It's all just fine and great to have a wonderfully designed website. Beautiful images, a donor-centric point of view and ease of use are all stellar. Now, where are those pesky visitors who would appreciate all of that? After designing your website, you need to draw people in and actually get them to visit and revisit your page. Use these simple methods for just that purpose.
Printed Materials: The most basic thing you can do to draw traffic to your site is to include your Web address in all of your printed materials - your letterhead, business cards, newsletters, annual report, and direct mail. Take full advantage of your existing communications by including an article or advertisement that highlights what's available on your site - or what's new. Or add some contextual information so that people will understand the value that your web site adds. For example, on a flyer that advertises an upcoming speaker, don't just say "Visit our web site," but instead say: "Visit our web site for a complete biography of Jorge Jimenez and a complete bibliography of his written works."
Consider giving people incentives to go to your website. For example, tell them they can register there for a drawing, or you can pose a question in your newsletter and tell them to log on to your site for the answer. It also makes sense to send a press release to on- and off-line media when you change your site significantly or add a new feature. They may write a sentence or two about your site, or they may simply make note of your Web address for future reference.
Email: Email is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website. Include short pieces of information with links people can click on to get more details from your site. This "click-through" effect will drive much traffic to your web site. Another suggestion for driving traffic to your web site is to place content on email newsletters of affiliated institutions. You'll have to seek out opportunities one email newsletter at a time, so start keeping an eye out for interesting email newsletters that can help you promote your site.
Viral Marketing: "Viral marketing" refers to the phenomenon of people e-mailing information and a link to your site to all of their friends by email, who then forward it on to their friends, who then forward it on to their friends, and pretty soon, the whole world knows about you! OK, not quite. But viral marketing can be very powerful. Encourage viral marketing by putting a line at the end of your e-newsletter asking people to forward your news on to their friends and family. Or create clever stand-alone videos on YouTube, for example, to really spread the word about your organization.
Newsgroups and Listservs: Another way to drive traffic is to post information about it to newsgroups or listservs related to your cause. Listservs are email discussions or newsgroups that allow members to post messages to all of the other members. Encouraging your staff to join and participate in these discussion lists can help increase the visibility for your organization and your site. When you do post your message, etiquette requires that you not post blatant self-promotion. Make sure your message is relevant to the conversation and of genuine value to the members.
Links from local Web sites and portals: As people surf the Web, they often bounce from one web site to another looking for information, and use links between sites to move around. Getting these links placed is an important effort worth your time. Local Web sites are operated by your city or region, a local newspaper, TV or radio station, or a local institution like a museum or a foundation.
You may already have some obvious sites in mind, or you may have to do a little research to track them down. Once you've identified these local Web sites, approach them with an email or a phone call and request a link. Use your charitable mission as your calling card to appeal for a prominent link. Whenever possible, make your request contextual to an event, a holiday or an issue. Maybe you're promoting an advocacy campaign that could be linked from the website of a local TV station or alternative weekly newspaper.
Social networking: These places are popping up every other day, but there are some that can be essential to your cause. Create a Facebook page and or a MySpace page to help recruit new volunteers, donors and supporters. If you are dealing with a tech-savvy audience, consider going onto Second Life. Share photos of events or people you help on Flickr.
Source: Groundspring ITS Topic 5