Building a website doesn’t help. It’s not going to get you business.

There’s danger in believing that because you’ve built a website, you’ve built your business. You haven’t.

Your website makes you findable. It doesn’t cause anyone to go looking for you.

Of course, that is not what the website vendors tell you. They want you to believe that the website is like a money machine. You put in your credit card, and you withdraw cash.

That’s not the way your website works.

The Secret Ingredient to Getting New Clients

You need awareness before you’ll have clients.

You need other people to know you exist.

We talk quite a bit about the idea of becoming “known, liked, and trusted” around here. The website might help you become liked and trusted—if you do it right—but it’s not likely to help you become known.

Being known, having others become aware of your existence, takes something more.

Awareness requires you to get yourself out there in front of people. You’ve got to wave your flag. You’ve got to put that flag right in front of them. You’ve got to wave it hard. They’ve got to see you.

• You can become known through advertising. You can run ads and people will come to know you exist. It’s expensive, of course.
• You can become known through education. You can educate others on your blog or at conferences or seminars. You can teach them things they need to know. You can teach them useful things. It’s time consuming, of course.
• You can become known through social connection. You can meet new people at bar association activities, through your friends and family, or through social media. You can get to know them, and they’ll come to know you. It requires some skill, of course.

In gaining awareness, you’ll need to speak of what you do, and you’ll need to do it with authority. You’ll need to shroud yourself in indicators of knowledge, credibility, and trustworthiness, because, of course, being known isn’t enough. You’ve got to be trusted.

You’ve got to show up in order to gain awareness. You’ve got to show up, get out there, and give to others expecting nothing in return. You can do it via advertising, education, or social connection, but you’ve got to show up. Throwing up a website and hoping for the best isn’t going to make it happen.

We so desperately want to believe the vendors. We so desperately want the website to do the job and be enough. It’s not.

The website makes you findable—that’s it. If someone is looking for you and you’ve paid the vendor for the site, then you’ll be found.

You’ve got to do more.

You need to inspire them to look for you. That’s going to take some time, some money, and some skill. It’s essential. It’s the only way this is going to work. Your website is not enough.