One of the most common scenarios that I frequently encounter is what I call the ‘field of dreams’ approach to site construction. This is one of those bizarre scenarios where people focus all of their efforts on putting together a website, to the expense of everything else, without actually considering how traffic will be driven to it – I consider it the ‘build it and they will come’ approach to digital marketing.
As many digital marketers know this approach is incredibly short-sighted. In the past I have actually found the following approach far more effective:
- Work on actively communicating your marketing message to your target audience – now, not in a year. This can be achieved via:
- Email marketing
- Display campaigns – traffic can be driven to microsites if you don’t have a site
- Conference calls / online presentations
- Pod casts
- In parallel with the above, work on enhancing your main website.
This approach provides you with enormous flexibility. You can engage your audience now while also running your website build in the background. It sounds simple, but you will be amazed at how many people look to deliver something in a year without worrying about the here and now…. in today’s harsh economic environment its important that you show the value you bring to the party.
Of course the other big advantage is that when your site is live – you will have mechanisms to drive traffic to your site.
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Steve, good post. I couldn’t agree more. Something that may help your readers is an introduction an online presentation like KinetiCast. KinetiCast enables users to create presentations online, email them to customers/prospects, and then track views. It is a great way to build personalized presentations that include video, PowerPoint and images without bogging down someone’s email with large attachments, and then direct viewers to the company’s site for more information. Using the tracking feature, it is also a great way to test and refine your company’s message. For example, you could have slides dedicated to each of your major benefits. You can then track, on average, how much time is spent on each slide. The more time a viewer spends on a slide, the more likely it is that the particular messaging on that slide resonates. Looking forward to following your blog.