Cowboy Diplomacy

It seems to me, the more I look at other people's websites, that a lot of businesses don't seem to "get it". There isn't any trick to making money with a website, there isn't any special formula. All it takes is using traditional, standard business strategies on the internet. That is it. There is nothing complicated here! Use what you already know works, and use it as much as you can!

Sadly, those of us who know and apply this seem to be in a minority.

Of course, that's good news for you, because it translates into a competitive edge. All you really need now is someone familiar with internet technology to help you translate what you already know into a cohesive, and more importantly, effective marketing strategy.

That's where I come in, with my cowboy diplomacy. With all the misconceptions surrounding internet marketing, I'm going to show up and tell you what you need to do. Then I'm going to ask you what you want to do. Then we'll put it all together into a plan and implement that plan. It's as simple as that.

Make Money

Marketing is all about making money, ultimately. So why would you spend the money you already have on Stuff That Doesn't Work? Don't do that!

What does work? Get people to your website when they need you! Not before they need you, and not after they needed you. Get them there at the moment they need you more than they've needed anybody else before.

Then tell them what you do.

It works. It really does.

TODO: Insert here what I actually do

Determining they really do need you

One of the common sayings you may have heard is that with enough money, you can get as many people to see your website as you want. All it takes is money.

That's true.

The problem with that, of course, is that if you don't have any way to target the specific group of people that need you, then you're stuck with whoever you get. Maybe they need a performing juggler today, maybe they don't. In a perfect world, of course, you'd have some way to qualify your visitors before you spent any money at all getting them to visit you.

Voltare may be angry at me for suggesting this, but this is a perfect world.

Ask yourself this: You're planning a birthday party for your son. Your son likes clowns. Where do you go to find a clown that can perform at his birthday party?

If you live in the 21st century, I'm guessing the answer to that is "Google." You'd go over to your handy-dandy web browser, go straight to Google, and search for "clowns", right?

Well, not really. You already know that you're going to get a long list of clowns that includes performers in Europe, circuses, and a wikipedia article telling you who the first clown was.

Localized Marketing

Did you figure out what you'd search for, yet?

Ok, so, say you live in Dallas. You'd check out search results for "dallas clown". More than that, if you live in Dallas, Google is going to detect that using some fancy technology of theirs and they're just going to give you search results that favor clowns in Dallas. And the poor clown who built a website that doesn't say where he's located or where he performs isn't going to appear anywhere in the results.

Of course, he can buy his way into the paid portion of the results...

And so can you.

Experience tells me that you actually need to show up in both places, while simultaneously not showing up for searches for fire-eaters, poi, or tarot readings (unless you also provide those entertainment services).

Personal Touch

And what then? So now you've got all this traffic coming to your website, right? How do you convert them into sales? That is the ultimate goal of your website.

Surprise! It's exactly how you'd do it if they walked in your front door and asked you for help. You would tell them what you do, in as much excrutiating detail as they want until they're satisfied you can help.

To put it another way, your website should grab people by the nose and pull them in because they want to be pulled in. Be their friend, close associate, whatever. Be a real person, not a monolithic corporation, even if your business is a monolithic corporation. Get them there with good spending decisions, and then turn them into customers the same way you've always done it.