Promoting Your Practice on the Internet

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The Internet is alive and vibrant and moving all the time. Either you are a part of it or you are not. The choice is yours.

What does Internet Marketing mean?

Internet marketing simply means promoting your site through the Internet. The goal is to create your site in such a way that people who are searching the web for information that is relevant to your business will be presented with your site so that you have an opportunity to tell them what you offer.

Internet marketing is only one part of your marketing strategy, but it can be a very important part because it puts you in touch, across a wide range of space and time, with people who have identified some need or interest that indicates that they may be receptive to your message. In other words, they are looking for what you have. Contrast this with acquiring business by cold calling, or printing and distributing brochures, or networking, or any form of paid advertising, and the appeal becomes obvious. The key aspect that makes this powerful is that the prospective clients have initiated the activity that brings them to you!

The Internet operates 24 hours a day, all around the world, and costs essentially nothing! Think what an opportunity this presents for a well executed marketing program.

How can you participate?

There are many ways to market in the web that do not require a website, but a website ties everything together and anchors your entire presence.

Once you have established a presence with your site, you have to bring it to life. You must energize the site by understanding what makes it relevant to the rest of the web. Other avenues that contribute to your presence are search engines, social media, Facebook, Linked In, Yelp, newsletters, YouTube, and many more.

Getting your website to work for you means understanding how the search engines work. Getting them to notice you is based on two things, words (phrases) that people are searching for and links from other sites on the web. Making your site work to bring you business means learning about these two things, phrases and links,  and how to develop them for your site in a way that the search engines will take notice of.

How does it work?

People facing a decision turn to the Internet to get information; they do research. That is the point in the process where you want to try to reach them.

They are looking for information, so what you want to provide is the kind of information that they are looking for. To get them to see it, you need to understand how they are thinking about their research. In other words, what will they search for?

You can get insights about their searches from Google’s database of searches. This is free information, and tells you what terms people have searched for over the last twelve months.

Search engines match the words people search for with the words that are associated with your web site. Words get associated with your site either by being on it or by being in the links that point to your site. More of the words being associated with your site makes it appear to the search engines to be more relevant to the search and cause them to rank the site listing higher in the search results.

The Basic Elements

Here are the building blocks of a presence on the web:

• Domain name: This is your URL, the address and identifier of your site. You acquire the rights to this name for a specified period of time from a Domain Name Registrar.
• Web Host: This is the server where your site is actually stored, and which makes it available to the Internet. The hosting company typically charges by the year, and costs vary depending upon exactly what services you need and how much of the server resources you need.
• Site Content: This is the “content” of your site, contained in computer files that are created for your site and stored on the host server. You are responsible for creating this or making arrangements to have it created on your behalf.
• Blog: A particular element of many web sites (or it can be a “stand alone” medium, with no other pages associated with it.) that is used to maintain frequent communications with your audience. Blogs have special characteristics that make them attractive for particular purposes and they can be a very important element of a successful web site.
• Facebook Profile/Page: Your presence on Facebook is established with your profile, and the pages you can create there become an important part of your marketing strategy. Facebook has recently made changes in its operation to make these pages much more significant to businesses.
• Linked In Account: A separate site on the web designed to support networking activities between business oriented individuals. This is another opportunity to enhance your presence on the web.
• Local Listings: Features provided by several search engines to assist businesses with a local orientation in gaining visibility for their prospects.
• Newsletter: A regular publication that reaches people who have expressed an interest in having the information that the newsletter provides.

Some Illustrations

Try searching for terms that people might use to research common problems that lend themselves to mediation.

Searching for “Conflict workplace mediation” found 124,000 results. Searching for “Conflict workplace” found 10,500,000 results.  The first listing that mentioned “mediation” was 27^th on the list. It appeared in only 7 of the top 100 sites listed.

Mediators who create websites that discuss the resolution of workplace conflicts through mediation might establish a much more robust presence for this term and could generate more demand for mediation services.

Searching for “Dispute neighbor dog fence” brought up 28,700 results. The first to mention mediation was 11^th on the list and referred to an article about the city of Scottsdale Arizona reinstating a mediation program to deal with this issue. Mediation and mediators were mentioned in only 7 of the top 100 listings.

The article about Scottsdale stated that the city was reinstating the program because 70% of their mediations involved barking dogs, and the city had not realized how valuable their mediation program was until they cancelled it.

What might people be interested in learning about mediation?

Think about the questions that you might have been asked:

• How does one select a Mediator?
• Where does one find a mediator?
• How does mediation work?
• How long does mediation take?
• How much does it cost?

This kind of information on your website could attract attention by searchers who are looking for information about mediation. Another approach is to focus attention on the problems that people have such as those cited in the illustrations above.

Conclusion

These are the techniques that can get your website to be noticed by people with a need or desire that makes them receptive to your marketing efforts. Setting up your website the right way can provide huge benefits to your business over time. Doing it the wrong way can just waste your investment.