Advertise in opt-in email lists and/or ezines.
A truly burgeoning Web media, opt-in email lists and ezines generally target readers with highly specific interests. Often, people signing up for opt-in email lists have indicated an interest in receiving advertisements and information about a specific category of products and/or services. Subscribers to ezines are generally more interested in a specific interest, but will tolerate advertising if the ezine's policy allows such promotions. For more about this new twist on direct marketing, enter "opt-in email" and "ezines" into any popular search engine for more info.

Consider a professional search engine listing firm.
Seasoned Web users turn to search engines like Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) and Google (www.google.com) to help them find specific information on the Net quickly. Essentially, they simply type in a subject area and the search engine brings back "links" that they can "click on" for further information. Given the great power these search engines have to steer thousands of Net cruisers to specific sites, it should come as no surprise that a number of Web-savvy firms have cropped up to help firms be among the first "links" the search engines return to information seekers. For a cornucopia of insight on these firms as well as a great overview on how to work the search engines, check out SearchEngineWatch (www.searchenginewatch.com).

Another option: Use a software program like Web Site Traffic Builder, by Draper, Utah-based Intelliquis (www.intelliquis.com). Traffic Builder automatically registers your site with more than 3,500 Internet search engines and will automatically put your business in the appropriate category for each search engine. Plus, you can use the software to check your site's position on the Net's eight most popular search engines. A similar program, WebPosition Gold by FirstPlace Software (www.firstplace.com), focuses on getting your site placed high up on the Web's top search engines.

Link ’til you drop.
Probably the easiest, least expensive, and most effective way to promote a site is to link your page with every other noncompetitive page on the Internet that shares the same interest. Bloomingfoods Market and Deli (www.bloomingfoods.org) exchanges links with a number of like-minded businesses, as does Chando's Deli (www.chandosdeli.com). Says Craig Settles, a senior strategist for Berkeley, CA-based Successful Marketing Strategists and author of Cybermarketing: Essentials for Success, published by Ziff-Davis: "Link until you drop."

Start your own contest.
Another tried-and-true traffic generator in the bricks and mortar world, online contests do the same for Web sites, as well as glean valuable demographic data about site visitors. Casey's General Store (www.caseys.com) runs an ongoing pizza give-away at its site. All visitors need to part with for entry is their name and email address. Another convenience store running similar a similar promotion is Circle K (www.circlek.com). Visitors here can enter to win ICEE-themed merchandise and Next Door Store (www.nextdoor1.com), where cruisers part with their email addresses for a chance to win a Playstation II.

Establish a virtual press center.
Probably one of the most overlooked opportunities on the Web is the opportunity to establish a virtual press center on a site. Increasingly, journalists are turning to the Internet and the Web to search for stories and develop new ideas, and there is no reason why any company with a Web site should pass up an opportunity for free media exposure, says Settles.

7-Eleven (www.7-eleven.com) has a well-stocked press center at its site.

Offer cyber postcards.
A take-off on the electronic greeting cards promoted companies like American Greetings, cyber postcards enable a visitor to send a graphic souvenir of a Web site to a friend or associate. KOA (www.koakampgrounds.com) offers a send-this-ecard-to-a-friend service, which enables visitors to email a KOA-themed electronic postcard to a friend from the site.

Get posted in web directories.
In an effort to make Web cruising a little easier, a number of businesses have packaged themselves in easy to use directories the help Net cruisers get to their sites more quickly. Digital City L.A. (www.digitalcity.com/losangeles) offers links to more than 150 convenience stores.

Offer coupons.
This is another old economy bricks-and-mortar solution that works just as well – if not better – on the Web. Coupons can easily be offered online for easy printout, or periodically delivered directly the visitors' email boxes. The advantage of email delivery is that the business can more easily build a relationship with customers over time, since they do not have to make any effort to search for the coupons.

The convenience foods store at William Patterson University (www2.wpunj.edu/studentcenter/cstore.html) regularly posts coupons online, as does Hallock Convenience Store (www.draytoncenex.com/hallock.htm).

Add a "recommend this site to a friend" button.
The old maxim, nothing is more valuable than word-of-mouth promotion, never rang truer than in cyberspace. Get your Web designer to add a "recommend this site" button. By clicking on the button, the visitor can dash off a quick "heads-up" about the site to a friend, which is automatically forwarded to the friend's email address. Ingenious.

Choppa's Meats and Deli (www.choppas.com) sports a "recommend this site" button on its site, as does Bon Apetit Deli (www.uk-shop-indiex.co.uk). Other industry businesses using the promotion technique include KOA (www.koakampgrounds.com) and distributor Jones Soda (www.jonessoda.com).

Concludes Sayers: "Combining these tactics with a relentless persistence to build your site's traffic will virtually guarantee that within a few short weeks, your access counters (a software tool used to measure visits to a Web site) will start spinning like the gallon indicator on a 1950s gas pump."

Joe Dysart is an Internet writer, speaker and business consultant based in Thousand Oaks, CA. He can be reached at (805) 379-3841; joedysart@digitalubiquity.com; www.digitalubiquity.com.


Both Retailers and Distributors can Benefit from Email Leveraging

While brazen email "spammers" have been rightfully relegated to the status of Web pariahs, a number of industry businesses have quietly discovered a powerful fact about the medium. When leveraged artfully, an ethical email marketing strategy can significantly augment a Web presence.

Indeed, while the promise of the Web has understandably mesmerized the global marketplace during the late nineties, Internet research marketing firms already know that email is currently the Internet's true "killer application."

Consider this: By the close of 2003, Emarketer (www.emarketer.com) predicts that permission-based email alone or newsletters, mailing lists and other email that surfers specifically request will reach 226.7 billion.

Not surprisingly, software facilitating the accompanying explosion in email marketing activity abounds. Some of the most popular programs include Unity Mail, from New York, NY based DoubleClick (www.doubleclick.com); Listserv Classic, from Landover, MD-based L-Soft International (www.lsoft.com); Lyris, from Oakland, CA-based Lyris (www.lyris.com); and Majordomo, from Mountainview, CA-based Great Circle Associates (www.greatcircle.com). Plus, companies are also able to experiment for free with a sub-genre of email marketing mailing lists at sites like Topica (www.topica.com); Yahoo! Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and MSN Groups (http://groups.msn.com).

Given the significant marketing implications of these and similar email use figures, it's no wonder scores of convenience food retailers and distributors have integrated the email medium into the very core of their online marketing strategy.

Specifically, these online marketers are using the medium for:

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS: Once the purview of the academics and netizens who pioneered the Net en force in the late eighties, email newsletters are now also the darling of every business and corporation seeking to establish an ongoing relationship with customers and potential customers. A number of Internet newsletter creation and maintenance software packages -- also known as "mailing lists" -- are available.

Crown Central (www.crowncentral.com) offers an monthly, email-delivered newsletter for visitors who want to join its Crown Central Club. The newsletter feature exclusive coupons and other offers, according to Crown. NOCO Express (www.noco.com) also has a sign-up online for an email-delivered newsletter, as does Simonson Station Stores (www.gosimonson.com), which send coupons, and distributor Candy Warehouse (www.candywarehouse.com).

EMAIL PRESS RELEASES AND NEWSLETTERS WITH HOTLINKS: A kind of "next generation" email publication, newsletters with "hotlinks" enable subscribers to "click back" for more information and graphics on specials, new product announcements and the like. Essentially, these hotlinks transform an email newsletter into a mobile Web page for a company. (Most email newsletter software offers a hotlinks option.)

A number of the lager convenience store chains and franchises regularly disperse email newsletters or press releases featuring hotlinks back to their Web sites, company financials, and similar data. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (www.rmcf.com), for example, sends out press releases with hotlinks via the PR Newswire service (www.prnewswire.com), as does 7-Eleven (www.ohthankheaven.com). Distributor U.S. Food Service also sends out electronic press releases from the service, along with drug store giant Walgreens (www.walgreens.com).

EMAIL ALERT SERVICES: After signing up for these services at company Web sites, subscribers receive special email alerts when the company generates news of special interest. Ashland (www.ashland.com), has a sign-up online for investor-related email alerts. And BP (www.bpamaco.com), has a sign-up for visitors interested in receiving BP press releases via email.

PARTICIPATION IN THIRD PARTY EMAIL NEWSLETTERS: Mailing list clearinghouse and free service provider Topica (www.topica.com). Topica tracks more than 90,000 special interest "mailing lists" or newsletters currently circulating the Net. Many corporations regularly add content to these newsletters to keep their brand names in front of readers with highly specific and highly targetable -- interests. Other sources of free exposure in third party newsletters include Yahoo! Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and AOL Groups (http://groups.aol.com).

Once you've experimented with email marketing basics, you may want to move on to even more sophisticated uses of the medium. Most popular techniques among these include:

EMAIL PRODUCT PIX-TO-GO: Now that sending pictures over the Net is a snap even on "beginner" services like America Online, it's no wonder companies are capitalizing on this facet of the technology to better represent their services and products via email. All that's needed to send product pix is any popular email program. Moreover, online services like PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com), Businesswire (www.busineswire.com) and Canada Newswire (www.canadanewswire.com) help companies automate the process of sending text, photos and multimedia presentations over the Web via email.

EMAIL ANIMATIONS TO GO: Firms more at home creating and sending product animations via email also have a slew of tools they can use. Software titles in this category -- in addition to titles in the slideshow's category above -- include Hijaak Pro by IMSI software (www.imsisoft.com); PrintShop ProPublisher 2000 by Broderbund (www.printshop.com).

EMAIL AUDIO/VIDEO TO GO: With more businesses and consumers increasingly opting for high-speed Internet connections, a number of leading edge ecommerce sites are beginning to offer audio and/or video presentations on Web sites and via email. One of the leading providers of audio/videostreaming on the Web is RealNetworks (www.realnetworks.com). Other popular formats include Microsoft's Windows Media (www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia) and Apple Quicktime (www.apple.com/quicktime). Conoco (www.conco.com) regularly posts emailable audio recordings of its quarterly financial meetings -- a draw for both investors and journalists.

EMAIL PANORAMIC VIRTUAL REALITY TO GO: One of the most sophisticated graphic presentations that can be easily sent via email, panoramic VR enables firms to create 360-degree virtual "walkthroughs" of products and facilities. Apple Quicktime VR (www.apple.com) pioneered the medium. Other panoramic VR toolmakers include Communique (www.cvcmedia.com), and Infinite Pictures (www.smoothmove.com).
--JD