Seven Castles

Cross-promotion

                                      

April 23, 2008

 

Cross-promotion is a highly effective and cost-effective Internet marketing method of advertising your online business. As simply stated, it is a trade of advertising space. Instead of paying for advertising space on a site, you would place their ad on your page and yours on theirs. For example, a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the primitive barter system, where people traded items rather than using money. There are many ways to use cross-promotions in your Internet business.

 

Cross-promotions stand out by matching the targeted customers' values, lifestyles, needs or other commonality. Even the most time-pressed business owner can attract more customers with less effort through the right cross-promotions. Because when you join forces with other credible people who also reach your market you can reach your customers more efficiently, credibly and memorably with the right offers and services.

 

Cross-promotion has the potential for a big marketing payoff because partners can successfully expand through each other's customer base. They can gain an inexpensive and credible introduction to more of their kind of customer more effectively than with the traditional "solo" methods of networking, advertising or public relations.

 

Link exchanges are very effective when doing cross-promotions with a company similar to yours, however, be sure and never link to a page in direct competition with yours. One of the best things about link exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in hits from the sites linked to your page to when determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a more popular site, not only increases your advertising and traffic, but also increases your search engine ranking.

 

When customers or potential customers subscribe to your e-zine you can use this as an opportunity to use cross-promotions. On the same page that the customer subscribes to your e-zine, make available the opportunity to subscribe to another company's e-zine. You can even exchange ad space in e-zines, and provide recommendations for those whom you cross-promote with. You might even want to exchange column space in one another's e-zines.

 

If you do not have accurate details regarding promoting, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Writing free articles that inform customers or potential customers with information useful and accurate can create a reputation for you and your business. Soon readers will come to know you as an expert on the subject. In these articles the author uses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can be a way to use cross-promotions as well. You can use part of the space in your byline to recommend another's product.

 

A joint venture could mean increased profits for you and the person you are partnering with. Cross -promotions through e-books are an excellent way to allow for a wider topic and to promote both your business and your partner's business. The e-book should contain information that will benefit both businesses and still be helpful to the reader. A good example of using cross-promotions through an e-book is to a site selling used video games partnering with a site selling gaming devices. These are two subjects that would interest the same reader and most likely lead the reader to both sites.

 

You should keep in mind that the recommendations that you make are a direct reflection of you, so choose your cross-promotional businesses carefully. Also keep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be able to link from one site to another as a way to "shop around". Since this is usually not beneficial to you, never link or recommend a site in direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those who are similar, such as health and life insurance.

 

It never hurts to be well informed with the latest on promoting and you should stay alert to changes in the area of promoting. 

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2008年04月23日 星期三 05:40】【注册】【打印】