If You Build It... Will They Come?
If you build your website... they won't come. Visitors that is. This is especially true if your not telling anyone about your website. Why do I say this? Because I'm not trying to mislead you like all of those "Get Top Rankings Now!!!" idiots.
Lack of a marketing campaign or focus is what many E-Businesses suffer from. Having an online business requires a lot of promotion and advertising because you don't have the drive by or foot traffic of a regular brick and mortar business.
Increasing traffic to your website the old fashioned way.
- It is important that your online business gets promoted with all of your printed materials: business cards, brochures, mailings, anything your business prints on should have your web address.
- Carry business cards on you at all times, you never know when you'll bump into someone at a restaurant that happens to be looking to buy a product or service that you offer. This is especially the case for those in the technology market.
- Talk to people. Go meet people at the coffee shop, while you wait for your car at the car wash, or even over a beer at the bar. I'm not saying to spam them in person, but rather make new acquantances and when they ask what you do, go ahead and drop your website in, there's no shame in that.
- Put ads in your local newspaper, magazines, and billboards. Promoting online businesses locally and in smaller markets is always cheaper than approaching the nationwide market.
- Targetting smaller markets can often take a lot more work then just posting one large nationwide ad in a magazine, but I tell you, the returns from the smaller time advertising will be much higher if done effectivley.
- Don't be afraid to try new things. The only way to know if something works is by doing it and reviewing the results. Only by trial and error will you really find out what it takes to promote your business to number 1.