Why not having a website is killing your business.
by Jon Hardwick
If you do not have a website you need to get one and fast. Consumers search the Internet for every service and product imaginable. Not having a web presence is potentially costing you thousands of dollars. In fact, not having a website could potentially mean the difference between thriving and failing.
I am a strong advocate for websites for all businesses. It is just not enough to have your business listed in a directory such as the phonebook. I mean really, who uses a phone book anymore. My Android smart phone has just about replaced my laptop. Think about that for just a moment. With smart phones becoming increasingly more popular and providing consumers (myself included) with the means to search the Internet anytime and anywhere why invest in primitive marketing techniques, I digress.
Without a website you cannot showcase your product or service offering and will lose potential customers to the businesses that have invested the time to design (or have paid someone to design) a website. Let’s take a look at a real world scenario.
Mark just moved into a new city and is looking to find a hair stylist. However, he is very particular about finding a stylist close to his office as he prefers not to travel far on his lunch breaks. Upon conducting a Google search for hair stylist he is provided with 10 results for hair stylists within a one mile radius around his office. Just for the sake of conversation, only two of the 10 stylists have websites. One website has basic contact information and a picture of the outside of their shop. The second stylist’s website looks very professional and gives photo examples of her work and provides testimonies from repeat clients. Mark, impressed by the information on stylist number 2’s website calls and sets up an appointment and stylist 2 gains yet another customer.
So with the above scenario the process Mark used for selecting a hair stylist went like this:
Google Search “Hair Stylist” (Note: Google is smart enough to provide local results based on IP information. )
10 local results appear
8 results have no website and provide just a phone number.
2 results provide website and phone number.
First website Mark clicks is very basic and provides very little information. Yes, the company had a website but provided no information on happy customers, etc.
Second website provided pictures, testimonies, payment information, hours, etc.
Mark reads, likes, calls, and most importantly buys the service. In e-Commerce terms this is know as a conversion.
This process basically represents what all customers are faced with when searching for a product or service online. First, just about every business located in the white pages will have their name and number show up on Google. It appears just as it does in the phone book. A website URL provided with these results invites the potential customer to click and find out more about what your company is offering. Referring back to the scenario above I would like to point out a couple of things. Just having a website for the sake of having a website and throwing together a poorly designed website will represent your company poorly and do nothing for you. In fact, it could hurt you. Next, just a little secret, content is key, you could be the world’s greatest stylist, or have the next snuggie but without examples of your work, product descriptions, testimonies from your customers, pictures of your products/location you’re doing yourself no favors in creating a positive first time impression. A website should be for the most part information. You want your customer to know that he/she has come to the right place and that they will learn something by spending some time on your website. Design is very important as well. If you have no clue about designing a website, leave it to the professionals. Website costs have come down considerably in the last decade. You can search a website like Craigslist and find web designers for hire for less than minimum wage that can design one heck of a website.
Don’t try to cut corners on cost here, think of your website as a digital building. Customers will be spending some time here. If you are building a website primarily for a service business you can do it for less than a tenth the cost of yellow page advertising. The average cost for a ½ page ad for one year in the yellow pages is $17,000 dollars. Wow! Can you believe that? If most people now use the Internet to conduct searches for products and services than why pay for advertising that people use for nothing more than a child’s booster seat.
Step One, do yourself a favor and get a website. If you don’t know how to build a website (it is much harder than it looks), hire a pro. And lastly, keep reading this blog. We’ll get you noticed online in no time. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe.
by Jon Hardwick
If you do not have a website you need to get one and fast. Consumers search the Internet for every service and product imaginable. Not having a web presence is potentially costing you thousands of dollars. In fact, not having a website could potentially mean the difference between thriving and failing.
I am a strong advocate for websites for all businesses. It is just not enough to have your business listed in a directory such as the phonebook. I mean really, who uses a phone book anymore. My Android smart phone has just about replaced my laptop. Think about that for just a moment. With smart phones becoming increasingly more popular and providing consumers (myself included) with the means to search the Internet anytime and anywhere why invest in primitive marketing techniques, I digress.
Without a website you cannot showcase your product or service offering and will lose potential customers to the businesses that have invested the time to design (or have paid someone to design) a website. Let’s take a look at a real world scenario.
Mark just moved into a new city and is looking to find a hair stylist. However, he is very particular about finding a stylist close to his office as he prefers not to travel far on his lunch breaks. Upon conducting a Google search for hair stylist he is provided with 10 results for hair stylists within a one mile radius around his office. Just for the sake of conversation, only two of the 10 stylists have websites. One website has basic contact information and a picture of the outside of their shop. The second stylist’s website looks very professional and gives photo examples of her work and provides testimonies from repeat clients. Mark, impressed by the information on stylist number 2’s website calls and sets up an appointment and stylist 2 gains yet another customer.
So with the above scenario the process Mark used for selecting a hair stylist went like this:
Google Search “Hair Stylist” (Note: Google is smart enough to provide local results based on IP information. )
10 local results appear
8 results have no website and provide just a phone number.
2 results provide website and phone number.
First website Mark clicks is very basic and provides very little information. Yes, the company had a website but provided no information on happy customers, etc.
Second website provided pictures, testimonies, payment information, hours, etc.
Mark reads, likes, calls, and most importantly buys the service. In e-Commerce terms this is know as a conversion.
This process basically represents what all customers are faced with when searching for a product or service online. First, just about every business located in the white pages will have their name and number show up on Google. It appears just as it does in the phone book. A website URL provided with these results invites the potential customer to click and find out more about what your company is offering. Referring back to the scenario above I would like to point out a couple of things. Just having a website for the sake of having a website and throwing together a poorly designed website will represent your company poorly and do nothing for you. In fact, it could hurt you. Next, just a little secret, content is key, you could be the world’s greatest stylist, or have the next snuggie but without examples of your work, product descriptions, testimonies from your customers, pictures of your products/location you’re doing yourself no favors in creating a positive first time impression. A website should be for the most part information. You want your customer to know that he/she has come to the right place and that they will learn something by spending some time on your website. Design is very important as well. If you have no clue about designing a website, leave it to the professionals. Website costs have come down considerably in the last decade. You can search a website like Craigslist and find web designers for hire for less than minimum wage that can design one heck of a website.
Don’t try to cut corners on cost here, think of your website as a digital building. Customers will be spending some time here. If you are building a website primarily for a service business you can do it for less than a tenth the cost of yellow page advertising. The average cost for a ½ page ad for one year in the yellow pages is $17,000 dollars. Wow! Can you believe that? If most people now use the Internet to conduct searches for products and services than why pay for advertising that people use for nothing more than a child’s booster seat.
Step One, do yourself a favor and get a website. If you don’t know how to build a website (it is much harder than it looks), hire a pro. And lastly, keep reading this blog. We’ll get you noticed online in no time. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe.
1 comments:
It,s Very nice and much useful post. Thanks for sharing.
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