Why you should be actively promoting your business online
Many business owners out there may wonder why they should spend money post their company on the web. Why they can’t stick with the tried and true methods that has kept them in business for years, possibly decades.
The tools people use to gather information now, especially about what they may buy has completely changed. A large part of today’s society has been immersed with computers for their entire life, nearly everyone aged under 30 and many in their 30s. On top of this, although older generations didn’t grow up with computers, many have either chosen or have been forced to utilize computers for their day to day lives.
The internet is the fastest, most comprehensive, most effective way to gather information today, older forms of communication still exist and maintain their usefulness, but their popularity is waning. Here’s an example of how the internet has completely obliterated an older method to collect business information.
Google Maps vs. the Yellow Pages
Yellow pages are being replaced because they lack interactivity with the information searcher, it is quicker to google maps a company listing on the web than find it in the yellow pages, but not only that, when you use google maps to find a company listing much more is presented:
- All of a store’s locations in your area
- Their exact geographic location on a n easy to read map
- The address, telephone number
- The company logo
- Customer reviews along with testimonials
- Easy to use directions from wherever you want
- A link to the company’s website, the usefulness of this aspect varies considerably based on the amount of time the company has devoted to creating a strong online presence for themselves, and could lead to a much better promotion for the company.
This is all accomplished by typing in a simple phrase into Google Maps, maybe just the company’s name followed by the desired city, and in about 1 second, a ton of useful information pops up for the searcher. Best of all, if the searcher has second thoughts about what he/she is looking for, all that’s needed is a new phrase.
Another advantage is how vague you can be about what you are searching for. You can narrow down your search by practically any category if you don’t quite remember the exact name, maybe you don’t know the exact name of the place you are looking for. Well you could search by category, you could turn on picture viewer which could reveal the countless photos and videos that have been linked to your city in order to jog your memory, last but not least, if the street of the business is known, using Google Streetview, you can walk down the virtual street through your computer and see the storefront, no legwork required.
In comparison, the Yellow Pages is a big book with listings of your city’s businesses, including the company’s name, address and telephone number. If you are lucky, the yellow pages will narrow down the listings by category and company name, but to flip through this takes quite a bit of time. Companies with high marketing budgets are willing to buy more real estate in the yellow pages by spending hundreds, or thousands of dollars per year to get a black and white (or black and yellow) ad, and unless serious dollars are spent, the ad is generally quite small in size. These funds would have been much better used on designing a website.
To reiterate my point, I will provide some examples of what a website can do for your business that a Yellow Pages listing could never do. A webpage can be viewed globally, a current estimate of the amount of people online is 1 billion, this can increase your market reach substantially. A website can contain as much or as little information as is desired and can be organized quite easily. The quality of appearance of a website is only limited by the quality of the web designer, and there are better tools for designers being developed every day. A website can execute all the necessary steps involved in a sale: from getting the customer into the “store”, showcasing the products, convincing the customer why he/she should buy the product, and closing the deal by carrying out the transaction. Last but not least, a website is so common with today’s businesses, where it is a way to legitimize your company by putting it online; a business’ status may struggle to escape a “mom and pop store” existence without its very own online presence.
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I also believe that Yellow Pages is reaching the end of the line. We actually hit the streets of Melbourne and ask other people on where they go if they need to find information.
Well, most of the time they go to Google and that almost slammed Yellow Pages as their option. As most people rely on quickest way to get what they need, flipping those pages of the big Yellow book is not working (that much) anymore.
Cheers,
Dave