“We’ve only had 632 visitors to our web site in six months. What can we do to get more traffic?” After a company web site has been up for awhile, there’s a wake up call. It’s not working like we assumed it would. We built the site but no one is coming.
This is the most often-heard complaint today. Once it becomes clear that the only visitors are either company employees or those who landed on the site by accident, someone starts making noises about “getting on the search engines” as the solution to the no traffic problem.
It isn’t surprising that the World Wide Web is littered with thousands of dead sites that have been virtually abandoned by the disillusioned. It’s easy to spot them–they were last updated on the day the site was launched.
For some unknown reason, businesspeople seem to view a web site as a “magic bullet,” an easy way to attract customers. Since search engines are seen as a universal panacea for solving the traffic problem, few recognize the effort involved to pull visitors to a site.
The efficacy of a web site has rarely been questioned because, until recently, few knew what questions to ask. As companies become experienced with the new technology, this is beginning to change. Still, myths persist. Here is a reality check:
• A web site is just one more marketing tool, not really very much different from any other tactic a company might employ for prospecting or communicating with customers.
• Relying on search engines to do the work of taking visitors to your site is dangerous. It was only a few years ago when a search engine was almost a sure-fire solution. But it isn’t today. There are millions of sites vying for attention. A search might turn up a few hundred to several hundred thousand sites.
• Why would anyone want to visit your site? This is the killer question because it focuses on the attraction issue. In other words, what’s in it for the visitor? If your site is all about your company, what you do, and what you sell, no one will come. Count on it. And if they accidentally land on your site, they’ll leave quickly.
All the confusion about web sites is to be expected since the concept is new and few have the necessary experience to design and maintain sites with high visitor appeal. As a result, they take the advice of someone who may be selling web site design, they invest in “instant web site software,” or take advantage of someone’s offer to build a site for $239 or even $23,239. And everyone expects a miracle.
Against this background, what does it take to build web site traffic? Here are several suggestions:
1. Attracting visitors requires commitment. After getting a cost estimate to develop a site, the CFO or president begins seeing the invoices pile up. “What’s happening? This is costing four times what we expected.” No amount of explanation convinces the decision-makers that the expense is necessary.
A web site is never finished; it will forever remain a work-in-progress. It’s more like the evening news than a brochure. It needs to be kept fresh, interesting and appealing, and that takes a financial commitment, requiring constant planning and updating.
No company should undertake a web site unless it is willing to commit adequate resources to the project.
2. Attracting visitors requires web site design expertise. Designing a web site is not for the untrained, no matter what the software package may say. Homemade sites look that way…amateurish and unappealing. Many are filled with the worst possible copy that’s riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.
“Well, at least we have a web site.” This is a common refrain. Not good enough. An inadequate site is worse than no site at all because it represents wasted time and effort. Remember that your site is a reflection of your business. If you allow shoddy workmanship on your web site, what does it say about the quality of your products or services? The issue is not about “having” a web site. It’s about pulling visitors and that requires web design sophistication.
3. Attracting visitors requires “magnets.” What type of information can you place on your site that is of interest to your customers or clients? What can you give them that they want and cannot get easily elsewhere? What can you do to make your site exciting to visitors?
Once a visitor arrives at your site, will they be grabbed by what they see? Macintouch.com gives Macintosh computer users valuable information about new products, solutions to problems and ways to talk with other Mac-users.
An insurance-related site, riskvue.com, offers risk managers and insurance agents valuable information and an e-mail newsletter. Subtly, the visitor becomes aware that the company publishes risk management books and reports. A number of companies, including The Wall Street Journal, send out e-mail “news alerts” that get to the customer instantly. Each one, of course, directs the recipient to a web site for the complete text.
4. Attracting visitors requires constant promotion. Once again, just because you build a site does not necessarily mean they will come. If you read The Wall Street Journal, you know that a high percentage of the advertising, including full-page color ads, have a single objective: to drive the reader to a web site.
Web site promotion is an “in your face” task. A company’s web site should be listed on everything: letterhead, business cards, calendars, note pads, invoices, ads, direct mail, print and e-mail newsletters and trucks. If customers or clients come to the company’s offices, there should be posters and desk plaques giving the web site address.
An oilheat dealer has large decals on the rear bumpers of its oil trucks: “Win $100 in free oil–visit federalheat.com.” But it isn’t just the web site address that’s important, it’s the “magnet” or pull that counts. The “Win $100” offer helps attract visitors.
Offers of information can be just as compelling. Visitors answer a few questions and provide their e-mail address in order to obtain what is offered such as a report, brochure or survey data. This is an effective technique for acquiring e-mail addresses
for communicating with customers and prospects at a later time with the purpose of motivating them to return to your site.
Without question, the key to success is repetition, repetition, repetition.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. Graham is the author of The New Magnet Marketing, Magnet Marketing, and 203 Ways To Be Supremely Successful In The New World Of Selling. He can be contacted at j_graham@grahamcomm.com or visit the company’s web site at www.grahamcomm.com.
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