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Website Success

09Nov

Why Your Website Can’t be Your Entire Marketing Plan

I remember seeing a television commercial from when the internet was still pretty young. It showed a team of web developers creating an ecommerce website. They were working long hours and hardly sleeping, but finally the day came to launch the site. They all gathered around a computer screen to watch the counter as the leader clicked the “Launch” button. The counter remained at zero… for one second, two seconds, three seconds – then it read “1.” Then a half second later it jumped to “2,” then “3,” then it started going faster and faster, until the numbers were just a blur. The counter registered thousands of visitors in less than ten seconds.

 

This is what many people think happens when you launch a website. They think, just because it’s there, all of a sudden thousands and thousands of people will magically flood your website. Reality is a bit different. Just because you’re there doesn’t mean you’ll get visitors.

 

The truth is, you can have the most incredible website ever built, but if no one sees it, it won’t do what you were hoping it would do. With 1.74 billion websites on the internet (as of this writing), chances are slim that someone will just stumble onto you. Of course, this can be very discouraging. You’ve worked hard building your organization, as well as your website – only to be ignored. However, there is hope. Just because the usual ways of being found are stacked against you doesn’t mean you should give up. There are other things you can do to increase you chances of being found.

 

This is where marketing comes in. Yes, your website is marketing; in fact, for most people, it’s the cornerstone of their marketing. But it can’t do it all alone. You have to find ways to drive traffic (visitors) to your website (your marketing cornerstone).

 

So, how can you drive traffic to your website? There’s not just one way, and what works for you will probably be unique to you and your organization. But there are general principles or guidelines that can help get you started:

 

  1. Develop high-quality content that helps your target audience survive or thrive. What problems are you helping them solve? What do they really want to know about that problem? Give them the “what” and the “why” for free so they’ll buy the “how” from you.

 

  1. Figure out where your target audience hangs out. Go there and advertise your free, high-quality content on that platform. They may hang out in more than one place. As you discover more places they hang out in, add those platforms to your advertising strategy.

 

  1. Make your website the access point – the place they have to go to get this free, high-quality content that is going to help them survive or thrive.

 

What are some examples?

  • Post articles that answer interesting questions relevant to the problems they have.
  • Make videos that explain how something works or has interesting facts or visuals.
  • Send emails on topics related to their problem that point to more in-depth information on your website.

 

We understand, this can be difficult. Often, it’s time consuming and you feel that your time should be spent on producing your organization’s output. But we’ve seen it repeatedly, when our clients market their website they succeed.

 

One of my clients illustrates this. The majority of her target audience hangs out on Facebook. When she started writing blog articles centered around their relevant problems and then advertised each article on Facebook, her “page views” numbers rose 200% and business started picking up!

 

Imagine your website performing better and better each day – producing the results you need. This is what happens when you have a compelling website and the marketing that will drive visitors to it.

 

We’d be happy to help you discover some ways to promote your website – even if Drake Web Development didn’t build it for you. Just request a Free Consultation and we’ll talk about some marketing possibilities for you and your organization. And if you’re interested in improving your website’s performance, you’ll want to download our special offer, “The Three Things Your Website Must Do to Succeed, and How to Make Them Happen.”

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