There are millions upon millions of web sites out there. In an earlier post we talked about those remaining businesses that do not have a web site and what may be holding them back from having one.
But let's say you've got a nice web site up and running and not much is happening with it. You've spent some hard earned dollars to have it designed and you've tried a few things to get it producing new business for you, but so far not much joy.
What to do?
From the research I've done so far, there are a few basics to this game of marketing online:
- Find out what your prospects/customers really need and want from you.
- Make it very clear on your web site that you provide this.
- Provide a healthy dose of helpful content on your site. A sales-only page may generate some immediate sales, but is it the type of web site that people will return to?
- Offer a newsletter and collect the names and email addresses of people interested in the newsletter. Some people find it very successful to give something away free (perhaps an eBook or collection of articles) in exchange for the person signing up for your newsletter. I recommend AWeber as a web site to help you with automating the whole process of collecting email addresses, sending out newsletters, etc. And I recommend Alexandria Brown's materials to help you with creating and promoting a newsletter.
- Get some kind of dialogue going with your prospects and customers. Provide some way for them to ask you questions, either through an online form, email, or even live chat. The more you are in communication with them, the more likely they will do business with you.
Those are some basic items. There are other things that you can do that are a bit more involved, but I'd prefer to keep it simple and basic for now:
- Find out what people want.
- Let them know you provide it.
- Give them helpful information.
- Grow a mailing list and mail to it.
- Start a dialogue.
Basics.
They always work.
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