Posted in Driving Website Traffic	September 19, 2006

By Kim Mateus , Managing Editor Mequoda Daily and Library

In our new Special Report Making the Most of PR and Earned Media, we learned that using public relations to drive website traffic and build relationships with an audience is rather simple on its face—so simple, in fact, that many publishers don't "get it."

• They understand the importance of coming up with a free online giveaway to drive traffic to the website.
• They certainly understand the value of publicizing the promotion.
• But where many miss the boat is in understanding the benefit of converting that website traffic into a loyal audience of people who are interested in their products and keep coming back.

Those three steps are core to the Mequoda Marketing System and making the most of earned media. It's not enough to do just the first and second steps. Without completing the third step, the site visitors are simply left hanging. The publisher has given them no reason to come back to the site on a regular basis. And there's no opportunity to build a database of loyal individuals to whom revenue-generating products may be promoted on a regular basis.

The shame of it is that the third step is no big mystery. It just requires the proper conversion architecture on the website:

• Request an email address to download the giveaway.
• Ask them to check a box to subscribe to a free email newsletter.
• Once permission to contact is granted, start building the relationship.

It's that simple.