Ten years ago, many business owners
debated whether they should invest their marketing dollars into creating
a website, because they weren’t sure a website was worth the
investment. Today, consumers spend billions online, and your business
or organization’s position on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing
has never been more important.
Websites in 2012 do so much more than just describe your organization and what you do. They allow you to:
Websites in 2012 do so much more than just describe your organization and what you do. They allow you to:
1) Have an ongoing conversation with your customers and employees.
2) Sell your products and services.
3) And they help you stay on your customers’ minds.
Companies like Proctor & Gamble,
Target and Wells Fargo have heavily invested in using their website for
these purposes, and they’ve seen significant success from it.
Having a professional business website
enables you to communicate with your customers, prospects and employees
24/7, when it’s convenient for them. You can also use your website to
survey your customer’s on their experience with your organization, to
improve your work and processes. And maybe the most compelling reason to
have a smart, compelling business website is to create an additional
distribution channel to sell your products and services online.
Bestbuy.com is one good example.
Today businesses that have delayed
creating a website (or investing properly into one) are playing
catch-up. That may sound discouraging or daunting, but there’s never
been a better time to begin developing your web presence, because right
now, today, we are in the middle of a huge, fundamental transition in
the way people experience the Internet.
That is because today Smartphones are
outselling computers. And it’s not a slowing trend; this may be the most
important statistic you will read today: By 2015, more people will
access the Internet with mobile phones than personal computers;
according to recent Morgan Stanley research:
Forward-thinking
companies are creating mobile websites for the new world of highly
mobilized consumers. Different businesses use mobile websites for
different purposes. For example, pharmaceutical company CVS allows
customers to order and pay for medicines on their Smartphones, and
restaurants are using text messaging and email marketing on customers’
cell phones to gain an edge over their competition.
Businesses that have not set up a
website and/or a mobile website for their business will likely face
challenges in the next couple years, challenges that have likely begun
already.
I don’t want to knock Yellow Book on this one but new clients often ask me: “What do you think about the value of Yellow Book ads nowadays?”
What do you think I tell them? I think they often already know the
answer to that question, because they decided to relocate their
promotion dollars from Yellow Book ad into setting up a business
website, which they have full control of.
In the last decade, the Internet has
revolutionized the way people interact and make decisions on how and
what to buy. Successful business owners adapt quickly to changes while
positioning their business professionally to their target customers
before their competition does.
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