Debunking The "Build It And They Will Come" Myth For Websites, and Is Content Really King?
posted Jul 30, 2008 at 12:35:32 AM by Doug Gibson.
One thing that's slowly been beaten into me from recent reading (books and blogs) is the importance of marketing.
As a developer, I've had bad experiences with marketing and sales people. They have been the ones who make promises, whether related to features or delivery deadlines, that the developer has to deliver. Often, they don't even have a clue about the technical aspects of a project and are often talking out of their ass. Not to mention these people just seem to talk too much for an introverted developer's (such as myself) taste. So perhaps I ignored those skills and marketing and sales as a whole for some time as a result.
But as a freelancer or web entreprenuer, there's really no choice but to learn how to market - market yourself, your services, your products, your web properties, etc.
The Fallacy of "Build It And They Will Come"
I've had the chance to get on my soap box a number of times lately to debunk the myth of "build it and they will come." Unfortunately the mantra "Content is King" seems to propagate this myth to some effect.
"Build It And They Will Come" is a developer's (and entreprenuer's) dream, but sadly it is not reality. With millions of sites and URLs on the web, people have to be able to find you and your product. Build it and no one comes. Market it and they will come.
If Content Is King, He's Nothing Without His Heralds
My reading has ranged from books and blogs on freelancing to Aaron Wall's SEO Book, to the Teaching Sells program, and I've realized that marketing is important on so many levels. These included advertising, presentation, niche-focus, sales tactics and copyrighting among others.
Thanks to Aaron's SEO Book (a 350 page e-book that has been discontinued in favor of the Teaching Sells model memebership site that he is making bank off of) I've seen SEO in a new light. SEO is a part of SEM, not a separate task. If you've researched your niche and topic, writing blog posts can be a very effective marketing tool. However, uneducated and untargetted blogging will usually yield minimal results, as many a struggling blogger can atest.
But content is only one facet of SEO. Your link building campaign has far greater weight and an exponential effect on the visibility your site may obtain. Link building involves a variety of tasks, including tapping into directories, the blogoshphere (oh, how I hate how that word sounds), social networks/media and other techniques such as linkbait and viral ads and video. Content plays a role in several of these facets as well, however.
Teaching Sells is a program by Brian Clark (also of Copyblogger notoriety) that I got turned on to via my Problogging reading. It focuses on building and making money with membership websites. The exact model may not be for everyone, but almost any site can feasibly have a membership component. I signed up for a $1, 1 week trial, planning to download some stuff and read it, and cancel before the heftier fees kicked in. However, in my trial, I realized not only what a great marketer Brian Clark was, but that he had a wealth of great content on many facets of marketing such as copywriting, pricing, and more. Furthermore, he made it so I couldn't download much of it, thereby sucking me into his membership program at least temporarily. I have to commend him not only on the superb job of marketing the product, but the quality of the materials inside pertaining to marketing such a product - after all the marketing and sales copy/pitch, I was still impressed with the product and it's presentation. (Note, he is relaunching the system under a new, higher pricing structure on August 1, so check it out now if it sounds interesting).
No Marketing Plan Is Still A Marketing Plan
Even if you've chosen not to market your site or product, you have chosen a course of action. Sure it happens sometimes - if a product happens to take off without any outward marketing plan, it will likely be because of word or mouth or social media and/or networking. Mostly likely such a plan was seeded in the first place. But even in the event that it wasn't intended, not nurturing such successful marketing routes is just plain dumb.
Content Is An Essential Part of Marketing
Let's not shortchange content's role though. The word has come up countless times in my talk of marketting up to this point. Content is still a large part of your marketing effort, both in SEO and copy writing. Perhaps its title is well-deserved afterall. Content is essential for getting the attention as well as closing the sale. Content is often the main attraction as well as a key part of the marketing material.
Let's just be realistic and not fool ourselves into thinking that throwing up a bunch of blog posts and products in a store will bring one riches. You still have to build a quality product and/or write quality blog posts, but you need to market them like hell to ever have a chance of reaching the critical mass needed for success.
