You may remember the famous line from the film Field of Dreams staring Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will come. Unfortunately many small business owners and some marketing directors believe this line applies to websites too. “All I need is a smart looking website and people will flood my virtual doors with online orders”. If only it was that easy...

Having a beautifully designed website that showcases your company's products and services is definitely an important part of any successful marketing mix. Launching your website without giving equal consideration to website promotion is just a shot in the dark.

It's amazing how much money some companies will spend on developing a corporate web presence and then budget little or nothing to promote the website only to be dumbfounded when the website is getting 20 hits per month and generating little or no new business for their company.

Careful consideration and planning must be given to any online marketing campaign and there are several ways to promote and drive traffic to your new site.

Are you going to write a press release announcing the launch of your new website? Will you send an HTML Email campaign to your existing clients announcing the new site. How will you attract new customers who may not have heard of your company yet.

Search engine marketing plays a major role in promoting new sites and should be a major component of any new website development.

Is your site optimized to be easily indexed in the search engines? Do you have enough textual content on your home page for the search engines to digest? Will you be using Google Adwords to drive additional traffic to your site during the initial launch? Have you chosen a reporting tool to measure traffic patterns and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts?

These questions and many more will need to be addressed before launching your new website. Most full-service web design firms will offer some if not all of these online marketing services. If not, you might want to consider hiring a company that specializes in online marketing to help with promoting your new website.

Lastly, traditional marketing efforts are not to be forgotten. Direct mail, newsletters and promotional items can all be effective ways to drive traffic to your new website. You should always include your web site's URL on every piece of company collateral.

Discussing your online marketing objectives with your web design team early on in the development cycle will help to establish realistic goals and expectations and aid in the development of a comprehensive online marketing campaign and a blue print for success.