Q: I recently launched a website for my sports goods business. Do I need to do something special to attract customers to my website? I know nothing about search engines and marketing. Please tell, whats the story of them big puppys .....
ANSWER: That is a question asked by every businessman who has launched a website. If I build it will they come? Yes they will - if you build a website that attracts dead baseball players.
For those of you who have not found the "Field of Dreams" guide, let me put it this way: No, Sean, if you build it they will not come, at least without some effort on your part.
Assuming that the website will automatically attract customers is a big mistake made by many business owners. It is this error that eventually leads them to abandon their website as a failure and to abandon their online marketing efforts.
I can't tell you how many times I have heard a client say, “Well, I lost the website, but no one ever came to it and I didn't sell a single thing on it! Dang wasted time, if you ask me ... "
Forgive me, but the word "throw up" is the word used there. These short-sighted entrepreneurs (God loves them) make the mistake of thinking that all they have to do is open a website and that their business will be doubled overnight. And if nothing goes wrong they blame the internet, El Nino, Bosa Nova, their customers… all but their lack of marketing efforts.
If you build it will they come? That, Sean, depends entirely on you.
When it comes to attracting customers, opening an online business (or an existing online business branch) is not the same as opening a brick and mortar store. With the exception of a little fun and a well-designed marketing plan, it is possible that your website will be just another roadmap on the Information Superhighway.
The first step in developing your marketing plan is to ask yourself the question: Who is my customer? Who do I want to impress on my website? Believe it or not, this is a question most business people fail to ask. Who your customer is is incredibly important because if you do not know who your customer is, how can you expect to market to it?
The next question concerns your client's location. Want to attract a local or international customer to your website? If the response is local, you will complement your marketing efforts for customers in your background, which means incorporating your website launch and your offline marketing efforts.
If the website is an online branch of the brick and mortar business, include the website URL in all your print materials and advertising campaigns. Consider playing ads on local newspaper, radio or TV announcing the launch of your site. Use direct email or store posters to announce site launches on the basis of your existing customers.
In short, keep doing what you do to attract customers to your real store, just add your website address to the mix.
Just remember, it is important to consider your website as a branch of your brick and mortar business because that is exactly what it is. A good business website will help you sell more products, increase your customer base, and increase your income without adding more. Do not sell your website briefly. Make it work for you.
If you are looking for a global audience, your marketing efforts will be very different. Attracting customers from all over the world is a much harder task than attracting customers from all over the world. Fortunately, the work is not possible. The internet has measured the platform in many ways. Now all businesses, no matter how large or small, have the potential to do business internationally.
In a basic sense, an online marketing campaign to attract global customers should incorporate the following efforts.
Register with Search Engines There is not enough space in this newsletter for in-depth discussion of search engines and their performance (or lack thereof) in driving website traffic. Suffice it to say that 95% of search engine traffic comes from Google and Yahoo, so start there. It is also important to note that just registering with search engines does not guarantee your traffic, but it certainly will not hurt you.
Unfortunately, the free search engine lunch ended a few years ago when search engines found that people would actually pay for listings and top rankings. Since then the only way to ensure the highest (or at least the highest) level is to pay for it. The two most popular site payment schemes are Yahoo Express "Yahoo Express" and "Adwords" by Google. Visit their websites for details on these programs. Be prepared to spend a few hundred dollars at least to get your site listed.
Exchange Links With Similar Sites One free - and powerful - way to drive customers to your website is to exchange links with sites of similar interest. Find sites similar to yours and contact the owner to find out if they will link to your site when you link to theirs. If you sell golf balls on your website, set up an exchange link with another website that sells golf clubs. You send a link to them and they send you a link. It’s called digital back scratching, and if done right, it can work well to drive traffic your way.
Go Where Customers Are If the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed should go to the mountain. A little known way to attract customers to your website is to market your products on a site as big as eBay. There are thousands and thousands of people on eBay at any one time and each one can be your customer, so a great place to do business.
Your goal is not to make a living by selling eBay, but to use eBay as a marketing tool to drive traffic back to your website. Go where the customers are, and bring them home with you.
Let's use our travels
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