Are You Living The “Field Of Dreams” Myth

Most of you have seen or heard of the movie “Field of Dreams”
You remember, Kevin Costner hears a voice telling him to build a baseball
field in his corn field. “If you build it they will come”.

Unfortunately this is the mind-set that most small business owners have with
their websites. Too many businesses spend thousands of dollars on their
websites, and then just assume that people will flock to it, like crows to a
cornfield.

Folks, if you have a website or you’re planning to get one,
you must have a strategy to attract your potential customers to your site.
But it’s not enough to just get them to visit your site, it’s crucial that you have
a mechanism to capture at least their name and e-mail address.

I’m amazed at how many websites have no such mechanism. If you
don’t have a plan to promote your website people aren’t going to just
show up. It’s a good idea to have your website address on all your stationary.
Make sure it’s part of your e-mail signature, on your invoices, order forms,
letterheads and of course business cards.

These are just the basics, if you really want to stand out in the crowd
you’ll need to get creative. How about a contest of some kind, or a free
book or report that people can download? For example, if you sell
computer technology why not team up with a supplier to give away
a laptop or PDA at your website.

Of course people will have to provide their name and e-mail address
to get a chance to win. A carpet sales business running an ad in the
yellow pages, could include the line “go to www.CarpetsRUs.com to
download a FREE report on how to select the right carpet for your home”.

The key is to integrate your offline marketing with your online marketing.
Use your offline marketing to encourage people to check out your website.

If your business has no strategy to promote your site and capture the
contact information of your visitors; then you’re not taking full advantage of the
remarkable power of the internet to find new prospects. You need to build
it and then promote the heck out of it or you’ll be living mostly in a dream.