| QUESTION: | | | | range of clientele, and increase your revenue without |
| I recently launched a website for my sporting goods | | | | adding overhead. Don't sell your website short. Make |
| business. Do I need to do anything special to attract | | | | it work for you. |
| customers to my website? I know nothing about | | | | If you are seeking a global audience, your marketing |
| search engines and marketing as such. Please tell me | | | | efforts will be quite different. Attracting customers |
| where to begin. -- Sean M. | | | | from around the world is a more difficult task than |
| ANSWER: | | | | attracting customers from around the block. |
| Sean, that is a question that has been asked by | | | | Fortunately, the task is not impossible. The Internet |
| every business person who has ever launched a | | | | has leveled the playing field in many ways. Now |
| website. If I build it, will they come? Of course they | | | | every business, no matter how large or small, has |
| will -- if you've built a website that appeals to dead | | | | the ability to do business internationally. |
| baseball players. | | | | In the most basic sense, an online marketing |
| For those of you who didn't get the "Field of | | | | campaign to attract global customers should include |
| Dreams" reference, let me put it this way: No, Sean, | | | | the following efforts. |
| if you build it they will not come, at least not without | | | | Register With Search Engines |
| some effort on your part. | | | | There's not enough room in this newspaper for a |
| Assuming that a website will automatically attract | | | | thorough discussion of search engines and their |
| customers is the single biggest mistake that many | | | | effectiveness (or lack thereof) in driving traffic to a |
| business owners make. It is this mistake that | | | | website. Suffice it to say that 95% of search engine |
| eventually leads them to dismiss their website as a | | | | traffic comes from Google and Yahoo, so start there. |
| failure and abandon their online sales efforts. | | | | It's also important to realize that just registering with |
| I can't tell you how many times I've heard a client | | | | search engines does not guarantee you traffic, but it |
| say, "Well, I threw up a website, but nobody ever | | | | certainly can't hurt. |
| came to it and I didn't sell a single thing from it! Dang | | | | Unfortunately, the free search engine lunch ran out a |
| thing was a waste of time, if you ask me ..." | | | | couple of years ago when search engines figured out |
| Forgive me, but "threw up" is the operative term | | | | that people would actually pay for listings and higher |
| there. These short-sighted entrepreneurs (God love | | | | placement. Since that time the only way to |
| them) mistakenly think that all they have to do is | | | | guarantee a high (or at least higher than others) |
| throw up a website and that their business will | | | | ranking is to pay for it. The two most popular |
| automatically double overnight. And when nothing | | | | pay-for-placement programs are Yahoo's "Yahoo |
| happens they blame it on the infallibility of the | | | | Express" and Google's "Adwords." Visit their |
| Internet, on El Nino, on the Bosa Nova, on their | | | | respective websites for details on these programs. |
| customers... everything but their own lack of | | | | Be prepared to spend several hundred dollars at a |
| marketing efforts. | | | | minimum to get your site listed. |
| If you build it, will they come? That, Sean, depends | | | | Exchange Links With Similar Sites |
| totally on you. | | | | One free - and potentially effective - way to drive |
| When it comes to attracting customers, opening an | | | | customers to your website is through link exchanges |
| online business (or an online branch of an existing | | | | with sites of similar interest. Locate sites that make a |
| business) is no different from opening a traditional | | | | good match to your own and contact the owner to |
| brick and mortar shop. Without a little fanfare and a | | | | ask if they will link to your site in exchange for you |
| well-devised marketing plan, chances are your | | | | linking to theirs. If you sell golf balls on your website, |
| website will become just another spot of roadkill on | | | | set up a link exchange with another website that |
| the Information Superhighway. | | | | sells golf clubs. You post a link to them and they post |
| The first step in devising your marketing plan is to | | | | a link to you. It's called digital back scratching, and if |
| ask yourself this question: Who is my customer? | | | | done properly, can work well to drive traffic your |
| Who is it that I want to attract to my website? | | | | way. |
| Believe it or not, this is a question many | | | | Go To Where The Customers Are |
| entrepreneurs fail to ask. The identity of your | | | | If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then |
| customer is incredibly important because if you don't | | | | Mohammed must go to the mountain. One little |
| know who your customer is, how can you expect to | | | | known way to attract customers to your website is |
| market to them? | | | | to market your products on a mega-site like eBay. |
| The next question concerns the locality of your | | | | There are thousands and thousands of people on |
| customer. Do you want to attract a local or global | | | | eBay at any given time and each one is potentially |
| clientele to your website? If the answer is local, then | | | | your customer, so it's a great place to drum up |
| you will gear your marketing efforts toward | | | | business. Your goal is not to make a living selling on |
| customers in your own backyard, which means | | | | eBay, but to use eBay as a marketing tool to drive |
| incorporating your website launch with your offline | | | | traffic back to your website. Go to where the |
| marketing efforts. | | | | customers are, then bring them back home with you. |
| If the website is the online branch of a brick and | | | | Let's use our golf ball example. Post a few auctions |
| mortar business, include the website URL in all your | | | | on eBay selling your golf balls at a ridiculously low |
| print materials and advertising campaigns. Consider | | | | price so your auction attracts plenty of attention. |
| running ads in the local paper, on radio or TV | | | | When customers make a purchase, add them to |
| announcing the launch of your site. Use direct mail or | | | | your client list and send them an email inviting them |
| in-store posters to announce the site launch to your | | | | to visit your website for more great products. eBay |
| existing customer base. In short, keep doing what | | | | also lets you create your own "About Me" page that |
| you're doing to attract customers to your physical | | | | you can use to advertise your business. |
| store, just add your website address to the mix. | | | | We have just scratched the surface, but hopefully |
| Just remember, it's important to consider your | | | | this is enough to get you started. I wish I could tell |
| website a branch of your brick and mortar business | | | | you that attracting customers to your website is |
| because that's exactly what it is. A good business | | | | easy, but the truth is, it's anything but. It takes hard |
| website will help you sell more products, widen your | | | | work, creativity and above all, perseverance. |