Only If You Want Cost-Effective Advertising…
According to the Kelsey Group, “70% of US households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services.”
These days, having a website – even a very simple one – is vital for almost any business.
Less expensive than a yellow page ad, your web site can deliver far more information. In fact, your URL (web site address) ought to be in your yellow page ad, and any other print ads, as well.
Having your web address on your business card and advertisements serves as an invitation to find out more about your goods and services.
Here’s some more interesting search data:
- 43% of all searches on the Google network
included a geographic identifier. - 86% of those people followed up with a phone call
- 61% of those people ended up making a purchase offline
- 25% of all commercial Internet Searches are conducted by users looking for Local Merchants (Kelsey)
- 35% of all Searches are “local” (DM News)
- 84% of U.S. based Internet users (that translates to 129 million people) performed local searches, and were looking for a local business.
Having a Web Site Saves Time for Everyone
In these busy times, having an informative web site allows you to pre-sell to potential customers. Before they ever call you or come in to your place of business, they already know they are interested in doing business with you.
Be aware that local search is growing stronger all the time; many people are turning to the Internet to find, say, a local mechanic who specializes in Hondas.
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You may want to explain your services, history, your business philosophy, fee structure, or products.
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You can communicate with your customers (and those potential customers, too) with a regular newsletter or blog.
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You can display your credentials, affiliations, references, and testimonials to pre-qualify yourself as a trusted service provider.
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Your website can be a simple one-page affair with only your most basic information, a complex multi-tiered, on-going project with regularly updated reports, or it can be anything in between.
What matters most is that your web site clearly expresses the focus of your business, and is simple for your readers and customers (existing and potential customers alike) to use.
Effective Marketing
One of the best things about marketing your business on the Internet is that it is so trackable.
It’s almost impossible to know how well your print ads, billboards, yellow page ads, etc are doing in your efforts to get more sales. But you can always position yourself to know how folks are finding you online.
If your ads are effective, you find out quickly, and can model your future efforts on past successes. If on the other hand, you have a flop, you can change that quickly, too.
Rooster Moon Focuses on Small Business
Our primary focus is on helping other small businesses and non-profit organizations to establish an Internet presence by designing and building simple and effective web sites, along with appropriate marketing methods.
If you hire RoosterMoon to build and host your small business web site, we will have a sit-down and talk about your business, your budget, and even your personality and color choices. This is to help zero in on how your site should look and feel, and how it will function.
We will use that information to come up with a plan on how best to present your small business online.
To make the design process go more smoothly, you’ll want to think about what you’d like to present to the public. If you’re not sure, go to your favorite search engine and type in the kind of business you run.
You’re bound to see something you like, and probably some things you absolutely don’t want.
Email me or call me at my home office (830-433-7325) and let’s talk about how the Internet can best help your business!
