Why a Website Alone Won’t Boom Your Business
(Note: What I am about to tell you will probably generate some hate mail being directed at me from the website design crowd. Oh well, I’d rather make sure you know the truth than be popular.)
There is a dirty little secret in the world of website creation and using the internet to build your business. Many people have been led to believe that having a website alone will immediately mean that they will start getting a flood of new business.
Why not? Their business is now on the internet, where billions of people are surfing every day. It would make sense that if they had a beautifully designed website they should have people flocking to their door.
The sad truth is that most businesses go ahead and have a site designed, put it up, and then a horrible thing happens.
Absolutely nothing.
Here is what many website designers fail to mention when they talk about creating a website: A website is a response mechanism.
It is like a vending machine: it just sits there. People have to go up to the vending machine and then decide to actually buy something.
The most beautifully designed website in the world will produce nothing – unless there is a strategy to get people to arrive at that website.
(And no, hoping that you might get lucky and someday have Google rank you in their top ten sites is not a viable strategy. I’ll tell you more about getting your website ranked high on Google in a later Marketing Rocket Fuel.)
In fact, the website is really the second part of the formula for an effective marketing program. The first part is getting in contact with prospects and getting them interested so they come to your website.
So, before you begin building your website make sure you have a two-part strategy. Part 1 is to reach out to your prospects, contact them, let them know that there is information of value or something of interest at your website. Part 2 is to do an effective job of selling them when they arrive at your website.
Of course, there are a number of different outreach strategies that work. Amazingly, one of the best strategies that we’ve found with clients is to combine direct mail along with websites.
As strange as it seems, the World Wide Web is actually making good old-fashioned direct mail more viable than ever before. (Wasn’t e-mail supposed to put the US Postal Service out of business?)
It’s ironic that the best selling combination seems to be a blending of activities from both the “dirt world” as well as from “cyberspace.”
So, is a website an effective tool for a marketing program? Absolutely. Will it work by itself? Absolutely not.
For best results, combine the strategies of both an outreach program along with a response mechanism.
Reach out to your prospects, get their attention and then draw them back to the website. There you can provide more information, and stimulate their interest so they raise their hand and say, “I want to talk to you about being a customer!”
Get both strategies in place, and you’ll start seeing the results you really want for your business.
To your business success,
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Want to know how to make your marketing strategy more effective? Schedule a free half-hour telephone website review by calling Sentium at 1 (800) 595-1288.
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Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 31 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2008 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this or e-mail it to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.