How to Direct Customers to Your Web Site

How to Direct Customers to Your Web Site

by Kim Morlan

1.	List your site with Internet search engines and in legitimate directories.
2.	Link your site to as many complementary sites as you can, but avoid linking only with other real estate agents (as this can cause you to be de-listed by the search engines). Instead, link to contractors, mortgage brokers, home stagers, handymen, and anyone else that you have developed a referral business network with.
3.	Start your own e-mail newsletter or blog. Build the content around the interests of your customers and feature items specifically related to what's happening at your site.
4.	Make sure your Web site address is on all of your company's stationery, forms and business cards. A company vehicle and promotional items such as coffee mugs and pens are also great places to advertise your online venture. Don’t forget to put your site in your voice mail message and email signature too!
5.	Consider purchasing a small banner ad on a popular Web site or placing an advertisement in a blog with high circulation. These venues offer maximum exposure for a small cash outlay.
6.	Invest in your online marketing! Advertise in the search engines through Pay-Per-Click campaigns such as Google Adwords, or save time and use traffic generation programs such as Buyerlink to drive targeted buyers to your site. As your budget permits, hire a respectable SEO company to boost your ranking in the Search Engines to increase your exposure.
	Tips:
	Publishing a quality e-mail newsletter or blog on a regular basis is time-consuming. Be prepared to spend time maintaining your contact database and developing content.
	Be sure to track visitors to your site. Find out where they heard about your site so that you can evaluate which methods of promoting your site work best.
	Warnings:
	Don't send unsolicited e-mail advertisements, better known as spam. Besides being extremely irritating to the recipients, your Internet service provider can cancel your account if people start filing complaints. Make sure that anyone on your email list has contacted you first.
	Newsgroups and comment boards aren't the place to post advertisements. These are forums for open discussion, not for unwanted ads. (That said, they can be a great and subtle way to get exposure for your site, so make sure you are linking back to your website when posting comments on other people’s blogs!)