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The Big Website Question: If You Build It, They Will Come?
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By Tim Knox
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Q: I recently launched a website for my sporting goods business.Do I need to do anything special to attract customers to mywebsite? I know nothing about search engines and marketing assuch. Please tell me where to begin.
A: That is a question that has been asked by every businessperson who has ever launched a website. If I build it, will theycome? Of course they will -- if you've built a website thatappeals to dead baseball players.
For those of you who didn't get the "Field of Dreams" reference,let me put it this way: No, Sean, if you build it they will notcome, at least not without some effort on your part.
Assuming that a website will automatically attract customers isthe single biggest mistake that many business owners make. It isthis mistake that eventually leads them to dismiss their websiteas a failure and abandon their online sales efforts.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard a client say, "Well,I threw up a website, but nobody ever came to it and I didn'tsell a single thing from it! Dang thing was a waste of time, ifyou ask me ..."
Forgive me, but "threw up" is the operative term there. Theseshort-sighted entrepreneurs (God love them) mistakenly thinkthat all they have to do is throw up a website and that theirbusiness will automatically double overnight. And when nothinghappens they blame it on the infallibility of the Internet, onEl Nino, on the Bosa Nova, on their customers... everything buttheir own lack of marketing efforts.
If you build it, will they come? That, Sean, depends totally onyou.
When it comes to attracting customers, opening an onlinebusiness (or an online branch of an existing business) is nodifferent from opening a traditional brick and mortar shop.Without a little fanfare and a well-devised marketing plan,chances are your website will become just another spot ofroadkill on the Information Superhighway.
The first step in devising your marketing plan is to askyourself this question: Who is my customer? Who is it that Iwant to attract to my website? Believe it or not, this is aquestion many entrepreneurs fail to ask. The identity of yourcustomer is incredibly important because if you don't know whoyour customer is, how can you expect to market to them?
The next question concerns the locality of your customer. Do youwant to attract a local or global clientele to your website? Ifthe answer is local, then you will gear your marketing effortstoward customers in your own backyard, which means incorporatingyour website launch with your offline marketing efforts.
If the website is the online branch of a brick and mortarbusiness, include the website URL in all your print materialsand advertising campaigns. Consider running ads in the localpaper, on radio or TV announcing the launch of your site. Usedirect mail or in-store posters to announce the site launch toyour existing customer base.
In short, keep doing what you're doing to attract customers toyour physical store, just add your website address to the mix.
Just remember, it's important to consider your website a branchof your brick and mortar business because that's exactly what itis. A good business website will help you sell more products,widen your range of clientele, and increase your revenue withoutadding overhead. Don't sell your website short. Make it work foryou.
If you are seeking a global audience, your marketing effortswill be quite different. Attracting customers from around theworld is a more difficult task than attracting customers fromaround the block. Fortunately, the task is not impossible. TheInternet has leveled the playing field in many ways. Now everybusiness, no matter how large or small, has the ability to dobusiness internationally.
In the most basic sense, an online marketing campaign to attractglobal customers should include the following efforts.
Register With Search Engines There's not enough room in thisnewspaper for a thorough discussion of search engines and theireffectiveness (or lack thereof) in driving traffic to a website.Suffice it to say that 95% of search engine traffic comes fromGoogle and Yahoo, so start there. It's also important to realizethat just registering with search engines does not guarantee youtraffic, but it certainly can't hurt.
Unfortunately, the free search engine lunch ran out a couple ofyears ago when search engines figured out that people wouldactually pay for listings and higher placement. Since that timethe only way to guarantee a high (or at least higher thanothers) ranking is to pay for it. The two most popularpay-for-placement programs are Yahoo's "Yahoo Express" andGoogle's "Adwords." Visit their respective websites for detailson these programs. Be prepared to spend several hundred dollarsat a minimum to get your site listed.
Exchange Links With Similar Sites One free - and potentiallyeffective - way to drive customers to your website is throughlink exchanges with sites of similar interest. Locate sites thatmake a good match to your own and contact the owner to ask ifthey will link to your site in exchange for you linking totheirs. If you sell golf balls on your website, set up a linkexchange with another website that sells golf clubs. You post alink to them and they post a link to you. It's called digitalback scratching, and if done properly, can work well to drivetraffic your way.
Go To Where The Customers Are If the mountain won't come toMohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain. One littleknown way to attract customers to your website is to market yourproducts on a mega-site like eBay. There are thousands andthousands of people on eBay at any given time and each one ispotentially your customer, so it's a great place to drum upbusiness.
Your goal is not to make a living selling on eBay, but to useeBay as a marketing tool to drive traffic back to your website.Go to where the customers are, then bring them back home withyou.
Let's use our golf ball example. Post a few auctions on eBayselling your golf balls at a ridiculously low price so yourauction attracts plenty of attention. When customers make apurchase, add them to your client list and send them an emailinviting them to visit your website for more great products.eBay also lets you create your own "About Me" page that you canuse to advertise your business.
We have just scratched the surface, but hopefully this is enoughto get you started. I wish I could tell you that attractingcustomers to your website is easy, but the truth is, it'sanything but. It takes hard work, creativity and above all,perseverance.
Here's to your success!
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