Ways to market a website

July 29, 2008 10:38 AM

What are some good ways to market a website?

Recently I have helped launch another website onto the World Wide Web. I won't name the site here (to avoid spam accusations), but the site enables people to make Ken Burns-like slideshows with custom music and background themes.

Our target, though not limited to this, is women between the ages of 20-40 who like to share photos of their family online. The goal was to make creating a slideshow an easy, drag-and-drop experience, and to create a clean and cinematic slideshow. We felt a lot of the slideshows available on the web were either boring, hard for the non-tech savvy to create, or filled with too much distracting clutter.

We've gotten on local TV and have had a positive response thus far, but we are struggling to figure out some cost-affective (read cheap) ways to market the site on the web. We are on Facebook and AdWords, but we are looking for other creative ideas to market our site.

We realize that there are a million photo/slideshow sharing sites out there, but really think that our differentiation contains value.

I'm looking for ideas outside of SEO, ad driven, blogs, etc., and more for something that will resonate with our target audience. Perhaps something more grassroots.

You thoughts and ideas are much appreciated :)

posted by blueplasticfish to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Add something that will make people want/need to send it to other people via email (a la Facebook). If you can make your existing users market the site with their contacts, etc., you're set.
Basically, think of ways for having other people they know sign up will add value to your users.
posted by signal at 11:00 AM on July 29, 2008

have a blogger blog (owned by google it gets a lot of search engine weight). have contests for the best slideshows, maybe even a small prize, and then post the very best ones on the blog. but make it exclusive - don't post every slideshow you get. make people work at getting accepted.
posted by cda at 11:59 AM on July 29, 2008

Yup, have you considered your viral loop?

Also, what's your monetization strategy? If this is a way to upsell to something you think people will pay for, maybe give some of it away in contests. Have a people's choice component to the contest that encourages people to have their friends register. Give people one vote per slide-show they share, or something like that.
posted by Good Brain at 4:30 PM on July 29, 2008