We all love the net. That's how we got to this place. However when considering online vs traditional marketing, it's more a question of what media your prospective customers are using than the benefits of one technology or media. Ask them. What media do they spend the most time with? Web, local newspapers, radio, TV, particular magazines etc.
Certainly the net can be very cost-effective, but equally one can spend a lot of time marketing products or services online, for very little return. You may not have spent a lot of cash, but wasted many days, weeks or months with few sales. I would estimate that over 90% of new home business ecommerce ventures fail. Just because you build it, traffic doesn't follow, even when you have all th right keywords etc. The only winners are the SEO experts and/or ecommerce website providers that scammed you out of money for their service or ebook.
However, assuming your target market has ready access to the net and it's their favorite tool to find out stuff and where to buy things, how do you get people to your website or ecommerce digital storefront?
Just relying upon Google generic search or even adwords brings mixed results. Success here is difficult. A few success and those are the ones we hear about. The 99% that don't are lost and forgotten, afraid to admit their venture failed.
Firstly, accept that even the net is changing. It's not just traffic we want but conversions. i.e. Of those that come to your site, what percentage actually buy? Traditionally, it's under 1%, very similar to the old direct mail figures. what's wrong with your site design, structure or offer that can't retain visitors? The value of a good copywriter cannot be underestimated. Generally, it's the words, not graphics that make the biggest impact, drawing people in. You need a good story to tell.
Also, in terms of gaining traffic, how well optimized is your site both from an SEO and a social media perspective? If your target market is the younger generation using Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, rss feeds, facebook etc etc) how well does your website fit? A good quick check can be found by using
www.websitegrader.com
Lastly, if your market is local and not national, then the value of using offline marketing like direct mail postcards, letterbox flyers, networking events, etc cannot be underestimated. Sure it's relatively costly, but in terms of initially getting people to your website it's very very effective. Conversions rates can be high, especially when the mailer is personalised, not generic and some of the emerging cross-media purl marketing initiatives are amazing. This high response rate more than covers the higher costs involved in going 'traditional'. David Frey of marketingbestpractices.com has some really good background material here.
However perhaps the best thing you can immediately do is make sure that when they arrive at your website you've a strategy in place for capturing their email address and even a phone number e.g. an attractive 'offer' or competition with a method to subscribe online. After than, all follow up and ongoing communication can be via email or telephone. Sales is seldom a one-hit affair. You need to start a communication with customers before they'll buy. as in traditional selling, it generally takes 5-8 'touchpoints' before they pass over their credit card numbers.
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