My wife and I wanted to host a fall kickoff party filled with friends, great food, an outdoor theatre for the kids and a campfire; an all out celebration to mark the end of a great summer. It was going to be great and I could literally visualize the party and how it would play out. We set a date and started working on the little details. I purchased a brand new outdoor fire pit for the campfire and contacted the screen rental company for our outdoor theatre. My wife had worked on the decorations and menu. Everything was set, except the guest list. It was something we knew needed to be done, but was overlooked by the excitement of the event itself. Our event was in one week and we hadn’t started inviting people. Immediately I felt this overwhelming pressure and my stomach sank as it hit me. The party that I had just visualized quickly turned into a rejection nightmare of guests who already had prior commitments.
This same scenario can happen in business as well if we are not careful. Think of the business owner who is just about to launch their brand new website. They’ve handled all the little details, the beautiful new interface, purchased that new e-commerce upgrade, loaded all the products and can literally visualize the sales just flooding in. Wait....we can’t just build it and expect that they will come. What about the guest list? It’s a little thing we call ”marketing” your website.
As I went through my guest list for the party, I quickly noticed that I couldn’t use just one single method to invite my list. I could send some of the potential attendees a quick text message, others I could possibly send an invite over Facebook, others an email and a select few I would need to make it more personal with a phone call.
Think about your potential visitors when marketing your website. Chances are you won’t be able to get them all to respond by using one single method. Don’t be fooled and think that just because you built it they will come. Here are a few tips that will help you avoid that Rejection Nightmare.
Like a party, you need to be building your guest list right away. Don’t wait until the website is live, start capturing leads on your under construction page. Possibly offer an exclusive grand opening sale or contest upon launch. The moment you launch that new site you can send out an email blast informing consumers that the party they signed up for has just started.
I know it’s hard to believe, but people actually use Google to search for things that your business may offer. If you don’t have content that is regularly added that can answer questions, provide deeper information or educate your consumer then you won’t be in the list of results. Stock your website with a few blogs before you launch to help fuel your online presence. Remember stats show that companies who blog generate 67% more leads than companies who don’t.
In business we all know the power of networking. Many companies base their entire lifeline on word of mouth advertising. You’re probably already using social media, however, it’s not just connecting with your list of already established friends; it also acts as a search engine. Consider that 78% of small businesses attract new customers through social media and you’ll quickly realize that it is a very important tool in your marketing arsenal.
This area is one that you can’t, no matter what, overlook. Google has outright declared that if your website is not friendly to mobile users it won’t consider your website legitimate and will therefore deliberately overlook you when indexing you for placement. It’s like having a beautiful party planned, but you can only RSVP if you own a Mac and are online at a specific time. It’s not very inviting and your mobile users would end up being frustrated and ultimately you would be handed a rejection.
I am personally not a big ad words fan; the idea of continually having to pay more when competition arises is not my cup of tea. However, they have their time and place, such as specific campaigns, launches and to help boost your site. Make sure you don’t just stick to Google advertising; look at doing a cross platform & print campaign. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other supporting platforms are great places to advertise online. You can also look at getting some press coverage from local papers. Maybe even have a website launch party, invite the mayor and harness the power of networking all while blasting out over social media during the event.
If you are an already established brand the length of time should be considerably less. If you are brand new to the online world then it could take a while before those sales start rolling in. It takes times to build a loyal customer base, so the more work you can do at the beginning the easier it becomes when you launch. Always be looking for ways to build that hype.
With any new project or launch it can be really exciting and easy to get lost in the hype. If you’re careful not to fully emerge yourself in planning & production you can avoid that rejection nightmare.