As a website owner you have probably realized that although building a great website is important, it is nothing without a proper marketing plan that enables it to be seen.  Without a marketing plan your chances of success in the internet world is close to ‘nil’. A proper marketing plan brings visitors and traffic to your website, without which you will have no business.

There are several online resources that can help you place your website in front of your target audience.  It is wise not to rely on only one strategy to obtain your online business.  You should use several vehicles in conjunction with one another in order to achieve the best results for generating website traffic.  A diverse marketing plan using several approaches to deliver your message to your target audience is the best strategy.

The following are some of the best website marketing tools that you can use to get traffic to your website:

Search Engine Marketing – Of course, this is the most highly used form of website marketing strategies to help attract website visitors.  Using the right keywords that are relevant to your target market helps customers find what they are looking for and the search engines direct them to your website.  Achieving placement on the first pages for relevant terms is extremely important and can be difficult (although not impossible) to achieve.  That is why it is vital that you do not rely totally on search engine marketing for your whole website marketing plan.

Pay-Per-Performance – This is a form of advertising where you pay per click, impression or visit a site that refers your site.  The placements should relate closely to what your own website is about in order for this form of advertising to be most effective.  Advertisement rates are typically based on an auction format where the highest bidder obtains the top placement of their ad.  You as the website owner must pay what you bid each time someone clicks on your ad, regardless of whether or not the visitor becomes your customer or not.  Before using this type of advertising it is important to understand the conversion ratio (price per click versus customers actually buying) before determining the budget necessary to commit to this time of marketing plan.

Ad Placement – This is similar to per-per-performance because you pay for advertisements on various websites or newsletters.  Here, though, you pay for impressions (number of people viewing the location where your ad appears) and market reach (number of people accessing that website or newsletter).  You have no guarantee with this type of advertising that visitors viewing the ads will follow through to your website.

Joint Ventures – This can be a highly effective form of website marketing.  Joint ventures can simply be trading links with another website or can even involve a tiered affiliate program.  Again, it is important that you seek others that have the same relative idea or product as yours for this type of marketing plan to be most effective.

Targeted Traffic Marketing – This type of marketing uses a list approach, where you can buy a list or build one yourself that directs targeted traffic (visitors that have a specified interest in your topic, niche, service or product that you are selling).  Here you direct your marketing plan to this specific group.

E-Mail Marketing – In the past the e-mail marketing plan has been overused and as a result it has gained the reputation of ‘spam’, where people receive e-mails that they don’t want.  In order for this e-mail marketing plan to work nowadays, you must have permission from individuals before sending your ads.  Without permission, spamming can cause you to be banned from the search engines.

Article Marketing – With this type of marketing, you write articles, reports or other content on the subject of what your website is all about.  Within the article or in the resource box you link the information to your website in hopes of getting more visitors to your website to view your offer.  This can be a highly effective form of website advertising as many readers enjoying the information you share will view you as an expert on the subject and will be more inclined to buy your product or service when they click through to your website.

Using the above online marketing strategies can be very successful for your website business.  However, before you begin any website marketing plan you need to know and define who your customer is and target that person specifically.  The better you know who your target customer is, the better you can refine your website marketing strategy to help drive website traffic to your website.