What's Driving People TO Your Website?

I remember a call from a lady trying to get me to enroll in a franchise opportunity.  Somehow this program allows consumers to purchase items directly from a wide range of recognized companies (like Apple Computer and Home Depot) through one easy location. She gave me the URL and told me that I could make quite a nice living using only a few hours of my time weekly to draw people to "my" site.  To be honest, I didn’t understand her pitch.  What was the difference between the site she was offering me and an established venue like Overstock.com or e-Bay?  She said I would understand once I accessed her site.  Before I did, I asked her, “What drives people to this site to begin with?” After all, if customers don’t know this “easy on-line market” (her words) exists, how would I supposedly bring in customers to support my franchise?  (I had never heard of this site ‘til she told me about it.) She really didn’t have any answers—and when I accessed the site I was even less impressed. Understanding the Challenges Since I started giving lectures and consulting on “Enhancing Your Website’s Effectiveness” in the 90s, the number of sites has exploded.  The good news is that it’s easier, and less expensive, for companies—including small businesses—to get a site developed. The bad news is two-fold:  First, very few businesses understand what makes effective web content—and most of their web developers don’t provide such content.  Second, many sites aren’t well designed. Like the franchise lady’s, they are a hard-to-read mish-mosh that encourages people to log off in seconds. (Did you know you have 10 seconds to gain and keep a web reader’s attention?) Before You Get “Techie” Many people are running to technical solutions, like on-line ads or the kind of things designed to get your site to pop up before the competitions’.  The latter include having the right key words, or techniques for creating what is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Remember, key words are only a temporary solution. If you don’t have the budget to maintain them, your site’s recognition can drop in value a week or so after it has been posted.  Nor am I talking about Social Media, the Web 2.0 avenues like Facebook and Twitter people are now running to post. Yes, they have many benefits that you can read about, but I can’t tell you how many people I’ve spoken with, from individual customers to major purchasing execs, who still find these avenues of little use.  They don’t have time to read them—especially since the seller is doing little to bring people to their 2.0 connection.  Consider Custom Content One technical solution that helps is a quality website. But what does “quality” mean?  For most businesses, that means putting their money into a nice-looking template.  But what about the content?  Now that you’ve used the first 10 seconds to grab your reader’s attention, what in the next 10 seconds is going to keep it? What does your site offer, besides spouting your expertise?  What sort of material are you offering that makes readers believe you want to help them—and that you’re the one to provide that help? What sort of downloads, as giveaways, are you offering; e.g., a white paper, an article, even a simple checklist? If you don’t know, you run the risk of your site just becoming another of hundreds (thousands?) among your competitors. Think Ancillary You also need to look beyond the Internet, for a variety of reasons.  How many of your potential customers are not simply trolling the ‘Net looking for you?  You need to make sure you have a regular stream of marketing materials designed to bring you and your site real recognition. Such materials include brochures, flyers, postcards, press releases (or a press kit), newsletters, and articles featuring your byline in local media outlets and/or professional publications.  These materials are far easier and less expensive to produce than hiring an SEO group.  More important, if used properly these items will even reach people who may not browse websites.  Ultimately they provide the kind of day-to-day, month-to-month image enhancement that not only helps increase your (or company’s) name recognition in and of itself, it also points people back to your website.  The bottom line is this: You can get far more bang for your buck by factoring in custom content and/or ancillary marketing materials than you can by simply slapping a website online.    2009-10-22T23:39:05Z