Luke Farley - Ask an Expert

Q: I built a great website, why aren't I winning new business?

A: Build it and they might come...if you are lucky

I often come across the myth that simply having a website will generate new business, I call it “the build it and they will come myth”.

I often come across this one when people are talking to me because their current website “doesn’t work”.

To talk people though this misconception I draw a distinction between sales activity, marketing activity and advertising. It can be visualised using the continuum shown in the below diagram.

Many people consider a website to be an advertising and marketing channel, when in fact they are generally a sales and marketing endeavour.

To illustrate imagine a direct mail campaign. There are two separate parts to this activity, creating the mail (formatting, messages, designing and printing etc) and sending the letter to your target. In the online world the same applies, you must put together the website (with many of the same constituents) and then send out the message.

In the online world proactive methods of getting your message in front of your target include, email marketing, Search Marketing (and advertising) and wider online advertising.

Most small businesses tend to rely on personal networks and referrals for new business. If this is the case for you then having a website is not a genuine new business generator, it is more of a brochure which builds credibility.

Remember for smaller to mid size service oriented companies (including many Mortgage broking business) new business generation may rely more on personal referrals and communication than un-prompted Web searches.

Do not therefore neglect your off line marketing and promotional work. This activity will help to drive your potential customers to your website to find out more about your company, products and services.

An informative professional website will educate (and filter!) your prospective customers. It can also convert a browser into a "warm" lead and encourage them to phone (or complete an online form) to arrange a face to face appointment where they can be “closed”.

Q: Isn't building a website too hard and expensive?

A: Often smaller business owners explain to me that websites are both too expensive and that implementing projects are too difficult

I do have some sympathy for this statement, as long as we add the qualifier: Successful.

It is in fact very easy to implement a bad website; it is just considerably harder to implement a successful one.

The main reason for this is that fledging organisations often lack the content that is required to produce a successful website, including concise marketing messages and differentiators. They also lack a clear idea of their target market.

It is impossible to produce a successful website if these fundamentals are missing.

We have a model for describing this phenomena too, based on the age old project management triangle. In brief, it describes three interrelated variables; success, difficulty and price. You can usually win on two of the variables but not all three, leading to the following scenarios:

 > You can produce a successful website cheaply if you are prepared to do all of the hard work, or

 > You can have a successful website if you pay an expert to do the hard work for you, or

 > You can do no hard work and not pay and land yourself with an unsuccessful site!

Note: technology is cheap! If you have the know-how there are many open packages that you can implement very cost effectively indeed.