Well… Maybe. If you’re building a water well. In the desert. (Or writing an implausible movie script.)
If you build it, they will come…
A long time ago (2009), in a land far far away (Germany) I traveled to Cologne on business. We stayed at the “Radisson Blu” – which was appropriately swank for our meeting: sauna, rec room, breakfast, bar, customer service – it was truly par excellence.
But, that’s not what made this trip classically interesting.
As it happened, I forgot something in the dining room (as I am prone to do) so I headed back to the “lift.” As I stepped into the elevator, who’s standing there in the corner? Kevin Costner. Yes – of all actors, I get Kevin Costner.
So, imagine this – no entourage, just me and Kevin riding the elevator up @ Radisson Blu. It went a little like this:
So… what brings you to Cologne, Kevin? (<— I’m on a first name basis with everyone)
Oh – I’m touring with my band, “Modern West.”
I didn’t know you had a band??
Yea, we’ve been doing this a few years now. We do classic American rock and country.
Cool. (Country?)
We’re playing tonight, you should come out and see us – we’re dow-(<zoned out @”country”> …Geez, why Kevin? It could have been Elizabeth Banks – she’s smart, funny… or who’s that chick from Underworld again? She’d be good, why not her? I wonder what we’re eating for dinner tonight… – Kate! Kate Beckinsale. Bragging rights for sure… But Kevin? OMG – is he still talking about his band? Let’s talk about why you can’t do a British accent…)
We continued chatting a bit (which honestly was quite enjoyable) trying to figure out where the place was – he didn’t know (“my people plan that stuff”).
“Hello there…”
But the real entertainment started when he missed pressing the button for his floor. He got pissed, dropping F bombs every 3rd word. Finally! Language I can understand!!
Yes, it was a right fine time hangin’ with Mr. Brooks the cosofracter (country soft rock actor). He’s a guy like the rest of us. He’s just famous. And rich.
What does this have to do with marketing? Ok, ok – hold on – I’m getting there!
Ok, I’m there.
The Importance of Self-Promotion
Before now, did you know Kevin Costner – one of the most famous actors on the planet – had his own country style soft rock band?No. Only the most avid Costner fans would know this. It is not promoted.
It’s not marketed.
Promotion is important for success anywhere – even more so on the web. You can’t just publish pretty bits and bytes on the webisphere and expect people to know you exist, much less get the leads coming in. Nay friends. Naaaaay. It’s a sea of over 300 million sites and billions of pages out there.
Here’s a mind blowing number for you, search “web design.”
631,000,000 hits. <— that’s million. All 631 of them.
How do I get search traffic to *MY* site?
This is the magic of web marketing. If you only have a website, and no budget to feed it with leads, you’ll soon be up nights wondering: “Why isn’t anyone calling me? Where are my orders? How do I get search traffic to *MY* site???”
Au contraire, “Field of Dreams”
We built it, but they aren’t coming!
Unless you have an established site, a well known brand, or a solid business network, your site will not see life for years – perhaps never (and that would be sad!)
Ask yourself: “What is my marketing budget? Do I spend that on radio? TV? print? the web?” This is a serious question: how are you going to get the word out there?
Today, the web offers you so many ways to interact with users on a personal and measurable level. I’m amazed businesses still spend so much money in other media. Channels like the obvious (Google AdWords), to the coming (LinkedIn) and to the extremely personal and tweakable (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) are all ways you can better reach an audience with an ongoing and measurable result. You can clearly calculate the precise cost per click or impression. You can calculate ROI. All other media outlets are grey areas and some are dubious at best. And worse? They cost much more.
Naivety Goes For Broke
It is clear that building a site, a great site – no matter if it costs you $2500 or $250,000 – doesn’t matter. If you have no one coming to visit you, you have no business online. You just threw that money into a vast web vortex of bankrupt ideas. And it’s cold and dark in there.
However, if you have a plan, and if you execute it properly, and measure it precisely – they will find you. And once they do, your investment in a solid site will pay off.
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