If you build it they will come — NOT. The Importance of Strategic Marketing!

 

Like many of you I saw the film “Field of Dreams” and what resonated with me was this message — “if you build it, they will come”.  Many business owners and entrepreneurs have believed in that message and unfortunately to their peril because a belief is not strategic marketing.  Business is business and we need to work on a strategic marketing plan to succeed.

You built it and low and behold — the phones aren’t ringing off the hook, nobody is crashing your server or breaking down your doors to buy your product or service.  What happened?

Quite simply it is good marketing smarts and it requires know-how and discipline.

Many businesses believe that if they put of a website, place an ad, join Facebook or Twitter, print some brochures or mail postcards you have done it what it takes.  In some cases that may be true but for most it is not.

Here is a common questions I encounter when speaking to prospective clients.

“I’ve only gotten 5 page views last month why haven’t more people visited my site?”

There can be many factors that play a role.

Can you find your site on a major search engine like Google?

Try a couple of things. First, type in a key word or phase in the search bar that you think people would use to find your business — for example if you sell ‘blue widgets’ type ‘blue widgets’ in the search bar and see where you come up.  Next type in your company name in the search bar and see if you appear — if you show up there at least your company has been indexed. Remember there is more to do — Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a big part of getting noticed online.

Descriptions and Meta Tags: Next I would look at your page description and meta tags to see if they have the correct content in them for search engines to index the content.  Many websites I review do not have any content in these areas and it is a missed opportunity.

The Design: The design is also important not only from an aesthetic point of view but from a functional sense.  Does it work?  When you first see the page does it convey your brand message?  If not what is lacking? Does it function efficiently — can people get from one place to another quickly and easily?  Is there enough content that can be indexed by a search engine?

Dynamic Content: Does your site have a blog or an RSS feed?  This offers your visitors a reason to come back.  If you have them is the content current and up-to-date? If not it should be.

Social Media: Are you taking advantage of social sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter and Pintrist?  If not — you should think about it — see what some of your competitors are doing with social sites and see what you can do to take advantage of this growing area

Remember — the more you do to get your site referenced the better it is for your overall exposure.