We all know that a website is a great place to market what you are doing or going to do. One of the biggest problems is time. It sits there like an elephant in the room, you know it is there, and you have not done anything about it.

Well, don’t despair, here are some tips on how to approach the problem and how to maximise the benefits on your site while using your time efficiently.

Problem #1

You have an event coming up, it is major event will have an audience of > 200 people.

Solution #1

AT LEAST THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT

Develop a plan, when is the event and work backwards. Plan at least three releases of information to your news page, say 1 week before, 1 month before and 2 months before the event.
Three months before the event start collecting all of the information you need to communicate to people.
Write a document that contains the following information: What it is, Why you are holding it, Where it is, and When it is, Who is participating in it. Those five questions are important. The finer details are not important three months before. Use this as a live document which you update as new information is available and the detail will eventually grow.
At the point you are ready to communicate this you create a page on your website and link it to one of the menus so users can find it. Copy your live document contents to that page. This now represents the main page for all of the information. If you are seeking sponsors, stall holders, participants you could have sub pages that discuss the requirements for each group and have downloadable forms available from the site, and more importantly contact us links back to your contact page if anyone has any questions.
At this point you have ALL of the significant details buried in your website.
If you have a calendar (I recommend the Modern Tribe Calendar plugin if you have not got one), then add your event to the calendar. Within the calendar entry add a link to your page which carries the detail. So anyone finding the calendar entry can be taken to the detailed page by following the link.
Now add a Post to your news page that is short, contains a summary of the detailed page (say 3-4 sentences). Remember that it is better to have one source of information on a website, rather than duplicate it everywhere. If you duplicate it you need to edit multiple copies and remember where you left them. This is why you do not need to repeat everything that is on the detailed Page. A post is just a summary in this case with a link to the detail.

Why?

If your site has an established news page then your regular visitors will visit the news page to see what is going on. They will see the announcement and if interested can now find the detail because the news item carries a link to the detail.

When you want to prod people again and remind them, you put another post on your site, add any additional information (more will become clear as you approach the event) and link it back to the detailed page again.)

When you add something to the site, a message goes out to Google and Bing to re-index the site. So searches will start to find the new content as you keep updating your site.

Social Media

Through independent studies I have done on a few sites it is clear that the age group that lies below 35 will tend towards using Social Media as a primary method of remaining informed rather than visiting websites. Those aged 35+ will tend to visit the website directly.

If you have a social media page on Facebook or Twitter, you need to go to your page and add an item which contains the link to your last news item. It takes a few seconds, you don’t need to write a load of information in Facebook/ Twitter. A single sentence will suffice. Be aware that the link is not to the news page. The news page in most cases is a container of Posts and is dynamic (changes over time). Open your Post (news) item, then view it, then copy the URL, this will pick up the Post address, and not the address of the news page.

Why?

When you add something to Facebook or Twitter people (that have their alert settings set up) will be aware you have added something. Some will investigate, and if interested click on the link which will take them to your website news item. Here there is more information, if they want even more information, your news item contains a link to the page with all of the detail on it.

Assuming you are still with me (?) this is a very effective and free way of marketing more broadly than just putting things on your website.

If your website incorporates a newsletter plugin, then this is generally built up based on the contents of your Posts/ News. You will have developed a high quality email database, so now you can create a newsletter or alert and send your message to that group that use a newsletter to remain informed. When reading the newsletter, there will be a link back to the post, which contains a link back to the detail. You can use this method to take the news to people generally in the 35+ age group.

Why?

An established Newsletter with high quality organically collected leads (this means people signed themselves up, you did not do it for them!). Will show as a spike of activity on your website. This is because the newsletter has come through their email, they have opened it, clicked on the link which has taken them back to your site. Do not underestimate the power of this. You will never get 100% take up, but in the few sites where I have incorporated this method, the take up is around 70% for each item that is sent out to the subscribers. Compare that to a postal mail shot to a list of addresses, the take up is generally in the 1-2% area.

..And don’t forget your home page

While all of this may seem over the top, it is not difficult to do and quite quick if you plan it out. All roads lead to Rome (or your detail page in this case). Don’t forget to add it to your home page and include a link, or better still a graphic and a link so people can get to the detail if they choose to do so.

In Summary

Create a plan; who, what, where, when, why, and develop it.
Have one master live document with ALL of the detail in it
Create a page on your website and copy the detail to it. This is where you keep all of the detail for visitors
Add it to your calendar
Create a news item to a schedule and link it to the detail
When you post a news item, add the URL to Facebook and Twitter
If you have a newsletter and a database of email addresses send the news item to that audience too.
Remember to keep your Detailed Page up to date as you find out more and firm up on the event.
Embrace social media and use it to propagate your messages.

Example

You can see all of that in action on this website: http://amburfm.co.uk

The detailed page is here: http://amburfm.co.uk/walsall-mega-mela/

The calendar entry is here: http://amburfm.co.uk/event/walsall-mega-mela/

The first news item is here: http://amburfm.co.uk/2016-walsall-mega-mela/

(The link to facebook will be added shortly).

Any questions on this, or you need some help, drop me a line.