IS A WEBSITE RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
WHY SHOULD MY LOCALLY BASED BUSINESS HAVE A WEBSITE?
According to The Kelsey Group * "70% of U.S. households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services... Findings also suggest the Internet is poised to surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource."
Think about the last time you were searching for information about a product or service, where did you look first? The Yellow Pages or the Internet? Today more consumers are going online to search for information rather than turning to the yellow pages.
In the past there wasn't really a need for businesses with local client bases to have a web site. Now things are changing. Recently there has been a change in the way search engines return the results for searches. Some of the high-ranking search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, are now gearing towards local search results allowing more precise and accurate listings.
The result is that now, as a local business owner, there is a greater chance than ever to get your business listed at the top of the search engines for searches in your local area and for the keywords that you want. That means that the local customers that are looking for what you offer, will now find you! (That is, if you have a web site!)
In addition to the fact that your site will now be found easier on the search engines, there are plenty of additional reasons to have a web site for your local business.
Even if you own a small business (1-20 employees) and most or all of your customers or clients are based locally, you can still benefit. For example:
Get An Edge Over Your Competition
Allow
your customers/clients to learn
more about you at a time that is convenient for them. Your expanded
online business is open 24/7.
Build
relationships with them via e-mail
newsletters, articles and interactive tools on your site.
Gain and Build Credibility
List
testimonials of satisfied clients
or customers to enhance your credibility in the eyes of potential
customers.
Show
reviews of your products or services.
Show
pictures of you, your location,
staff, etc. Show them that you are a real person that they
can trust.
Provide essential background
information
about you and your business.
By
posting articles that you have written,
you help prove to your potential customer/client that you are qualified
to help them solve their problem.
Save Money on Operational/Marketing Costs
Expand your hours without the
additional
operational costs. Your site is open 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
Customers/clients
can learn about you and your business when it is convent for them.
Free
up time answering repeated information
such as hours, directions, rates, FAQ s, etc. List all that
information
on your site and you ll save money on customer service questions.
Save
money on printing costs. Brochures
about your business are expensive and are only good until you need to
change
something, such as hours or product information. Then you have to spend
all that money over again to reprint!
(Not to mention, re-mailing!)
Your
web site is a full color, updateable, expandable, limitless brochure.
You
have the flexibility and the availability to add or update it
instantly;
change content, colors, add a new
picture, etc.
Free
e-mail marketing - Compare that
to direct marketing mailings that can cost you a small fortune. (If
your first mailing doesn't get the response you
were looking for, you have
to
spend all that money again to re-print and
re-mail your direct
marketing
piece.) If your first e-mail newsletter that you send doesn't get the
response
you
like, just make some changes and resend!
Absolutely no additional
costs
involved.
More Convenient For You
Answer client s questions at a time
when
it is convenient for you. No more interrupted phone calls with
questions that are answered on your web site.
Have
you ever been in the middle of a
consuming project or just came up with a great idea, but before you
could write it down the phone rings? You
answer it, spending the next 15-20
minutes
answering questions that could have
easily been answered on your web
site.
You hang up and realize, you can t even remember the great idea that
you
came up with or have lost your momentum working on the project you
started
before the phone rang.
Ok, you ve decided that having a web presence for your business will help increase your profits - What do you do now???
First decide what you want your site to do for you.In other words, what is your Most Wanted Response ?
What
do you want your customers to do when they visit your site?
Some
examples
are:
Learn
more about you/your business.
Call
you to set up an appointment.
Make
a purchase.
Give
you their e-mail address.
Second figure out what information you need to have on your site in order to achieve your Most Wanted Response. Example:
List
information about you and/or your
business.
Show
before and after pictures of your
services.
List
articles related to your product
or service that will help establish credibility with the potential
customer/client.
Post
hours and directions to your location.
You can use any combination of these examples or you may have some of your own you wish to incorporate. Your site can be as little as a 1-2 page brochure site with a newsletter sign-up or as big as a multi-page online catalog listing all of your products or services.
Next
you will need to have someone develop
the site for you.
There are two ways to accomplish this.
You
can do it yourself or
Hire someone
to do it for you.
If you feel confident enough to design the site yourself, go for it. There are great tutorials and information on how to learn to design and build a web site. Just do a search on the top search engines for Do-it-yourself web site tutorials.
Perhaps you would still like to build it yourself, but would like some personal guidance? The second option you could pursue is a Web Site Consulting Program in which a consultant will walk you through the steps to take to build a web site and upload it to the internet.
If you don t have the time or the desire to learn how to do it yourself, you can hire a web designer to do it for you. What ever option you decide, don't wait too long to get started...
A potential customer/client is searching for a business/information using Google or Yahoo. Who s site will they find? Yours or your competitors???
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* The
Kelsey Group is the leading provider
of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on
Yellow
Pages, electronic directories, small-business advertising and local
search.
Beginning in 1986, the company has built a reputation as the leading
analyst
firm covering the directory publishing community, providing advisory
(The
Kelsey Report® and Interactive Local Media), publishing (Global
Yellow
Pages and Local Media Journal ) and consulting (more than 300
individual
assignments).