If You Build It, Will They Come?
Remember "Field of Dreams"? In that movie, maybe the best sports picture of all time, Kevin Costner is haunted by voices which compel him to build a full-size baseball field in his back yard. This is an especially ambitious project, since Costner doesn't really have enough money to both run a farm and build a major league field. When he does build the field, members of the outlawed 1919 White Sox (who became the "Black Sox" after they allegedly were manipulated by gamblers and threw World Series games) miraculously appear on the field and start playing ball. After several plot turns, Costner's character is reunited with his real life dad and saves the farm because his field becomes a tourist attraction."If you build it, they will come" is the moral of the story.
Unfortunately, this lovely fairy tale does not always come true in real life, especially with regard to websites, the new darling of the advertising community. Even if you build a first class website, filled with great information, lots of links, interactive features such as blogs, and well positioned email sign-up pages, you haven't done enough to ensure that your site will be a success. What you need is a plan to have people come to your site often and spend time on your site. Here are four key words to make sure your site will be one people will want to frequent:.
1. Advertise: Just as you wouldn't open a store on Main Street without an advertising campaign, it doesn't make sense to have an Internet site without an advertising plan. The best way to advertise your site these days is pay per click campaigns. These are run by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. Figure out what key words people who might like your site would be interested in, then pay for advertising of these key words at a search engine site. Bonus: You will receive a great analytic package that will show you information about where people visited your site come from.
2. Content: Content is the key buzzword of Internet developers these days. Not too long ago an Internet site could pass muster if it provided useful information and some links to other sites. Not any more. The days of static, boring web sites has come and gone. Now you have to have features of interest to your viewers: games, videos, blogs, coupons, slide shows, etc. to capture attention. If you can keep viewers on your site longer than a few seconds, you can begin to capture their minds and their hearts. Viewers decide very quickly whether they like your site. If you don't have a easy-to-use design with intriguing content, you've already lost a viewer . . . forever...
3. Revenues: Ah, the good old days when companies built and maintained sites on a vague hope that customers would come and spend money at the site. Now, if your site is not pulling its weight in building company equity, it will be relegated to the bottom of the corporate scrap heap. Ecommerce is a necessary component of most retail sites. You've built your site to expand your customer base, now you have to give a potential customer a reason and an opportunity to shop with you. At the very least, your site has to drive someone to call an 800 number for more information or to make an order. Websites without significant revenue potential are difficult to defend in these bottom line days.
4. Continuity: The fun part of any new website is building it. Lots of people want to participate and take the credit for putting together a new site. But when the site is built, watch the exit line form at the door. Nobody wants the seemingly boring job of fixing errors, responding to emails, updating content. Yet this management task is crucial to long term site success. It must be coupled with an eye towards replacing and improving content, adding new pages, attention to revenue, and a regard for how much traffic the site is generating.
Once you start paying attention to these four key words, your site will attract more interest, your viewers will be entertained, your sales will go up, and you will have a site people will want to return to.
It's pretty easy to get customers to come to your store or website the first time. Just offer them a great deal for showing up. The key to business is repeat business. Are you updating your website to be sure it is the kind of place people want to come back again . . . and again . . . and again?