Getting a new website off the ground can be an arduous task even for the most seasoned webmasters. You’ve put all your energy and passion into designing and developing a website that reflects your business and vision, and now you have to put just as much into making sure people can find it and care about it. It can be taxing and tiring. Unfortunately without modern and thoughtful promotional tactics, your website will go nowhere fast. So where and how can you promote a new website?
Social Media
The power of social media is such that if you’re not using it in your promotional tactics, you’re hurting your new website’s chances of finding success.
Social media platforms have a mass potential audience just waiting to be taken advantage of, Instagram alone now has one billion users per month. These users are accustomed to being advertised to, accepting that sponsored content in their feed is now just as common as pictures of their friend’s cat. When sponsored content is done well, for example, they are happy to engage with these brands and new websites over the platforms, finding value in latching onto smaller organizations that put them ahead of trends.
There are a multitude of ways to reach social media users and expose them to your website. Hashtags help you interact with communities you know are already interested in your field, through integrating your content into their feeds and regular searches. The adoption of video content across all these platforms has offered the new promotional tactic of creating quirky introductory content for your website or even a guide, giving users a full idea of what to expect before they even visit.
An easy-to-understand design
Don’t run before you can walk. If you have a new website you want to drive people to, it’s essential that it’s something you can feel proud showing off and a place users will want to return to.
Your website needs to live up to its promotion. You need to build a website that is sleek, modern and easy to use. It’s not enough to just look professional, it needs to be functionally professional. This means putting user experience first and making sure the website is fully optimized to perform on mobile. Website design is so vital, particularly in the retail field, which means your theme and how the typical user will react to it should be a consistent consideration throughout both the building and promotional process.
If your website fails to live up to this first step you won’t be able to use it in your promotional tactics and any users you manage to attract will instantly feel pushed away.
Email Marketing
Few methods are as tried and tested with proven results in audience building as email marketing. Compared to social media email can feel out of date, but it remains an excellent way to promote your website to both new and existing audiences. On average, email consistently has a stronger engagement rate.
Whether you’re looking to build a new audience for your website or stoke the fire of engagement within your existing base, email marketing is a vital tactic. Email marketing campaigns put your website right in front of a user and entices them to click. For a new website, it’s a chance to establish yourself and set out your most important elements in an email.
Establish what you want to achieve with your email campaigns and develop a visual style that will appeal to the audience you’re looking to attract. This is a fantastic tactic to achieve links back to your website and drive interest to specific target pages.
Guest Blogging
Want to get the word out about your website and build some interest and links from within the industry? Blogging is the promotional tactic for you!
Guest blogging for other websites within your field helps build name recognition for your new website. Not only does it help you get a mention on a bigger, existing platform, but it establishes you as a thought leader in your field, as long as the content is of good quality. Blogging is a great step for building industry connections and helping to establish your website’s name within certain circles, promoting it by association. Not only will you earn a link back to your own website, but you might also even pick up some of the host’s existing traffic.
Find relevant websites within your field and inquire about openings for guest blogging. Chances are they will be accepting content, but try and think of some creative pitching methods to make your website seem more established if not.
This is a unique option that doesn’t suit every website or industry, but Reddit can be a bit boost that opens you up to a highly engaged and curious audience.
If you’re not familiar, Reddit is a forum-like website with numerous smaller forums within it called subreddits, each covering a niche topic or community. These all have engaged user bases looking for discussion. Reddit isn’t the most obvious promotion tool, as it doesn’t allow direct advertising, but there are ways to get around this and appeal to its mass user base.
Subtlety is the key to promotion on Reddit. Joining in with the discussion and becoming a Redditor can help establish you as a central, respected poster within the community. This gives you the leeway to post links back to your website when relevant. Popular Reddit posts such as AMAs (Ask Me Anything) and open questions are further opportunities to build your reputation and reference or link back to your website. This kind of promotion is less likely to be frowned up and can drive an active user base to your new website.
Promoting a new website requires patience, perseverance and creativity. Don’t expect users to instantly flock to your website upon launch, you have to let them know it’s there and give them a reason to seek it out. These tactics won’t work for every kind of website, but they will put its name and link in front of huge, engaged audiences.
If you need web design services, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will provide you a free quotation for your project.
Article written by Rodney Laws
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