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Face it, the novelty of launching a web site
has worn off. Teenagers in homes and schools across the country are developing
their own web sites as you read this article. Simply owning a web site is no big
deal anymore. What matters is how you’re using the many tools at your disposal
to strengthen your business. Having a business web site is a necessity in
today’s customer-driven marketing climate. My bank, insurance company, office
supply house, travel agent, newspaper publisher, and yes even my pizza parlor,
all have web sites that I use in the course of doing business. This short list
of businesses avoids anything associated with high-tech. We can simply stipulate
that they are online. So, with virtually endless sites to choose
from, how do you take steps to drive more traffic to your business web site?
From my project work with entrepreneurs and corporations, here are four of the
most effective ways to boost traffic that will work with virtually any business
web site. The trick is knowing your purpose and how to measure the success of
your efforts. 1.
Tell
people through co-marketing. The people who are most likely to visit are
those who know you and your business already. How are you building on this
relationship? If you want your customers to visit your site, you must do two
things, and do them well: A) prepare something of value for them and put it on
your web site, and B) invite and instruct them to visit. 2.
Hold
a contest. Tap into your customer’s creative or competitive spirits. Cisco
Systems held a contest for the most creative uses for their high-tech equipment
and got ideas for new products and services that were worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars. One entrepreneur I know offers a $50 book certificate for
the best caption to a silly photo. Be creative to attract creative ideas. It may
not matter so much how you engage visitors, so long as you attract their
participation. Contests also produce great “word-of-mouth” traffic that
introduces new visitors to your site. 3.
Submit
to search engines and directories regularly. Forget the solicitations to
“submit your web site to 6,000 of the world’s search engines for only
$200” when you send your credit card number to such-and-such an address.
According to a WebHits report, over 90% of the traffic that gets referred to a
web site from web site search engine comes from one of these 7 locations: Yahoo,
Altavista, Excite, Go (Infoseek), Lycos, Snap, GoTo.com. Rounding out the top
ten brings aboard MSN, WebCrawler, and Ask Jeeves. If you are responsible for
marketing a single web site, there’s no reason to duck this responsibility
once you know where to focus your energies. 4.
Build a community.
If you have a business with customers, you have
an untapped community waiting for your leadership. Engage any group with common
interests (such as benefiting from your products and services), give them an
opportunity to interact at their convenience via your web site, and a chance to
get to know each other, and you’ve got the basic ingredients for an online
community. Visitors return to communities more so than to online locations that
do not offer such opportunities. You now know how to drive more traffic to
your business web site. With a bit of creativity and knowledge of your business,
you can adapt these techniques to build stronger relationships with your
customers and attract new prospects to your business…which is really the core
purpose of any business web site. |
