Was consulting for a group of new small business owners yestaday and one of them patch a paper to me asking these question;
QUESTION: I recently launch a website for my cosmetics goods business. Do I need to do anything special to attract customers to my website? I know nothing about search engine and marketing as such. Please tell me where to begin...
NOTE: am gonna be taking it bit by bit because statistics have shown that people loose interest when a post is lengthy.
ANSWER: that is a question that has been asked by every business person have met who have ever launched a website. If I built it, will they come? Of course they will if you built a website that appeal to cosmetics lovers.
For those of you who didn't get the "field of dreams"reference. Let me put it this way: No, if you build it they will not come at least not without some effort on your part.
Assuming that a website will automatically attract customers is the single biggest mistake that many business owners make. It is the mistake that eventually leads to them to dismiss their website as a failure and abandon their online sales efforts.
I cnt tell you how many times I av heard a client say, "well, I threw up a website, but nobody ever came to it and I didn't sell a single thing from it! Dang thing was a waste of time, if you ask me..."
Forgive me, but"threw up" is the operative term there. These short-sighted entrepreneur mistakenly think that all they have to do is throw up a website and that their business will automatically double overnight. And when nothing happens they blame it on the infallibility of the internet, on customers... Everythng but their own lack of marketing efforts.
If yuo built, will they come? That depend totallay on you
To be continued......
In my next post I will be talking abt
: the marketing plan,locality of your customer, registering with search engines,exchanging links with similar sites,going to where the customers are......

Continuation.....
When it comes to attracting customers, opening an online business(or an online branch of an existing business) is no different from opening a traditional brick and mortal shop. Without a little fanfare and a well-devised marketing plan,chances are your website will become just another spot of road kill on information superhighway.
The 1st step in devisin your marketing plan is to ask yourself tthis question: who is my customer? Who is it that I want to aTtract to my website? Believe it or not, this is a question many entrepreneur fail to ask. The identity of your customer is incredibly important because if you don't know who your customer is, how can you expect to market to them?
The next question concern the locality of your customer. Do you want to attract a local or global clientele to your website?if The answer is local, then you will gear your marketing efforts toward customers in your own backyard, which means incorporating your website launch with your offline marketing efforts.
If the website is the online branch of brick and mortar business,include the website URL in all your print materials and advertising campaigns. Consider running ads in the local paper, on radio or TV announcing the launch of your website. Use direct mail or in store posters to announce the site launch to your existing customers base. In short, keep doing what you're doing to attract customers to your physical store, just add your website address to the mix.
Just remember, its important to consider your website a branch of your brick and mortar business because that's exactly what it is.a good business website will help you sell more products, widen your range of clientele, and increase your revenue without adding overhead. Don't sell your webite short. Make it work for you.
If you are seeking global audience, your marketing efforts will be quite different. Attracting customers from around the world is a more difficult task than attracting customers from around the block. Fortunately, the task is not impossible.the internet had leveled the playing field in many ways. Now every business, no matter how large or small has the ability to do business internationally.
In the most basic sense, an online marketing campaign to attract global customers should include the following efforts.
1.Register with search engines
Ther's not enough room in the newspaper for a through discussion of search engines and their effectiveness(or lack thereof) in driving traffic to a website. Suffice it to say that 55% of search engine traffic comes from google and yahoo, so start there.it's also important to realize that just registering with search engine does not guarantee you traffic,but it certainly can't hurt.
Unfortunately, the frEe search engine lunch ran out a couple of years ago when search engines figured out that people would actually pay for listings and higher placement. Since that time the only way to guarantee a high(or at least higher than others) ranking is to pay for it. The two most popular pay-for-placement programs are Yahoo's "Yahoo express" and Google's"Adwords."Visit their irrespective websites for details on these programs. Be prepared to spend some money at least to get your site listed.
2. Exchange links with similar sites
One free and potentially effective way to drive customers to your website is through link exchanges with site of similar interest. Locate sites that make a good match to your own and contact the owner to ask if they will link to your site in exchange for you linking to theirs.if you sell cosmetics on your website, set up alink exchange with another website that sells cosmetics. You post a link to them and they post a link to you. It's called digital back scratching, if done properly,can Work well to drive traffic your way.
3. Go to where the customers are
If the mountain won't come to mohammed, then mohammed must go to the mountain. One little known way to attract customers to your website is to market your products on a mega site.there are thousands and thousands of people shopping mega site at any given time and each one is potentially your customer, so it's a graet place to drum up business. Your goal is not to make a living selling on mega site, but to the paltform as a marketing tool to drive traffic back to your website. Go to where the customers are, then bring them back home with you.
Let's use perfume as example. Post a few auction on any of your desirable mega site selling it a ridiculously low price so your auction attracts plenty of attention. When customers make a purchase, add them to your Client list and send them an email inviting them to visit your website for more great products.
We have just scratched the surface! But hopefully this is enough to get you started. I wish I could tell you that attracting customers to your site is easy, but the truth is, it's anything but.it takes hard work, creativity and above all perseveran