“The world will automatically know it exists .”?

Since the Internet emerged as a part of our lives and conversations, the belief has been that once you create a Web site, the world will automatically know it exists and will beat a path to your door to do business with you. The idea is that once you have taken the time and effort to publish a Web site, the job is done and all you have to do is make sure the site is live and wait for the e-mails to come in.

Reality: “Building a web site is just the first step.”
Getting business from your Web site is a lot like getting business from a great brochure. You can have the best brochure in the world, but it isn’t going to bring you any business if it sits in the bottom drawer of your salesperson’s desk. The same is true with your Web site. You can have the greatest Web site in the world, but it will not bring you any business if you do nothing to let your target market know the site exists and encourage them to visit.

You need a strategy to reach your target market online and offline that encourages them to visit your site. Search engine registration is one element, and there are many more. Your strategy could include the following marketing techniques:

-Mail list marketing

-Newsgroup or forum participation

-Electronic press release distribution

-E-zine article submissions

-Cybermall participation

-Listings in meta indexes and industry-specific directories

-Banner advertising

-Links from sites frequented by your target market

It is critically important that you spend as much time planning and implementing the marketing of your site as you did in the planning and development of the site, if not more.