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Thank you for visiting the Emerald Publications Support Center.
Here you will find helpful tips on marketing your site to get the
most out of your presence on the Web.
Search
Engines
You
will first need to do some prep work on your site to optimize your
chances for a high ranking on a search engine.
- Make sure
to have the keywords / Meta tags added to your site. These can
be added in the site administrator under "Web Site Options."
- Keywords
are words or phrases that describe your site and what your
practice is (e.g., financial planning).
- Choose
relevant phrases - meaning that the phrases you choose should
be mentioned on the site itself. If you use 401k as a Meta
tag and do not have anything mentioned on your site regarding
401ks, some search engines will give you a lower ranking,
with the computers believing that you are trying to get listed
in sections where the site does not belong.
- If you
need help with choosing keywords, go to http://www.wordtracker.com/trial/index.php3.
You can put in a keyword you feel is relevant, and then give
several other keywords to use, which people are actually searching
for on the Internet. (Unfortunately, no Emerald Tech Support
is provided for this site.) In addition to keywords found
at the site above, make sure to include: City, State, ZIP,
Your company name, Your name.
- Add keywords
into your Title (maximum of six). This too can be found under
"Web Site Options" listed as "Browser Title Bar
Text." The format should be: Yourdomain.com,
keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
- If you have
uploaded images, add keywords into the "short description
of what this file is" area.
Now you can
submit to search engines. It is best to use search engine submittal
sites rather than going to the individual sites. Here are a few:
- http://www.redesubmit.com/
- http://www.uxn.com/searchengines.html
- In addition,
most communities have a local search engine as well as most local
papers. If there are these types of search engines in your community,
make sure to list with them. More people will look for a local
financial planner rather than anywhere else.
Be patient with
this approach - search engines can take anywhere from a few days
to a few months to add you to the list.
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Direct
Mail Postcards
Emerald
has a wide variety of Postcards to mail to clients and the local
area to announce the latest financial Web site. Simply contact your
marketing consultant today - (800) 233-2834.
- Send all
your clients a postcard announcement. The sooner they know about
your site, the better. In general, people will refer their friends
to a Web site more readily than any other form of referral.
- Targeting
income or other demographics will generate more awareness of your
business in the community.
- Emerald can
help with mailing lists if needed.
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E-mail
Signatures
Much
of your contact with clients and prospects is done via e-mail. The
easiest way to get a contact to go to your Web site is by making
it easy for them to access your site. This is done with an e-mail
signature. It is an attachment at the end of your outbound e-mails.
Almost all e-mail programs have this feature available.
- For Outlook
users: Tools
- Options - Mail Format tab - Signature Picker - Create a new
signature
- A sample
signature would look something like this:
- When creating
the link in the signature, make sure to include the full URL (that
includes http://) as listed in the sample above. Some e-mail systems
will not automatically create a link in your signature without
this added.
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Other
Ideas
- List your
Web address everywhere your name appears:
- Business
cards
- Letterhead
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Advertising
(including Yellow Pages ads)
- Emerald
newsletters
- Invoices
- Voice-mail
message - "We
are now on the Web 24 hours a day at www.emeraldpublications.com
"
- Any other
business correspondence
- TELL EVERYONE
YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR WEB SITE - Word of mouth leads to more
Web site traffic than any other marketing tool.
- Friends
- Family
- Business
associates
- Share your
Web site with clients and prospects during consultations. It is
a reassurance that you are in business for a long time to come,
and care enough about your clients to have resources readily available.
- Give your
Web address to seminar attendees. If you are not currently hosting
financial seminars, Emerald can get you started. http://www.emeraldpublications.com/sems/seminars.htm
- Send a monthly
e-mail to clients and prospects listing highlights or "what's
new" this month on your Web site. After speaking with prospects,
ask for their e-mail address to send monthly information, and
include your Web site in the e-mail.
- Use your
Web site as a marketing tool when approaching businesses about
co-sponsored seminars - use it as a value-added resource you'll
provide to the employees.
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©
2001 Emerald Publications
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