to your blog via RSS and/or email.
Leverage Your Content – When you are exchanging valuable information with individuals you meet, mention your site and the fact that you are excited to share with them some of the remarkable and valuable content you have created. I’d say something like: “You’ve mentioned that one of your key challenges is how to increase your global reach. May I email you one of my article and diagnostic tools that will show you how to do that?” This is why I keep pushing my clients to constantly create great amount of content. The more you have, the more you will be able to leverage it.
Almost Permission Marketing – I know that some have made their fame promoting the Permission Marketing concept. Although I loath spam or being added to a list without permission, I do have an exception. When I meet someone or speak to an audience, and provide them with genuine value, and they give me their business card, I do add them to my contact list. When I do this, I use the language described in How to Grow Your Email Distribution List? article. Let me share with you that not only do people rarely unsubscribe but often I get a note thanking me for thinking of them, staying in touch and providing them with value.
Push Value – Each time you create new content, not only do you dramatically increase the chances that your audience will consume it but it then gives you the opportunity to leverage it. Why not send an email to a client or a prospective client saying: “Cindy, attached is an article (or podcast or video) I have just created which I believe addresses the issues you have shared with me. I know you’ll find this of value. How about if we connect Thursday at 10AM so I may get your feedback and also share with you two other ideas I have for you?”
During Speaking Presentations – I’ve come to realize that I have two main objectives when delivering my speaking presentations. The first is to “touch” the audience with great value and mobilize them to take action. The second is to be able to stay in touch with them after my presentation. This is a prime opportunity to leverage the content on your site. For example: You may want to show a slide of a process visual that allows the audience to diagnose themselves, or show an example of an effective video testimonial or have them quickly listen to a powerful podcast. Also, I’d suggest you listen to this podcast, if you want to know how to Stay in Touch After Your Speech is Over.
Become a Guest Contributor – I highly recommend you approach: trade associations, successful bloggers and colleagues, thought leaders, famous blogging sites (such as HBR, Fast Company) and suggest you contribute your content. This is a great way to expose your content and sites to a large audience. When you do that, make sure to embed genuine helpful links in your content that point to effective landing pages on your site including your bio and attribution at the bottom.
Attract Guest Contributors – Why not attract successful contributors to your site and blog which will add value to your audience and expose you to theirs?
Interviews – Similar to the concept of guest contributions, why not interview successful thought leaders or CEOs, such as the interview Chad Barr Interviews Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. Then feature on your site and offer they feature on their site. It is a winning proposition to all. While you’re at it, and to even create a better exposure for you, why not have others interview you, such as Chad Barr Interviewed by Dan Janal and then feature on your site and theirs.
Media Interviews – Whether on TV, radio, web radio, webinars and such, these are great opportunities to share your message and value with the audience. What you want to also do is refer them to important landing pages on your site and use some of the ideas mentioned in point number 6.
Collaborate – Approach successful individuals and suggest partnering on writing together helpful content that can then be shard with your audiences. This way you both get exposure to each other’s contact list. This can easily and exponentially expose your site and its content to new audience groups.
Publishing – The prime opportunity you have to announce your site and its content is actually each time you develop new content. This means including the content and referencing interesting links to landing pages on your blog, newsletters, audio podcasts, videos and such. So for example, during your podcast you may want to say: “for additional helpful information and tips visit my site at www…” or “I have written about this extensively on my site and blog.” Also, make sure to insert interesting links to various landing pages on your site in your YouTube videos.
If content is the king, then provocative content is the ACE! I’ve come to realize that the most powerful and successful global thought leaders are prolific publishers of powerful content and provide remarkable value that manifests itself through their unique intellectual property. I’ve urged my clients to consistently publish amazing content in order to avoid the syndrome of mediocrity or be perceived as a commodity. Publishing provocatively and prolifically will enable you to stand out in the crowd, get noticed and become a game changer.
Ask to be Shared – If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. So why not ask your visitor to share your content with others?
Social Media – Leverage the various platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and others, to share your content and announce it. I’d also recommend you interface your blog with these various platforms from automatic population of your blog content.
Repurpose – Most of your visitors are busy individuals. The likelihood of them reading older posts is not that likely, unless they arrive there from search engine results or other links, which is a topic for another article. I therefore recommend you repurpose older content such as I am doing in this article by embedding interesting links on these landing pages.
Google Analytics – Use this free tool to analyze the activity on your site and measure how your site is received and progresses. Which pages are popular and which are not. Where are visitors coming from or not.
Google Alerts – This free tool from Google will allow you to get email alerts each time your chosen keywords have been used on the web. I’d recommend that the keywords you choose are: your name, company name, URL, various brands, client names and their brands as well as key colleagues and competitors. So for example if someone mentioned one of your article, you will get notified by Google at which time you may thank them and perhaps suggest other content. You get the idea, right?
PR Leads – My colleague and friend, Dan Janal, runs this great company that when you subscribe, allows you to get daily reports of journalists looking for experts, like you, in order to quote them in their publications. It’s a great way to get quoted and mentioned in serious publications and then leverage it by mentioning it on your site (Media tab, what’s new or blog) and your other correspondence.
Press Releases – There are various services available for you to choose from that would enable you to announce various items you feel are worthy of such announcement. Although there are many free services, the two I would recommend are: ExpertClick and Press Release Sender.
Email Signature – Don’t underestimate the power of your email signature where you may feature (at the bottom of your emails) your site, blog and other important items.
Additional Resources – The key objectives of your site are to: attract visitors, clients and potential clients, increase your credibility, provide them with value, engage them, get them to stay longer, have them come back often and create conversations around your brands. Yet, the ultimate results are to have them purchase your products and services and contact you. In addition to all that has been discussed above, I recommend you incorporate additional resources on your pages such as I am doing at the bottom of this page.

Additional Resources:

Question: What other ideas have you found to be of value when promoting your site? Please share your comment with us.

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