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5 Easy Ways to Establish Your Brand Online
by erin ferree
The Internet is a practical and accessible tool to build your brand.Here, we list 5 of the easiest ways to leverage the Internet to yourbest advantage:
1 Own your own domain name.
A domain name is the "website address" where your website lives, and itis the last half of your email address. You can purchase your ownbusiness name, or a variation of it, as your domain name. The cost isless than $10/year.
If you haven't named your business yet, it's a good idea to check theavailability of domain names to match potential business namecandidates. It's best if your domain name matches your business name.
Resource: GoDaddy.com is themost reasonably priced, and reliable domain name registration firmwe've found (just don't sign up for any of their other services-youonly need a website address).
2 Use that domain name as your email address.
You probably already have an email address from your internet serviceprovider that looks something like: yourname@aol.com oryourname@sbcglobal.net. It looks much more professional to haveyourname@yourbusiness.com as your business email. The repetition ofyour business name will increase your memorability and will help youbuild your brand.
You can even forward your new email address to your existing emailaccount if you don't want to go through the hassle of changing youremail program set up. The disadvantage to this is that your old emailwill show in the "From:" field-so, in the future, you may want to setup the email program to not forward.
Resource: This can be easily set-up with many web hosting companies. We recommed Dreamhost as an excellent web hosting service.
3 Create an email signature file to use on all of your email.
This is a mini-advertisement that appears at the end of all of youremail. Include your phone number, a short description of what you do,any current sales or promotions you're offering and your websiteaddress. You can even include your logo graphic in your signature file.
This is an especially great tactic if you're a member of any emaillists-your email will reach many people whom you don't know, and theymay be interested in your products or services. Be sure to create anduse your signature file when you post on online forums, as well!
Resource: See elf design's article on Tech Tips for details on setting up a signature file that includes your logo graphic.
4 Have a website designed and developed.
A website is a "must" in today's business world. Not only does it addto your credibility, it will also enable potential clients around theworld to learn about your products or services.
The most common excuse that people have for not having a website fortheir business is that they don't know what to include on it. But, youcan start out with a website that consists of a single page. Everyonecan write at least one page about his or her business. If you havedifficulty writing one page about your business, try recording yourselftalking to a friend or client about your business-it's often easier totell someone your story than to start with a blank page. Or, you canhire a freelance writer to help you get your story online.
We recommend that you expand your site to a five-plus page site as soonas you can... or start out with a five to six page website. This largerformat allows plenty of pages to cover all the basic information aboutyour service business. A product-sales based business requires a fewmore pages, mainly in the shopping cart and check-out capacities.
Resource: Additional website design and development information areavailable in our other articles: 9 Keys to an Effective Website Pagesto Include in Your Website Starter Website Plan for a Service BusinessCreating Your Home Page
5 Put your email address and website URL on all of your printed materials.
"If you build it, they will come" is unfortunately just not true on theweb. You have to promote your website to let people know that it'savailable to them, and that you have valuable information housed there.The easiest and most immediate way to do this is to add your emailaddress and URL to your printed materials wherever appropriate. Putthis contact information on your business cards, printed articles,email, note cards and other correspondence.
Make sure to include your website address on all your company'smaterials-letterhead, brochures, postcards, catalogs... you name it.The only place it is not appropriate is on envelopes or mailing labels;the postal scanners don't like it!
Resource: elf design can assist you in adding your new online brandinginformation to all of your collateral materials. Contact us for a quoteon revising your collateral.
If you aren't taking advantage of the Internet's many ways to buildyour brand, then you are missing out on some very effective andaffordable ways to tell the world who you are, what you do and whatmakes you different. Start building your brand with these provenmethods, and keep an eye out for next month's article, which will giveyou more methods to extend your business's reach online.
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| posted by: dloadmyw 2008-01-15 23:03 Tag : the ways,domain of name,advantage internet dreamhost,easy view:2 |
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