A business man without a face has no mouth to tell you who he is, how to reach him, what times he is available, what services or products he has to offer. His lack of any features and inability to communicate mean that it will be hard to get know him or decide whether you can trust him.
A business in the 21st century without an Internet presence is like that man. How will they know what you can do unless you have the ability to tell them? How will they know what you are like unless you can show them? How will they be able to find you unless you are able to direct them?
Big display ad in the Yellow Pages? Forget about it! Most people won’t cross the room to find the big yellow book in order to search through the arcane categories only to fail to find what they are looking for.
You’re phone number is in the White Pages, right? Surely, your customers can find you there. They can but they won’t! A majority of people now use a Search Engine to find the phone number of the the business that they already do business with, not a phone book!
In fact, half to two-thirds of the searchers who come to a business web site put the name of the business in some form or other into a Search Engine. They didn’t write down the number the last time they called it. They didn’t program it into their phone. Why bother with that when they can find a phone number in a few moments by searching the Internet for it ?
Of course, that assumes that when an existing customer or prospective customer comes looking for you by your name that you have a web site so it can show up and tell them what they want to know. They wanted something, your phone number, your hours, your location, details on your products or services but they didn’t get it! Not from you, anyway. So, if you don’t have a web site, and somebody want to get in touch with you but can’t, what will they do? Maybe they will find it somewhere else. In any event, you already have a strike against you. You’re still operating your business in the last century while most of your customers are living in this one. Think about it. Only a customer with perseverance will succeed in finding you when you’re operating in Internet stealth mode by not having a web site!
You, yourself, probably use Search Engines frequently to get information about businesses that provide products or services that you need. Everybody does…but if you have no web site to tell your story, they won’t find you!
The absence of a web presence in the Internet age is devastating. People are searching on the Internet for exactly what you do! How much are you spending to find new customers? What are you doing to help them find you? So, if you don’t have a web site, you need to get one! Any web site is better than none. Even a crummy web site will allow your existing customer’s to stay in touch with you but why stop there? It’s not very hard to have a good web site that will be found by prospective customers. We’ll be talking about that in a subsequent post.
Bottom line: If you’re like a man without a face, your competitor’s may be attracting your customers away from you and also getting the new customers that you should be getting. It’s time that you start planning to find your voice, tell your story, let them know who you are and why they should give their business to you. Stay tuned. Help is here!
{ 6 comments }
Oh so true. Your article is right spot on. In my business I often hear the common refrain of not enough time or money for the excuses of not having a website…all hogwash in my opinion.
Get a website and then start marketing your business using this service or others. You can actually get websites free now. So there is no excuse.
Great article. Please add more soon.
Jae
I concur. In relation to what you wrote, I also see is a polarization between old time selling and web based.
This does not happen too often but I have a client who does not use a computer but wants a good web site. Yes, he pays for the work done but can’t provide me with any input. I have written down all the user based objectives, done my research, worked on content but the client is too busy doing his business the old way.
My conclusion is that educating clients and keeping them abreast is one of our new tasks. Then again, some of them have to read or respond.
Das
Thanks for your article. Love your sense of humour… it is funny how often I hear “I don’t need a website”.
Some common themes I’ve come across in the past three months:
Owners who have been in business for a long time and are doing well without one/have too much business already and couldn’t handle additional customers.
Businesses who supply one product to one company only.
Some older generation folks (no offense meant) that are hesitant to embark on a project that they are not really familiar with or stuck in their ways.
Small businesses, who often respond that it is too much money, or they don’t have time (and yet I’m astounded by how much businesses will pay for some directory listings!).
One business owner told me that most of his clients were older, and none of them use the internet (although he was still going to get a website for the younger clients so kudos to him).
As you stated above “Only a customer with perseverance will succeed in finding you when you’re operating in Internet stealth mode by not having a web site!” Agreed!
Hey! I happen to work for the Yellow Pages, and I would say that there are still business establishments that opt to advertise in this medium. Yes the internet may have advantages such as the Search Engine Optimization, but nothing beats the specifics.
SEOs may generate a faster results over the internet, but there are a lot of spams, blogs and illegal sites that confuse buyers. And sometimes, these are scam companies.
The Yellow Pages is still a reliable tool since every company listed in it is a credible and legitimate entity backed up with documents and permits.
Just airing my opinion and endorsing our product as well.
Every business must have a website which tells a lot about that business. I think a website can increase the sales of any business by 60-70% if worked well.
So so true of a statement.
I too have a guy that is so fixed on the old way of running him company that he still has not paid for his site which as we discussed originally could really take his businesss online presence to an absolutely phenomenal level.
We all need a website in today’s world, finished cla!
From the florist to the corporate is what I say.
Great feedback guys and great article.
Mike