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How to Generate Mass Traffic to an Online Event in Record Time
by: Dina Giolitto
If you want to kick off a new online holiday or event, you'll need to do
it with a Big Bang. Make your entrance, and then keep the momentum going
by cattle-driving traffic and human interest to the source. Yes, cattle-driving!
You need to climb on that imaginary horse and start corralling people in.
Everyone on the web is highly distracted, even your best buddies. Help them
notice you, remember you, and get your name out into mass circulation. Make
it fun, and don't forget to have fun yourself. People are attracted to others
who seem to be having fun. :)
In online event planning, your two best friends are your social network of
humans and the search engines. You can't possibly pull this thing off unless
both are wound into the plan - and it should be pretty clear why. If you
stick with search engine tricks alone, you'll find that your website begins
to pull some rank on Google because you've driven those search words via
the major marketing generation methods... but there's an absence of life
at the point of contact. That's no good.
If you concentrate solely on your human network but fail to tap the engine
power, you'll get a small group of excited parties all sitting in a closed
circle and blinking at each other. I guess small and intimate isn't terrible,
but we're talking about an online event here and that phrase connotes BIG.
So, use search engine optimization AND word of mouth to spread it far and
wide.
Let's talk about the ways you can viral-market your internet promotion and
blast it out there in a short period of time.
1. Article marketing.
Article marketing is at the heart of every great marketing effort. Don't
get me wrong - blogging is instant entertainment, but if you want credibility,
then write potent, info-rich articles or have someone write them for you.
Your articles are going to get picked up and added to other people's websites,
so you'll want to mention the event name and the URL to the event website
in each one that you write for your promotional effort. Submit your article
to as many article directories as possible but beware the No Advertising
Rule! If these guys catch you being too promotional your article will get
the shaft and there goes your big article marketing Event Master Blaster
Plan. Email me if you need a jumping point for your article marketing campaign:
Dina/AT/Wordfeeder.com.
2. Networking.
Don't even attempt online event planning unless you already have a solid
online network of marketing colleagues in place. Your friends are the ones
who already love you, admire you, will listen to what you say and join in
for the group project. Very few "random finds" on the web will just catch
wind of your Pied Piper event promotion tune and start following along (but
when they do, it's really cool). You'll want your network topic to be themed
around your event. So, if yours is a Kids' Artwork Show with a portion of
the proceeds going to a children's hospital, then your network should ideally
be for work-at-home moms and parents. DON'T promote your event on a network
of unrelated subjectmatter. That's a great way to drive people away completely!
3. Landing page and email drip campaign.
Your landing page should be accessible from your articles and other "outreaching"
content vehicles. When your reader clicks the link, he should be "hard sold"
on why this is going to be fantastic, what's in it for him, and compelled
to drop his name in the box. Your email subscriber base should continue to
grow throughout the event's developments. Use it as a megaphone to 'rally
the team', send updates, and guide others to help spread the word and click
the links to your blog, articles, ebooks and other web traffic helpers.
Frequently tell the team what they'll get out of this. Offer them gifts.
Without an incentive, nobody will want to be your groupie and I for one wouldn't
blame them in the least.
4. Blogging.
Blogs get indexed quickly! If you want your mass event to power up the Google
ladder, then choose a blog hosting company that will "help you along." TypePad
has been working well for me. Fill your blog with categorized keywords and
turn your "major search term" (the name of your holiday) into something that
will ring a bell and prompt folks to start typing into the Google box out
of sheer curiosity. Your blog should contain plenty of links that "point"
to your hot pages; for example, any fun contests or activity pages you plan
to run, your articles. Include your landing page at the end of every post.
This will lend clarification for the confused who just landed from outer
space and also "grab" them for the email list. Your blog should be highly
interactive. Initiate discussions; blast out participants and supporters
by linking to their websites. Make your blog sticky, and offer plenty of
reciprocal links as incentive to keep watching your show.
5. Web PR.
Web PR is needed so those RSS feeds can sound off your news to the mass
communication circuit online. Just like article marketing and blogs, you'll
want to include the name of your event frequently (about three times per
press release) so that the search term will get carried along on those content
feeds and bring you higher up on Google. Think of that web surfer, glazing
over your press release and reading a term like "Web Content Awareness Day"
multiple times. It sinks in somehow. Later, when he stumbles across you again,
suddenly he's compelled to hunt for more info and he types those words into
the search box. That's how the momentum keeps building and it's a great reason
to submit to free PR sites. If you email me, I can help you out:
Dina/AT/Wordfeeder.com
6. E-Books.
E-books are super-vitamins for your website's page rank. When people open
up your info-laden PDF file, that counts as a page view. Page views give
you a push in the search engine hierarchy. So DO give away free information.
Link to your free downloadable e-book from your blog, from your group emails,
from your network posts and from your "main holiday website" after you launch
it. Encourage friends to pass your e-book along to keep the page views coming.
Links in your e-book should point back to... guess where? Your blog and your
landing page. Are you getting a feel for how all this content is connected?
7. Your Big Yap.
Huh? I'm talking about word of mouth. Don't forget to USE YOUR VOICE in all
of your event promotion materials. So many people forget to "speak to their
audience" in their marketing, and every time I see it I want to slap myself
silly. Don't just plunk a link or a photo down and think people will click
it. There's so much going on out there, you need to be heard. I'm not just
saying that because I'm a copywriter and I love words. Clear, simple, compelling
communication is crucial. Don't be afraid to tell your reader what to do.
And ALWAYS tell him what he gets out of it, always! If you have any questions
about this EMAIL ME:
Dina/at/Wordfeeder.com.
As you can see, it takes some knowledge of cohesive internet marketing to
be able to manipulate the search engines while getting folks excited about
your big jamboree.
Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
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About The Author
Dina Giolitto
You want killer content and you want it now. Dina at
Wordfeeder.com is driving
mass traffic to the first annual Web Content Awareness Day and she'll drive
it to your website next. Count on Dina to deliver laser-focused copy that
will emotionally snare your readers. Convert visitors to subscribers... and
subscribers to paying customers. Visit
http://Wordfeeder.com for
lip-smacking web copy served up quick.
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