This Christmas my mother received a rather unique present, although she had asked for this present months earlier she had forgotten all about it. She was very surprised as were the rest of us when my brother in law gave her a brand new cellphone as a present. She was very excited as her friends all had a cellphone and she had always wanted one.
My brother in law began the tedious task of setting up the subscription for service and configuring the tiny device. After an hour or two he presented the phone and number to my mother. Wide eyed and excited she placed the phone on the kitchen table and stared at it. So she said, “How do I know that it works?” My brother in law called the number and wow, it rang out like big Ben in London.
Joy filled the house as she answered the phone. “That’s great”, she said.
A few days later mom looked at me and said, “Why don’t I get any phone calls?” I looked at her with a strange look not wanting to disrespect her but trying to say it as politely as I could, “Well, did you let anyone know what your phone number is?” “No” she said. She laughed, “I suppose I should, how can I expect to get calls if I don’t tell anyone about my number!”
My customers tend to do the same thing. They have a beautiful website built and the take pride and effort in its design. Once they have it built they feel that there is nothing more to do. “Build it and they will come!” I do make certain that their site is off to a good start by submitting their site to Google and some of the other search engines. But, more can and should be done.
Your website is an online brochure, store front or place of information. It needs to be advertised in order to fill it’s noble purpose. In most cases it is your desire to have qualified prospects reading about you and your products, find the information so compelling that they give you a call or an email and begin the business relationship.
Be sure to take every opportunity to advertise your website. At the very least make sure it is on all your email messages, business cards and advertisements. Learn more about, “How do I advertise my website?“. It won’t be long before the community is surfing to your site and making that important phone call.