If You Build It, Will They Come?
Part I
Deanna Brown Aho
If you answered, “Yes, they will come,” do you know who they are? How successful would the Iowa farmer who built a baseball diamond in his cornfield have been if he had attracted only hockey players? He would have had players, but they wouldn’t have been the right players; they wouldn’t be the players he needed for his field of dreams to be realized.
Understanding who you want to attract and where to find them will be just as important for you if you want realize the goals you’ve set forth for your website. This is not to suggest that you drive across the country and hand pick each member of your audience, or take direction from voices you [might] hear in your head, but getting your site in front of the people you’re targeting is crucial.
WHO ARE THEY? If you’ve already built your website, you’ve been through the process of defining and prioritizing your target audience. In addition, you’ve gained an understanding of their demographics, habits, culture, etc. Your choices for content, presentation, etc. have all been informed by this knowledge. If you haven’t done this, you should.
WHERE DO I FIND THEM? Actually, you want to be where they can find you. Which magazines are they reading? What sources do they trust? For example, if you want to attract new students to your undergraduate program, you have to be waiting where high school students, possible transfer students, and their parents go to get information about undergraduate studies. This could include the obvious high school guidance counselor, other colleges, etc., but it would be wise to think beyond the traditional places from which to recruit. Potential students often decide on a career and then seek options for education or training. Have a presence at vocational and technical schools or at events that might attract members of your target audience.
Getting out there and talking to people is always an effective way to let people know you’re there and what makes your program special. This article isn’t about that kind of marketing, though. We’re here to talk about a newer, more prolific marketing venue – the Internet.
HEAR THIS: If you make it a chore to find you, you won’t be found. Like more traditional marketing, you have to position yourself where your audience can find you. On the Internet, that boils down to being found by searching. Here are some facts:
- 85% of all web surfing starts at a search engine.
- Searching is the 2nd most common Internet activity.1
- Every day, 38 million Americans use a search engine.1
- There are 4 billion searches conducted in the US each month.1
We’ve all seen search engines results. The results that are displayed come from two sources. ORGANIC RESULTS are the search results returned by a search engine, based on its index. These are normally presented in order of their relevancy or page rank, in relation to the keywords submitted. PAID RESULTS looks just like the organic results, but they are actually advertisements. They typically appear at the top of the page and in a column to the right, under a heading “Sponsored Links.” 2 Here is an example.
Here are some facts:
- People trust search engines as sources of quality and unbiased information.1
- 100% of searchers look at the top 3 results.3
- Of organic clicks, 28% click on the #1 result.3
- 90% of searchers look at the top 2 ads.3
- Of paid clicks, 51% click on the #1 ad.3
- 62% of people can’t distinguish between organic and paid results. (This number hasn’t changed in 2 years.)
In Parts II and III of this article, I’ll tell you how to make the search engines work for you by using strategies including search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM).
- Pew Internet & American Life Project (January 2005)
- Search Engine Marketing: The Key to Increased Web Property Traffic, Karissa Sparks, Bridgeline Software (April 2005)
- Enquiro.com (February 2005)
