All Your Promotions Must Work Together

Okay, you have a great domain name that accurately reflects your business's name and location, one that will stick easily in customers' minds. You have developed clever online cross-promotions with other Web site owners, and have made wise online advertising decisions. You have your domain name on your letterheads, your business cards, in your print ads and telephone directory listings, in any TV spots you run, possibly even on your signs if you have visible retail locations.

But things need to go in the other direction, too. Your Web site should tell potential customers that you are listed in phone directories and which ones in case a potential customer is trying to find your business and does not have a computer handy. Retail locations should be shown on your Web site, and maps showing how to find those locations should be available for those who need them, not shoved in every site user's face, but as a "click here for directions" link to a separate page in accordance with the information layering principle you have used as the basis of your site structure.

If you have a sales flier running in the upcoming edition of a local newspaper, your Web site should steer people to it, just as the sales flier should steer customers to your Web site.

All promotional devices you use, including your Web site, should work together. Cross-fertilization can and should enhance them all.