Q: I recently launched a website for my sporting goods business. Do I need to do anything special to attract customers to my website? I know nothing about search engines and marketing as such. Please tell me where to begin.A: That is a question that has been asked by every business person who has ever launched a website. If I build it, will they come? Of course they will -- if you've built a website that appeals to dead baseball players.
For those of you who didn't get
"Field of Dreams" reference, let me put it this way: No, Sean, if you build it they will not come, at least not without some effort on your part.
Assuming that a website will automatically attract customers is single biggest mistake that many business owners make. It is this mistake that eventually leads them to dismiss their website as 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't sell a single thing from it! Dang thing was a waste of time, if you ask me
"
Forgive me, but "threw up" is operative term there. These short-sighted entrepreneurs (God love them) mistakenly think that all they have to do is throw up a website and that their business will automatically double overnight. And when nothing happens they blame it on infallibility of Internet, on El Nino, on Bosa Nova, on their customers
everything but their own lack of marketing efforts.
If you build it, will they come? That, Sean, depends totally on you.
When it comes to attracting customers, opening an online business (or an online branch of an existing business) is no different 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 of roadkill on Information Superhighway.
The first step in devising your marketing plan is to ask yourself this question: Who is my customer? Who is it that I want to attract to my website? Believe it or not, this is a question many entrepreneurs fail to ask. The identity of your customer is incredibly important because if you don't know who your customer is, how can you expect to market to them?
The next question concerns locality of your customer. Do you want to attract a local or global clientele to your website? If answer is local, then you will gear your marketing efforts toward customers in your own backyard, which means incorporating your website launch with your offline marketing efforts.
If website is online branch of a brick and mortar business, include website URL in all your print materials and advertising campaigns. Consider running ads in local paper, on radio or TV announcing launch of your site. Use direct mail or in-store posters to announce site launch to your existing customer base.
In short, keep doing what you're doing to attract customers to your physical store, just add your website address to mix.
Just remember, it's important to consider your website a branch of your brick and mortar business because that's exactly what it is. A good business website will help you sell more products, widen your range of clientele, and increase your revenue without adding overhead. Don't sell your website short. Make it work for you.
If you are seeking a global audience, your marketing efforts will be quite different. Attracting customers from around world is a more difficult task than attracting customers from around block. Fortunately, task is not impossible. The Internet has leveled playing field in many ways. Now every business, no matter how large or small, has ability to do business internationally.
