Peter Answers: New Coach wonders if she should be using Facebook, Twitter.

The question below was posed verbally to a bunch of us on a conference call, but it is SO COMMON among entrepreneurs looking to leverage the Internet, I decided to repeat my answer here.

Q:
I am a new coach and I am NOT up on all this web and social media stuff. I have a website that needs to be redone, but I don’t do, or know anything, about “pay-per-click”, Facebook, Twitter and all this other nonsense that seems to be the way of the future.  Should I be doing any of this?

Anne, Executive Coach

A:
Thanks for your question and for being so blunt about the “nonsense”! Yes, keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, and
the like can be incredibly time-consuming, if you are not careful.

It is too bad that you did not mention your URL so that I can have a look, but to answer your question, let me start with a little something about the “marketing funnel”. The first three  parts of the Marketing for Real Results funnel are:

(1) Attraction — you have to get a stream of leads to come to you
(2) Engagement — you must have “sticky” content so that they stay and continue to interact with you
(3) Conversion — you must do things to convert them into “Tryers” or “Buyers”

Engagement is particularly important with web pages. Unless you catch people EXACTLY at the moment when they are looking to make a buying decision, then most of them will just surf and leave. Without an “engagement” strategy, you’re HOPING they’ll remember you when they need you. Be prepared to hope an awful lot.

A better strategy is to embrace the fact people need multiple touch points before they buy. Therefore, your site has to be engaging (i.e. contain articles, information, useful and valuable stuff) to entice people to sign-up for something, come back and visit again, etc. Which brings me to my point:

Unless you are confident that your site *engages* your audience and your marketing machine *converts* well, then spending money  on pay-per-click, or investing time in social media is NOT your priority.  What is the point of putting leads into the mouth of the funnel, if the funnel is leaky? Given that you mention your site needs to be re-done, and assuming and assuming you are right when you say it needs it, that pretty much cements it for me — you have a few steps to do first.

Start by figuring out your identity and branding. Then, make a simple site that will scale well as you add more and more content. It doesn’t have to be expensive, about $500-$1000 is about right for a starter website, if you are having it done for you.

If your concern is attracting new clients, then I’d ask you whether you have really leveraged your network to its fullest. I find that most of my clients have not.

Finally, I’d like to ask you something difficult and I wouldn’t be a good coach if I didn’t. Please take the time to reflect on what I am about to say.

Make sure that your desire to have a website or to do pay-per-click etc. is not “hiding” something else. If you catch yourself saying to yourself you need some fantastic site to do business, then ask yourself if that is true, or if it’s just a belief that you have accepted. Likewise, ask yourself if you are looking at pay-per-click or other
“anonymous” strategies as a substitute because of an underlying resistance to more personal strategies.

This is not absurd, but very real. Fear of rejection is a common example. Some clients of mine refuse to do direct sales or ask for referrals for fear of being rejected. Marketing and sales is just as much about the junk between our ears as it is about the strategies. I am not saying any of these scenarios hold true for you, but I’d do the introspection, anyway. Give my office a call if you need help.

Wishing you all the success,
Peter Vogopoulos

Have a marketing question?  Ask me at http://www.AskPeterNow.com