It becomes more and more clear, that online presence has to be viewed as just one side of our total presence in the market place. One aspect to improve the situation for many websites would be to make it easy for visitors to print web pages.
This should be possible with longer texts as well as with product pages and pages displaying just overviews. The potential of prints from your website as a marketing tool should be activated.
Some ideas for print pages:
- Full contact information of all kinds on one page, including a map showing how to find you.
- Catalogue like pages.
- Reviews.
- Schedules for deadlines, publishing dates or the like.
- Annotated lists of useful resources.
- Product descriptions.
- Teasers of book chapters etc.
- Fax and mail order forms.
- Guaranties.
- Instructions in how to use your products.
- Frequent asked questions with answers.
- If you run an advanced customer support system make a page that shows how easily to find the relevant email address for a specific inquiry.
- Reports (longer in pdf format or zip)
- Online ebooks.
- Newsletters.
Remember to include on all print pages:
- The full url of the page.
- The url of your home page.
- Basic contact information
- A short indication of which kind of product or service you are offering.
- If needed a copyright notion (but dont spoil the potential of viral marketing).
Optimize your print pages:
- Make your pages look valuable for the customer.
- Make the pages inviting to be filed.
- Avoid heavy graphics.
- I will recommend avoiding all banners etc.
- Make your printable pages look like they are designed to paper, e.g. make proper use of the space available and use a font that is good for reading on paper.
- Keep the text column rather narrow to facilitate quick reading
- Prints will typical be made without background color or picture.
- White text on black background will not be visible.
Take into account that the standard paper formats for North America and Europe are different. The standard for Europe is the A4 format, which is slightly less wide and a bit longer than the American standard.
When you implement these aspects of printable web pages you help your visitors to get the most out of the resources from your website. You help them, too, to remember your site and to come back. And - You help yourself with bridging the gap between online and off-line marketing and visibility.
Get help from Soren Breiting to find ideas for your online marketing at and receive the latest really useful tips at (about pictures and marketing). Soren has written more than 20 printed books, and countless articles in journals and magazines about his special fields of expertice. He is widely published on the web, too. Enjoy Sorens wonderful stock photos at A-Z FOTOS
In most cases, the success of any web site depends on the amount of traffic it receives, and the number of sales it generates. Many web sites seek visitors by pouring most of their time and budget into a single method of advertising: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
While SEO is necessary for your web site, it should only be one part of your overall advertising program. Search engine rankings are pretty unstable and change all the time, but they are not the only source of bringing visitors to your web site.
Whats the best way to bring new traffic to your site Links. Links are the way that people travel around the Internet. Links can come from all sorts of sites, not just Google or Yahoo or MSN. Consider listing your company in web directories, placing banner ads on other sites, or advertising in industry newsletters and publications. Any site that has a link to yours can bring new visitors and traffic. Yes, these inbound links may also help you with your search engine rankings, but the best links are those that are relevant and get clicked on!
Building steady traffic to your web site takes work, and not just in web site optimization. Be sure to use every advertising option available to you, such as using a pay per click ad campaign, entering your site into relevant competitions, participating in link exchanges, writing articles, case studies, white papers, etc. Dont just depend on search engines to send web site traffic your way; get out there and take advantage of as many ways as you can think of to promote your site!
Lauren Hobson is editor of Biz Talk, a free, subscription-based resource sent to our clients, friends, and associates interested in tips and techniques for helping small businesses make the most of their web sites and marketing efforts without spending a lot of money. Biz Talk is a publication of Five Sparrows, LLC, specializing in web sites and marketing for small business.