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Do you need a web site?
written by Cliff Bilyea & published in the Sun Times
The answer can range from definitely if you are in the tourism industry to not likely if you operate a corner convenience store. A web site is created to communicate what you offer to your potential customers wherever they may be on the globe. Initially for most web users it served as their on line brochure. However web site development has advanced significantly beyond that point.
The ultimate web site may be www.ebay.com which has over 95million users spending $984 per second. At any given moment ebay is conducting some 19 million auctions divided into more than 45,000 different categories. Now back to the reality of small business.
Gabe Nowak President of www.HAVE1.com says for small business a web site can serve two important functions. “A web site is a marketing extension of your business into the online world. It allows you to reach your customers virtually anywhere in the world on a 24/7 basis. In addition it may become a direct sales agent for you as your customers, like ebay can buy on line.” What he points out is, you must know how your market and your customers think, and your web site helps them find out more about you. If they drive to your neighbourhood convenience store and shop, they have no need for a site. But if you are like Northern Coatings in Dundalk, www.northerncoatingsltd.com who sell a unique specialized industrial coating as Maryann Yates, says “we have no other cost effective way to reach out potential global customers than on the web.”
For Ed Pfeffer, President of Marketing Services International from Sauble Beach a North American the web site positions him in the top ten places to look if you wish to buy a giant chess board. www.pepperwoodmktg.com. How does this happen you say? Mr. Pfeffers responds, “With right product defining details on your main page and connected to the right search engines it can and does happen. And yes it results in sales to cruise ships and southern United States school boards, without a web site that would never happen.” For Bob Nadon of Owen Sound, owner of Upper Canada Stretchers, www.ucsart.com:”Within days of launching the new site customer inquires more that doubled.” His company is a manufacturer of custom made stretcher frames for professional artists.
Another feature of a good web site is the ability to change the site daily if necessary. Paul Neville of the Highland Manor Bed & Breakfast, www.highlandmanor.ca, is pleased with “the remarkable ability to change/add/edit the web site’s content quickly and easily on our own allowing our business to adapt immediately to market changes.” Like Highland Manor, Kim Cohen of Brown and Cohen a public relations firm in Toronto likes the web as it “allows us to include the latest media release on our clients for media to browse.”
A good web site should be considered as part of your marketing strategy in conjunction with all your marketing costs. For instance at E.I .Williams trading in Ajax their enhanced web site featured a user friendly catalogue on line. This saved them about $2,000 per year in courier costs, plus they did not have to print the catalogue.
When you sell a service, you are the product, whether you’re a real estate agent, auto mechanic, bed and breakfast, lawyer, dog walker, and hair stylist…whatever. You’re selling your time with the promise of a particular result as opposed to a tangible product. Your time is limited. Assuming you pause to sleep and eat your time is limited to an 8hr day.(Okay,12-to 16 hours if you love your work as much as I do).A web site can do seven things for you.
1. Establish your creditability;
2. make people aware of your offering;
3. Demonstrate your flexibility;
4. Make it easy for leads to contact you (24/7);
5. Network and get listed in local directories;
6. Encourage referrals and repeat customers;
7. Create a global presence.
Successful business people network. The web uses links for the same purpose. A small four person pet food manufacture, Pets 4 Life through their web site www.pets4life.com, in January alone they had 104,000 hits on their web site with 26% from the United States and 10% for Australia.. Links connect your web site to other sites thus bringing business to you. As Pets 4 Life believes in the power of education and holistic medicine/nutrition they link to pet related directories, animal rescue organizations, and veterinary sites.
A well designed web site, listed with the right search engines, update on a regular basis with good links can make a significant improvement to your business.
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