Direct and Indirect Marketing of Your Site
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Just as there are two basic types of website (direct response website and traditional websites), there are two types of website marketing: direct marketing and indirect marketing.
Direct marketing is the simpler form: make your link available to as many people as you can. The easiest way to do this is just to distribute your link to any of your online contacts. This has a few advantages: no one is likely to be upset with you for marketing, and you’ll probably get a few sales just on the strength of the personal connection.
The disadvantage, however, is massive: no matter how many people you keep in touch with on a daily basis, you always have a much, much larger group of people who could buy your product–if only they knew about it. So relying on your contacts alone is obviously not a good overall strategy.
A more effective option is to post your link on various forums, blogs, on sites. This reaches a large number of people and allows you to target your marketing to the people most likely to buy your product: a graphic design forum, for example, would be a good place to promote your graphics software package.
A blog about handcrafted art would be a good place to promote your wood carvings. A website devoted to literary reviews would be a good place to promote your book. Any number of options exist, depending on your product and the people most likely to buy it.
The disadvantage to this type of direct marketing, however, is the problem of reputation. Directly placing your link in as many places as possible can easily give you and your business a bad name.
The solution to this problem is to follow general rules of good online behavior. This means:
Don’t post your links in places unrelated to your product.
Don’t interrupt forum conversations in progress in order to promote your product. Be careful when promoting your product in forums that you don’t regularly visit. Read the forum policies and act accordingly. Don’t react negatively if anyone disparages you or your wares.
The top 10 blogs to read in 2009 « Direct Marketing Observations
Here are 10 more that I read because they are prolific in cranking out content that is in tune with the issues of marketing, PR, social media, and life. You didn’t think I could just read 10 blogs a day did you? Well neither will you, …
David Ogilvy: We Sell or Else
Renowned Advertising guru David Ogilvy gives a brief speech on the importance of direct marketing.
Indirect advertising involves one of the following:
Getting people to promote your product for you.
Promoting your product on wide-reaching advertising networks.
This has the advantage of making your link available to even more people than direct marketing can reach, even if you’re posting on widely-traveled forums or highly-trafficked blogs.
However, they’re still limited by the number of people who visit those forums or blogs on a regular basis. What’s more, the number of blogs or forums you can visit is limited by your own searches and your own ability to think up new places to promote your product.
With indirect marketing, you can promote to a far wider audience without having to think about each individual blog, forum, or other venue for promotion: you can do all of that work automatically, or you can get other people to do it for you.
There are many ways to get people to promote your product for you. The obvious way, of course, is just to ask people to do it, or to hire a permanent marketing employee whose job it is to find potential opportunities for promotion and to post your link.
A better way, however, might be to offer incentives: a discount on your product, for example, if a certain number of sales can be traced to a customer’s marketing efforts.
This means that you might take a loss (or simply break even) on one sale, but it means a guaranteed number of other sales at full price. You might also offer incentives for bringing people to visit your site with a higher threshold.
You can also promote your link indirectly by making use of advertising networks. Google Ads is one of the largest networks currently available but success is not easily guaranteed when people chase a definite but finite number of clicks.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onDirect and Indirect Marketing of Your Site | DigitalMoneyMakers.comHere’s a quick excerptWith indirect marketing, you can promote to a far wider audience without having to think about each individual blog, forum, or other venue for promotion: you can do all of that work automatically, or you can get other people to do it … [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onDirect and Indirect Marketing of Your Site | DigitalMoneyMakers.comHere’s a quick excerptThe obvious way, of course, is just to ask people to do it, or to hire a permanent marketing employee whose job it is to find potential opportunities for promotion and to post your link. A better way, however, might be to offer … [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onDirect and Indirect Marketing of Your Site | DigitalMoneyMakers.comHere’s a quick excerptJust as there are two basic types of website (direct response website and traditional websites), there are two types of website marketing: direct marketing and indirect marketing. Direct marketing is the simpler form: make your link … [...]
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onDirect and Indirect Marketing of Your Site | DigitalMoneyMakers.comHere’s a quick excerptJust as there are two basic types of website (direct response website and traditional websites), there are two types of website marketing: direct marketing and indirect marketing. Direct marketing is the simpler form: make your link … [...]