Marketing Musts
Custom Domain Names
If you are marketing your business or product on the Internet, it is imperative that you have a professional presence on the web, which starts with getting a custom domain name.
Having a custom domain name would show that you have something like, YourName.com, YourProductName or YourBusinessName.com, which prospects could click on or type it into the address bar that would take them to a website that would tell them about you, your product and/or your business.
There are A LOT of different places to register and buy domain names. There are two places that I personally recommend because I use them myself: GoDaddy and 1 & 1. But before you go buy a domain name, here are some quick guidelines:
- Get a .com extension where possible
- Keep it short & and sweet
- Have it be easy to remember
- Do not use abbreviations
- Do not use numbers
- Do not use hyphens or any other symbol
- Get private registration
GoDaddy is the primary service that I use to register and manage all of my domain names. I use this service ONLY to register my domain name. I do not get hosting or email service through them. Just the domain name and private registration.
Private registration keeps your personal information from being made available to the public. So unless you want solicitors calling you every day, make sure you get private registration.
1 & 1 is another service I recently started using and so far has been really impressed – especially when you buy your very first domain. For $0.99 you can get one domain name registered for one year, which includes a custom email address and private registration! It’s a great value.
Website Hosting
Now that you have a custom domain, you now need a place to host that domain where you can have content that will be made available to the world! This content could be a blog, a squeeze/landing page or a place where people can find out about your business.
Like registering domain names, there’s a lot of different places where you can get website hosting. You really only need one service for all of your domains. As such, there’s only one service that we recommend because that’s what we use personally.
We recommend using HostGator for your website hosting needs. The service allows you to host an unlimited amount of domain names with unlimited amount of bandwidth.
Pricing and plans vary, but go anywhere from $3.95 per month (if paid 3 years in advance) or up to $11.95 per month (if paid month by month). Most likely, you’re going to have your website for a long time, so you may as well get the 3 year plan and save some money.
Sign Up For HostGator Website Hosting Here
Email Marketing Platform
One of the most important things that you can do your business online is to capitalize on the website traffic that you receive. The best way to do that is by having the ability capture visitor’s information such as their name and email address.
Having an email marketing platform allows you to capture visitor information by offering some incentive by giving something of value away for free so they will give you their information. This will allow you to build an email list and be able to do email marketing later. We recommend using GetResponse.
Your email list can be your most valued asset in your business. Having the ability to send an email to people who willingly “opted in” to build a relationship with them that will get them to know, like and trust you is key to building a success business.
GetResponse is a great solution…and affordable! Here are some key features:
- Free 30-day trial to test it out
- Basic package starts out at $15 per month that gives you a 1,000 subscriber capacity and Landing Pages Basic, which gives you the ability to create squeeze/landing pages
- Hundreds of easy to use templates
- Automatic email messaging (i.e. Autoresponder)