Ok- your website is perfect.  It does everything you and your clients want.  It makes your client’s experience with your company  convenient and easy.  So what?  Who cares?  How do you get people to come to your site?

A website is nothing unless traffic is engaged and coming to it.  In my case, I want to get local people that are in the market for personal lines insurance to come to my site and request my services.  I really don’t care if a woman in Germany is looking at my site, or if a man in Florida sees my blog and agrees with me on my view of traffic cameras and their impact on crash statistics.  I am only licensed to do business in the state of Arizona.  So, Arizona is my market.

Now is the time for me to funnel people to my site and market the heck out of them.  I need PR.  Public Relations, a mouth piece, some way to trumpet my Internet savvy and insurance acumen.

I have done all the necessary things to enhance my web presence:

  1. Developed a web page
  2. Developed and maintained auxiliary web pages to direct traffic to  my site.
  3. Created a web presence on social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
  4. Most important – hired Ken Hood to help me navigate the morass that is the world wide web.

I am  inspired to look for free PR opportunities, and ready for some practical tips that my research has uncovered.

My message and business image should be consistent both in the real world and online. Used effectively, public relations activities in the traditional media can draw traffic to my site.

My articles are  on a separate page of my Web site. This has several advantages:

  • It plays to the Web philosophy that “content is king”, and showcases my expertise and the breadth of my knowledge.
  • I can construct keywords and descriptions specifically for each article, and promote them individually in the search engines. This allows me to further differentiate myself, and significantly improves my chances of being found online.

There are ever expanding numbers of newspapers, newsletters, and e-zines (electronic magazines) online, and also reporters looking for stories. Since Web sites have to be constantly updated (even more than in the real world), they are hungry for my news!

A great resource for finding appropriate places to send press releases is Mediafinder. This site can be searched under numerous different subject areas, geographic locations, etc. It provides Web site addresses, e-mail contacts and media kit details.

In addition to “print” publications, there is an increasing number of “online radio shows”. In fact, Yahoo! has a whole category devoted to them. The shows are generally broadcast in “Real Audio”, or a similar program. This is software that is free to download and easy to install on your computer. The “streaming audio” is heard as it comes to your machine, so you don’t have to wait for the whole clip to download before you can hear it.

Again, these shows are looking for content and guests. The Yahoo! listing often includes each one’s subject matter or focus, so you can identify appropriate targets for your message.

Baby steps.   But without the first step – contacting Ken Hood @ kenhood.net, you have no page to represent.