Strategic web alliances boost marketing strength
Since I started writing this Internet news column, people have been asking me, “Exactly what do you do for The Daniel Island News?” I market strategic alliances for thedanielislandnews.com to potential sponsors by finding ways that the paper’s website can enhance the sponsors’ market position.
We started the website column to showcase that it is possible to build a profitable website that serves the majority of the online community and, through strategic marketing alliances, promotes our sponsors’ businesses.
Prior to approaching a potential sponsor, we weigh several factors against each other to determine the best marketing tactics and techniques for that particular sponsor. We thoroughly research and immerse ourselves in each potential sponsor’s business, including understanding their website’s design structure, the products or topics featured on it, the relationships the client’s website shares with thedanielislandnews.com, what type of competition our sponsors face and what their online presence is. Most importantly, we determine how the sponsor’s site fits into our site.
Our initial studies take a significant amount of time and we do not rush to sign up sponsors without first analyzing the benefits to both our website and to the client.
We are particular because we limit our sponsors to one visible sponsor per page and because thousands of people a day look for “Daniel Island” on line. There are over 30 million pages indexed for “Daniel Island”. The paper’s website, thedanielislandnews.com, fluctuates on Yahoo and Google between the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. In the one month since we launched our new site, we have increased the number of visitors to our site by 15 percent and we expect that number to continue to rise. By limiting the number of sponsors, we increase their exposure to this vast group of people searching “Daniel Island” and visiting thedanielislandnews.com.
The value of thedanielisland-news.com to The Daniel Island Publishing Company comes in after the fact. By publishing both a newspaper and a website and sharing content, the company is able to increase its profit centers by reducing the overhead cost of the newspaper. This allows us to maintain our newspaper ad rates in the face of rising costs.
The website increases the productivity for our entire company from the time we save gathering news, to the seamless flow of information from the client to the operations department and ultimately to billing.
A newspaper advertiser, reader or website sponsor can place an order or submit news and be assured that our automated process moves the information through our system without a human person having to input any information – including credit cards! That is a huge benefit to our readers and website visitors because we can spend more time gathering information for the residents of the island, and less time doing administrative work.
We recognize that the next wave in the Internet business is who you are associated with and relevant content, not metatags. We want to pass our knowledge of the search engines on to our clients.
The short answer to the opening question is: “I do research and analysis of web-based marketing programs to insure that they meet the standard set up by the search engine companies.”