Source Enterprise Ireland 

If you are prepared to invest in developing a website, then be prepared to budget for promoting it. Build it and they will not come! This Guide is for those with little or no experience of marketing their online facilities. The main considerations are;

• Make sure your website is going to deliver on visitor expectations -before the launch undertake a thorough testing programme and be confident that it will represent your business in the best possible light.
• Use a Launch event to create interest in your site and put your site address on all your literature; stationary, brochures, adverts etc.
• Working to get a high listing when a search is undertaken on a search engine is called Search Engine Optimisation.. This can be costly and there is no guarantee of success. However if you can stay near the top of these lists, the costs may be justified. However search engine listings are based on complex factors that change over time - it's likely that you'll need to outsource this to an expert.
• Opt-in email marketing (where the recipient agrees to receive your emails) offers low cost, direct access, higher response rates than conventional marketing , the ability to directly track responses and speed. It's an excellent marketing tool that's generally under-utilised by Irish businesses. To make the most of it you will need to invest in building an opt-in (also called permission) email database. Once you have this, you can use email to issue seminar invites, to identify leads, to keep customers informed (using an online magazine or ezine) and to generate sales.
• Banner ads can be targeted to a particular audience. They are also useful in allowing the company to deliver more detailed information when a person clicks on the advertised site. Ads can be placed not only on sites, but also in ezines.
• A key advantage of online promotion is that it is possible to set up systems that allow you to automatically track the impact of the different promotional activities. You can electronically monitor how many people click through from a particular online ad to your site, which article in an ezine generates the most interest, how many people visit your site and which search engines referred them. Make sure you have a tracking system in place to make this information available.