W27 – WEB DESIGN PROCESS 3 – LA

Week 27 – Web Design Process 3: Development part 3 – LA – Market Your Website

Now that you have built and tested your website, I would like you to market it. Let’s say that your budget is NOK 10 000 (or 1800 $ US). Please do the following:

• Do some research on what advertising costs. You could for instance contact your local newspaper, print shop and other websites.
• Make a detailed list of how you would market your website. Remember to keep your budget in mind.
• What if you had double the budget? Come up with a second marketing strategy, this time with NOK 20 000 at your disposal. (3600 $ US)
• Come up with a viral idea.

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Do I need an SSL Certificate?
First, I checked to see if the site would need an SSL Certificate as that might cost some money to acquire. But seeing as my website wouldn’t collect any personal information or need log-ins from any visitors, there is no need for it.

Where to advertise/spend money:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Google
• Radio
• Online local newspaper
• Flyers + posters
• Tik Tok

Where not to advertise/spend money:

• Snapchat
• Twitter
• Physical local newspaper

Target audience(s):
I have two main target audiences for my website about my hometown, Kongsberg:

• The first group is adults 27-65, both those with jobs looking to take a break and visit Kongsberg as a tourist and those without a job who are looking to find work in Kongsberg.

• The other group consists of students (18-26) who are looking to study (and work) in Kongsberg.

Reasoning for marketing decisions:
Because the website is online and the goal is to get people to visit the site, it is much easier and more convenient to keep most of the advertisements online with a direct link to the site as most people won’t bother typing in the site address if they see an ad in the local newspaper. Those who buy the local newspaper are also most often people already living in Kongsberg, and they are not one of the main target audiences for this website. Therefore, it would be more beneficial to put an ad on the online newspaper where people who don’t live in Kongsberg check in to see what’s going on. 

In the first round of marketing, snapchat and Twitter will not be included in the strategy. It is better to focus the marketing on fewer channels in order to maximise the marketing and get the most out of it instead of spreading it out too thin on all the different channels.

Social Media
I would use Facebook and Instagram to post about the website for free (regular posts), but would also invest a small amount of money towards paid ads on both platforms to reach a wider audience. 
I would also use the video sharing platform Tik Tok to share videos for free, but not pay for ads.

Google
Focus on SEO and PPC ads. Initially, I would not use money to improve the SEO of the website, but rather focus on organic ranking and work towards improving the ranking of the site with keywords, and code. However, during the first month of launch, I would pay for ads on Google, so there is more traffic the first month.

Radio & Newspaper
Short ads on the radio to advertise the site and beauty of the town.
With the increased budget, I would create three different ads, targeting both target audiences and the viral competition.
I would put a small ad in the online newspaper, to market the website with a general overlook of what you can find on the site.

Traditional/physical marketing materials:
Flyers and posters would be used to market the ‘viral’ competition. This will both attract visitors to the site and invite more people to join the contest – giving the site more ‘free’ marketing.

Viral idea:

• Low budget: 

Photo contest on Facebook & Instagram with a great prize for the winner(s). It would be preferred to have a partnership with a local business, hotel or attraction to provide the prize in return for ‘free’ advertising on our website and flyers/posters.

• Higher budget:

Video contest on Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook with an even bigger prize – something like a weekend getaway with lots of activities, spa treatments etc the winner can choose from. This will mostly be targeted towards the younger audience (students), but everyone is free to join. 

Since Kongsberg is especially known for the silver mines, it would be great to have someone dressed in mining gear do a dance and then post it on the different social platforms and have others try and recreate the dance and post it to win the big prize. This is a popular trend on social media and would likely (hopefully) produce a lot of ‘buzz’.