This is the second of an exclusive two-part series by Slava Apel, CEO of Amazing Print Corp.

Press Releases, PR

Press releases are a great way not only to announce your news to media, but are also a way for many other websites to collect and rebroadcast your news on their networks. If your press release has keywords that they like, for example “green printer,” you can be sure that thousands of visitors and websites will pay attention to it.

Have a descriptive web address that is a natural type in
Get a website name which closely matches the keyword that people are searching for. If most of your sales are because you are a business form printer, having a domain like businessformprinter.com would help you get extra traffic from those people that type their search into a browser line. If you sell self-published books, “printing a book” would be one of the keywords/phrases that potential customers would use to describe the service they’re searching for – so having that in a domain will help. If you are printing flyers, think like a customer as they may type in things like “flyers printed” instead of “flyers printer”. You can keep on going – if you sell lenticular postcards, printed gift bags, high-end graphic design, trade pocket folders or even target geographically an area, all will bring in extra traffic with the right domain name selection. “Type-in traffic” refers to the users who type the information they’re looking for directly into the address bar of the web browser instead of using a search engine to scour the web. This represents roughly 15% of all web traffic according to studies.

Inbound links
Ask other websites to place a link to your website on theirs. Not only will people click on your link to come to your website, but it also helps the way you look to search engines. Better quality links come from reputable sites. So if a graphic arts magazine were to link to your graphic design website, Google would count it a hundred times more important than if you were to comment on some random blog that has nothing to do with graphic design. Even if you mention your website multiple times in a blog not related to your industry, you will not be scoring any extra points with Google.

Blogs
Have a compelling daily or weekly conversation about the life of your print shop in your blog. People and search engines will visit your blog, and your blog will give its readers a reason to bookmark your webpage.

Sponsorships
Sponsor webinars, newsletters and make sure that your domain is prominently placed there so it can be clicked upon.

Affiliate Marketing, CPA (cost per acquisition)
Whether you are a trade printer, niche printer, quick printer, print broker or a job shop, you can always benefit from creating a virtual sales force. Affiliate marketing works great once you have a product that sells, not a product that you want to sell.

Email signature
This is one of the most underutilized ways to market your website. Make sure your email signature has your website in it. Every time someone forwards, or every time you solicit business, you are saving time for people trying to find your website, and clarifying your web address to those who try to extrapolate it from your email address.

Offline marketing
Offline marketing of your website isn’t the best use of your dollars, in my opinion. However, not having your website on your business card, brochure, letterhead or postcard, would be wasting precious billboard space. I do recommend in your phone-mail system to mention your website as a part of your offline marketing endeavours.

Things NOT to do
Not everything you do to drive traffic to your website is a good tactic. Do not SPAM (send unsolicited email), do not link or get links from ill–reputable places, do not go for illegal (black hat) strategies that someone tells you search engines won’t find out about or catch on to. Finally, do not spend money on buying traffic until you find out what your exact return on investment per dollar will be.

In conclusion
Marketing your website can be done in ten-minute daily intervals. All you need is a strategy, education, budget and the final goal in mind. Every company online starts from zero. No one company has more influence over Google than any other – so it is a level playing field. With the right knowledge you will not need to spend a lot of money before you gain your first online client. Keep reading this publication for more insight on getting your website to be the next multi-million-dollar success.

Originally published in Graphic Arts Magazine.