How Your Web Site Works - Or The One Thing You Need
Before You Talk To Your Web Designer
I’ve just written a talk on How
To Create A Profitable Web Site And Not Lose Your
Shirt. Of
course, in the talk I cover many
of the things I talk about in this newsletter.
However, writing
this talk has highlighted for me that there is
one important thing you need to do before you start
talking to a web designer. And if you don’t
do this one thing your web site is bound to fail.
Before you build a site you must have a good
marketing plan. And if you do not, even
if your web site design is really good looking, it
will probably fail. Many
readers
probably have a marketing plan and have put a lot
into a well thought out plan. But this really is
one of the biggest mistakes I see people make.
One the one hand, a web site is the marketing
tool of all marketing tools. It is one of the most effective
ways to get your marketing message across. On the
other, it is a myth that you put up a web
site and people just find it on the web. The truth is that
behind every successful web site there is a dedicated
businessperson who is promoting it.
Click here to see
a diagram of the Marketing Hub from Marketing
Guru Robert Middleton. This diagram is one of my
favorite little bits of marketing education. Once
you see it, you don’t forget that your marketing
is all working together.
When
you look at it this way you see how the web site
leverages
or magnifies your other marketing efforts.
And how your Web site does not work by itself.
It works by making everything else work better.
If you are doing no marketing now, you’ll want
to do some research on marketing on and offline.
Then choose no more than one or two marketing strategies
to learn and make your own.
You’ll have success with marketing
if you take it one step at a time and one new strategy
at a time.
Choose a marketing strategy that
plays to your strengths and that you like, whether
it is being with other people or writing or organizing
events.
Also ask what others in your profession typically
do and don’t do? Not that you must
do (or resist) what others are doing, but it may
indicate
what is successful. Or it might be an engrained convention
that is begging to be tested by someone like you.
So what I’m
saying is that everyone needs a marketing plan, but
you get to pick your
own formula.If
you are a plumber or hairdresser you might use small
ads in local papers that include your web address
and a Yellow Pages ad or you might
join
some
networking
groups in your neighborhood.
Perhaps you are a contractor or a business
coach and get most of your business by referral. You
can list your site on your business cards, invoices,
emails and brochures. Tell your satisfied
customers that you'd be happy if they told people
to visit your Web site when appropriate. When
customers refer others they will tell them to
check
out your
site.
So that's the long and the short of it. You
need a marketing plan if you want to have a successful
Web site. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how
much money you chuck at your web designer, you'll
never make
a profit out of your site.
Two good
resources for writing a marketing plan.
Guerrilla Marketing : Secrets for Making
Big Profits from Your Small Business-- by Jay
Conrad Levinson This book is ideal for many
locally based retail, trade and service business.
There is also a book
from C. Levinson on Free Guerilla Marketing. Free
or low cost marketing is often key to many
independent businesses. One thing I learned from
Levinson is
that paid ads are expensive and often have one of
the lowest returns for small businesses. There
are better options to paid ads.
www.actionplan.com for
the Info Guru
Marketing Manual by Robert
Middleton. This book has everything you need
to start marketing your independent professional
service business.
If you are a long term reader of Web Strategies,
you know I
mention the Info Guru Marketing Manual every few
months.
It gives me satisfaction to recommend this book
to others as it helped us temendously to build our
business.
