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Making sure that your Web site is visible to search engines is becoming increasingly important as e-commerce competes for online revenue. You can extend your e-mail marketing strategy beyond the standard inbox to give your e-mail marketing messages more chances to get noticed. Include the following tactics in your plan:
- Make sure every landing page that appears as a link on a search engine ranking includes your e-mail list sign-up link. First-time visitors to your Web site are not likely to become instant customers, but if they show enough interest to click-through to your Web site after searching, they might be willing to respond to an offer to receive periodic information from you in the form of e-mails. Capturing contact information from as many of your search engine visitors as possible gives your search engine marketing efforts more than one chance to acquire a new customer and a more targeted way to follow up in hopes of a conversion.
- Include your keywords in your e-mails and post your e-mails on your Web site as new content. Keywords are words your customers and prospects are likely to type in a search engine when they are looking for the types of products or services you offer. Search engines pick up on the keywords in your Web site and display links to the pages that contain them when a consumer searches using your keywords. Because keyword pages are ranked and displayed by search engines based on how prominent your keywords are, using keywords in your e-mails and posting your e-mails to an archive page on your Web site allows search engines to find more of your keywords and improves your overall search engine ranking. If you're not sure what keywords to use in your e-mails, your Web analytics application can tell you which keywords people are using to find your Web site.
- Exchange sign-up links with noncompeting businesses that share your customer interests. Placing your sign-up link on other Web sites is a great way to improve your ranking, and it also allows you to capture contact information from people who are searching and landing on your colleagues' Web sites.
- Optimize your e-mail list sign-up page. Make sure your e-mail list sign-up page is visible to search engines and use content that is attractive enough to invite visitors. For example, an e-mail list sign-up page with a headline that reads, Free E-Mail Marketing Tips has a better chance of being found by people who are interested in e-mail marketing than a sign-up page with a headline that reads, Thanks for Your Interest in Our E-Mail List.
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