Stop focusing on your web site – talk to people!

Every day, web site owners ask me how they can get more business online. Often they are shocked when I say that the most important thing to do is to concentrate their activities offline. The main reason I give is that around 60% of people visit a web site having been told the address by someone else, read it in a magazine, saw it on TV and so on. However, today I have a new reason. The Keller Fay Group, which specialises in Word of Mouth Marketing, has just completed research which shows that face to face meetings are more effective in marketing terms than email campaigns. That won’t be news to Phil Calvert, a UK author and speaker who specialises in “live marketing“. For some time now he’s been banging the drum for people to get out of their offices and do their marketing face to face. The research from The Keller Fay Group shows that face to face word of mouth marketing is significantly greater than email, which is tiny in comparison. So what does this mean for Internet marketers? It means that to sell your ebooks, software, services etc., you need to get “out there” and start talking to people. Stop wasting your time on search engine positioning, tweaking your web site and so on. Yes, have a good, functional web site – but also have a strategy to speak in public more often, to go to meetings and exhibitions more frequently and to attend business networking events. That will lead to more online sales than sitting in front of your PC.