 My Customers Are Local, Why Do I Need A Web Site? Local Businesses Local businesses serve clients who live or work physically near the business. Local businesses can be small or large, but the key factors that make them "local" are: that they offer products or services that people need to experience first-hand (like eating in a restaurant), or prefer to try first (like trying on shoes or clothing before purchase), or are impossible to do at any distance (like getting your car fixed). These are things that can't be purchased from somewhere else and shipped to you. In other words, local businesses offer things that can't be supplied over the internet. Consider how these are all local businesses:
You should also realize that there are many products and services that people can get from the internet, but still prefer to buy locally. For example, many people still go to local computer stores, local travel agents, local book stores, local music stores, and local flower shops, even though these are all things you can easily get online and have shipped to you. Do you buy everything you possibly can from the internet, or do you still shop locally? If you are like most people, you still shop locally for most of your day-to-day needs, even those things you could be getting (possibly cheaper) over the internet. Today's Marketplace & The Modern Consumer So, you say, if my business doesn't sell things over the internet, then why do I need a web site? If my customers already come to me in person, what do I need a web site for? Well, several reasons. Recent studies indicate that consumers still frequently turn to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses of all types. But the difference today is that consumers are now looking in the Yellow Pages simply to find the web site addresses of local businesses so they can go and check their web sites. Even whether or not a business has a web site tells the consumer a great deal. A Yellow Pages advertisement can only contain so much information, whereas a web site can have dozens or hundreds of pages, and truly massive amounts of information (plus full-colour photos, video, audio, etc). Today's consumers, perhaps just like you, are very comfortable on the internet, and it is their first resource for finding local businesses just as often as it is for finding generic products and services or other information. 
The single largest segment of today's marketplace is young couples in their 30's with one or more children. These people, and their kids, use the internet for almost everything - from doing school work, chatting with friends, reading the news, online banking, looking for a home to purchase, and much, much more. You probably know this already. It is these people who use the internet daily, and who have come to partially judge a company by it's internet presence - it's web site. If the Yellow Pages turn up 10 companies in one category, and only three of those have web sites, you can be almost guaranteed that today's consumer will check out those three web sites.
Today, these couples in their 30's drive large portions of the economy, and have the most purchasing power in the marketplace. As with all times through history, it is this age group that has more genuine need for products and services than any other, and this will remain true for the next few decades, and will become even more pronounced as their kids grow up and require more products and services themselves. Consider this - today's children have never known a world without the internet. For you to not exist on the internet is like not existing at all! You don't need a web site because the internet is some magical place that you have to be, you need a web site simply because modern consumers use the internet for basically everything, including finding local businesses. If you expect to still be in business in a couple of years, you need a web site now. The Importance Of A Web Site For Your Local Business Local businesses have plenty to gain from a good web site. For one thing, most businesses already have a web site, and you don't want to be the last business without one. Aside from that, a good web site will create an image that makes you look more professional, and should be used to tie all your other advertising together. Start buying smaller ads that send people to your web site to be informed. There are several great marketing advantages to having a local business. One is that you aren't competing with similar businesses around the world. Hair stylists and restaurants don't need to worry about similar businesses on the other side of the planet. Another great thing is that you can save a lot of money on your web site because you don't need any sort of internet commerce. Since your customers come to you in person, you can simply set up a great informational site for just a few hundred dollars, without the need for expensive sales features. (I honestly feel that this is still an insecure and unsafe technology anyway, and that comes from my experience as a computer programmer and systems analyst. But that's just my personal view.) Why Every Local Business Needs A Web Site: - Primarily, people still need a reason to choose your business over other similar businesses. And in today's world, people learn about you from your web site. You're at my web site right now, aren't you? Your customers can view your store (provided you have photos on your site), check your hours, read about your products and services, possibly even watch videos, view a map of your location, read testimonials from your happy customers, and a thousand other things they can't possibly do by staring at a yellow pages ad. Your business has suddenly become a source of information and possibly entertainment, instead of just an advertisement. People can learn about you on their own time, without pressure. - You can save a fortune on advertising costs once you have a web site. After that, all you need to do is advertise the web site itself. You can have the site updated as often as you need, often at little or no cost, and you can just keep running the same ads to get people to your site. And you may be able to start running smaller ads because you won't need to try to cram your whole sales pitch into one little space like before. Your web site could easily pay for itself in a matter of months just from these savings. - You can also save money on postage if you have any type of monthly newsletter or seasonal mailings. You can now post your monthly newsletter right on your web site, and simply inform your customers when the latest issue goes up. Of course if you don't currently have any kind of monthly newsletter or announcement, maybe you could start such a service for your customers, members, prospects, or the general public. - You may accidentally broaden your market to people outside your local area. While most of your business comes from local consumers, there may be nothing preventing you from selling some of your products or services to other people who live elsewhere. You may find new customers without even trying, at no additional cost. You may be surprised by solicitations from prospective customers, distributors, or even new suppliers with better offers. - Remember, not everyone has the Yellow Pages sitting beside them all the time, and many people prefer to sit down at the computer and do a search for what they need in the first place. If your web site doesn't come up in a search, your competitors will likely end up with the business instead of you. How long are you willing to lose all this easy business? - Your customers will have 24/7 access to your site. They no longer have to wait until you are open to find answers to common questions or things that might not fit in your Yellow Pages ad. Consider a young mother with a child screaming of toothache in the middle of the night. She can go online at 2 o'clock in the morning, find out which dentists have emergency services, what time they open, find out which one is closest to their house, print out an online emergency admissions form, and be ready to go first thing in the morning! None of that would be possible without the internet; and the dentists without web sites will be ignored altogether. Do you think this happy mother would then tell her friends about how convenient this was? - This may not be an immediate concern, but... if one day you wish to sell your business, your web site could be a valuable asset, especially if you've been using it for several years and have steady traffic. A new owner may find this very significant. And similarly, they may wonder why you don't have a web site if such is the case. The Internet Is A Fact Of Life So no business, however small or local their customer base, can afford to stay "under the radar" or ignore the fact that the internet is now a central part of our lives. If the internet isn't of particular importance or interest to you personally, don't make the mistake of ignoring the facts of internet usage. The truth is people expect every legitimate business to have at least a simple informational web page or two. The internet is as important now to local commerce as the Yellow Pages used to be. You won't find even the smallest township or serious business without a web site, it is a fact of life you must acknowledge. How seriously do you take your business? How seriously do you take your customers? Are you willing to ignore their internet shopping habits? Are you willing to let people think you don't care about them and don't understand their needs? Are you willing to let your competitors win your customers over with the information, advice, samples, photos, and testimonials they expect 24/7? There is no escaping the fact that every business, no matter how small, needs a web site. |
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