Advertising is making announcements and hoping people will come. Examples of advertising are billboards or display ads both online and offline.
Marketing is creating desire for your product, services or opportunity and attracting those people to you and your website.
Marketing VS Advertising
You can advertise your website through various mediums:
- Put your web address on your self-inking stamp and stamp all your materials, including catalogs, outgoing mail and every note that leaves your office
- Put it on your business card
- Announce it at your shows
- Put it in your email signature
- Announce it in your monthly newsletter
- Use Facebook ads
- Try Google ads
- Ads in school bulletins
Marketing is giving people reasons to come to your site:
- Free expert advice in person or online
- Free gifts
- Fast delivery
- Interesting or valuable information via newsletter
- Easy hassle-free purchasing
- Being happy and positive and sprinkling in conversations
- Not always going to close the deal
- Great value in general
- Fun tips on your Facebook page
- Customer service follow up
- Sharing value in conversations
Online Purchasers Buy Again?
You can advertise your business and get customers to the site but if the value is not there, they will not buy or return.
Effective website promotion uses advertising to get the client there the first time and the marketing program keeps them coming back.
When someone makes a purchase on your web site once and you continue to add value to their purchase in the future, they will always purchase again.
Tips to Keep Customers Coming Back
- Keep the website current and updated: Include your picture and change the picture monthly to be seasonally appropriate; change the site monthly so that it has a new look for returning customers.
- Keep the value up: Write informative articles; give free advice or tips appropriate for your business.
- Use every resource available both online and off.
- Fill every section of the web site with value: Many affiliate web sites are almost an empty shell because the rep does not take the time to fill in all the pages available to them. Make the site full and interesting.
Market Year Round
Now is the time to think about your marketing program for various times of the year.
It may be hard to have your affiliate site rank high in the search engines because it is a sub-site of the home office site, yet with proper contact to your client base throughout the year and a little special attention during holiday periods, you can generate consistent income when you use both advertising and marketing strategies.
Marketing VS Advertising has many similarities and it is a fine line between the two. Create systems that make cash flow systematic!