![How to Drive Online Footfall to your eCommerce Site [Video]](https://technology.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Sequence-01.00_00_47_20.Still002.jpg "Sequence 01.00_00_47_20.Still002")
If you build it they will come? Not necessarily says website developer Alan O’Meara, who argues that online businesses must use a range of techniques to drive ‘online footfall’ to their digital doors.
‘Get a website up. Tick a box. We’re done – let’s see what happens’. Nothing will happen if you wait and see.
Last week we posted a video with artist Cora Murphy who used Local Enterprise Office Trading Online Vouchers to develop an ecommerce website and transform her business.
Cora’s website was developed by Alan O’Meara of Almedia Design, who was a speaker at the South Cork Local Enterprise Office event to promote the Trading Online Vouchers (TOV) scheme.
“If you open a business today in Cork city, you’ve got footfall”, explains Alan. But for trading online it’s not that simple.
Online you’ve no natural footfall – you have to generate it.
Alan explains that what works best is what comes easiest to the business owner. Driving online engagement requires persistent work, so there’s no point in doing something the client finds difficult, or a chore.
In Cora’s case, Alan explains, he discovered she was a regular poster on Instagram. He used that to feed her site’s blog, and helped her to drive business to her site.
Financial Support and Access to Expertise
The event in Cork was one of a series of regional events being run by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to promote Trading Online Vouchers. The next event is in Kilkenny on 23 May. Trading Online vouchers offer 50% funding, up to €2500, to help SMEs to develop their ecommerce capability.
Find out more about Trading Online Vouchers by contacting your nearest Local Enterprise Office.
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About the Author: Conn Ó Muíneacháin
