Why Online Matters - How Creating Your Online Presence Is Essential

You’ve got an idea, or a product or service. You know what you want to sell, you know what you're doing. But why should you bother with the internet?

The good old days

If you’re as old as I am you remember marketing in the 90’s. You had your choice between the local paper, the regional paper or the Yellow Pages. Reaching a customer meant paying to advertise in one of those places. The good news was that it was pretty simple, the bad news was it cost a lot. However the Internet changed everything, for better and for worse.

Now of course the younger generations don’t even know what a Yellow Pages is. It seems so quaint now, everything is online first (or online-only). You can reach any website in the world whenever you want. So many potential customers who can find your service! But if the Internet is so unbelievably large, how do you get your website in front of your customers?

Direct vs search vs social

There are three basic ways a customer can see your online presence. I say words like ‘online presence’ rather than website as what is important is gaining a customer. So if your actual website traffic is low, but you’re getting calls or enquiries, that’s fine!

Direct

This is the simplest method, but also the least likely for a small business. Direct means someone went to their web browser and typed in www.yourbusiness.com.au and the computer sent them there. It’s least likely for a new business as how will they know where to go? The other way you can get direct traffic is getting a link from another page to yours. This can work through places like professional organisations, or local listings of businesses from your area. Good suppliers may be willing to list your website as one of their retailers also, this is excellent if you sell products from a major brand that will get far more traffic than you can get on your own.

Search

Search engines travel and ‘index’ the web constantly, so that you can look anything up and it will deliver the most relevant result. How search works and what works best for your business is a topic for another time, but it’s where the bulk of your traffic will likely come from.

General search would be something like ‘plumber’ or ‘plumber in Kilsyth’. This should return whichever results (plus ads) a search engine like Google thinks are best for this area. Specific search would be more like ‘Toms Plumbing Kilsyth’ where they are looking for your brand already. That’s good if someone is recommended to your business and knows the name but not the address.

It’s the job of a well-made website to pop up first for the specific search, and rank as highly as possible for the general search.

Social

Social is the newest type of online presence (though it’s already over 15 years old at this point). Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow and love having business content on them. The good thing about social media is people are already on there all the time, going where the people are is always a good strategy. The bad thing is that they aren’t there necessarily to look for a plumber.

Building a good social media strategy for a business is about being engaging and making good content. This is a lot harder than it sounds for a lot of businesses (building social content for a bookkeeping business isn’t easy, trust me!). Importantly for our topic, social media can drive traffic to your website where you can capture a customer and build a relationship.

“I can’t be bothered with all that nonsense”

If you have a local, small business that only needs to reach people in your immediate area, it can be tempting to not bother investing in a website. After all, you are doing fine right now with the customer base you have and most of your new customer acquisition is word of mouth anyway.

I hear these sorts of things every day. But the Internet defines our lives and our businesses in a way that wasn’t possible 20 years ago. The pace will only accelerate, and if you want your business to succeed it must have an online presence. This doesn’t have to be expensive or complex but it needs to be there. Just as a carpenter needs a hammer, or an accountant needs a calculator. Building out an effective online presence takes work. But it’s worth the hassle because the returns can be huge.

Need help with your online presence? Get in touch today and we’d be happy to help.

This information is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.