DON'T BE LEFT BEHIND
MAKE SURE YOUR BUSINESS HAS A WEB PAGE
Information is the key to success in today’s business age. There once was a time when you just had to say sort of what your business did and it was enough. Today consumers want information, they want to know what they are buying, when and where. The internet has a lot to do with that. Information is available at anyone’s fingertips 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Consumers now want to know more about what they are buying and be assured you can offer them the best product or service.
If you don't your competition will and they will have your customers. Today more and more consumers are checking out the internet before they buy anything. If you don't have a web page you could be losing business faster than you realize. Having a professionally created web page gives your potential customers information on what you do, what products or services you offer. They can decide right from their homes exactly what they want and whether your service or product is right for them, before they even pick up the phone and call you.
Before the internet potential customers had to pick your number out of the phone book and call you to find out what you did, what services you offered or what products you had. You had to spend time talking to each one of them, or employing a staff member to do that for you. If you are a service company they might have to leave a message and when you returned from a hard days work you had a stack of calls to make, more time out of your day.
Most of those potential customers evaporated anyway, you did not have what they wanted, or for some other reason so you spent all that time for no reward.
Now you can cut a lot of that time down.
Put all the information that you would have said over the telephone on your web page. Those customers can go out and read all about your services, products and useful information that you offer them and THEN they will call you. Now you will only get the ones who are interested, they already know what you do, now they either want to find out when you can do this for them or order your product. Not every customer will check your web site first but a lot will, and that number will be growing every day.
If all your web page will do (or does) is give your name, phone number and possibly your address - what we call a ‘We are here’ Page, forget it. It's going to do you more harm than good.
There is nothing more annoying to a web surfer than a “we are here” ego page. They waste valuable time looking for your page, waiting for it to download and what to do they get for their time? Nothing!!! Boy do they hate that! If you want to have a web page give it substance!
If you want a web page that is going to attract visitors to your site make sure you give them value for their time. A web page must have substance, tell them what you do, and why you do it, give them tips and explain your service or products. If you are not sure how to go about creating a web page that has substance read our Understanding web design for a more in depth look. If you still need help we offer design counseling where we will discuss your business with you and help you decide what information you need. Please contact us for more information on this service.
Creating a good web page takes time, experience and knowledge. Unless you have the time to spend learning all the tools and programming languages necessary it's unlikely that you can make a really good job of it. If you are running a business it's more likely that you would prefer to spend this time doing what you know best, or spending it with your family and friends.
Getting your teenager or the one from next door to do the job is not a good idea either. They might know “computers” but computers is a huge huge field so just because they play with the thing all day does not mean they can create a good website. Besides unless it's their business they probably won't have the necessary tools to create a good page. Teenagers like a lot of folks like to do the fun stuff but don't often pay attention to the behind the scenes details that make up a good web page. Also they don't have the experience to understand your business needs to design the site correctly as a business rather than as a fun ‘We are here” page.
Your friend next door who’s job is computers won't have the experience or know how either unless web pages is what they do for a living. Most computer people have no real idea how to go about designing a page professionally. It's like meeting someone who says he is a doctor, so you start in about your back problem, their eyes glaze over and they interrupt you to say that they are a gynecologist and know nothing about back problems. Same thing. Make sure you have the right person for the job.
Still not sure. See Why have a professional design and create your web page.
Sure you can create your own web page, but will you make a good job of it? Creating a good web page is not like creating a classified add for a news paper, or even a display add for that matter. Almost anyone can do that if they put their mind to it.
However, even then unless your ad is all text you will need someone to do the artwork for you. Sure there is clip art for newspapers and there is clip art for the internet too but a web page is much more than a display advertisement and if you are treating it like one you could be in big trouble down the road.
Your business is important to you, you want it to appear at it's best, you also want to impress your potential customers so that they will buy from you and come back for more. Today the internet is the way to display information about your business, but web visitors are much more discerning and more critical of what they see. If you don't have a good well presented web page it could hurt your business and drive those customers to someone who does have a good web site, and that's your competitor.
A good web page is not just a bunch of text thrown on a screen with a few unrelated pictures; it needs to be a carefully designed entity. Something that visitors feel comfortable with, that looks good and gives them the feeling that this company is serious about what it does and how it presents itself.
There are quite a few sites these days that will allow you to create your own business site. “No web experience needed” they crow, just put in your text and the machine does the rest. Sure it does!
We have checked out almost every tool out there that “creates web pages from your text” - “looks just like your original document”. (Hey we don't want to have to code up your text either!). After evaluating every single one of them there is one conclusion. NONE of them will create the document that looks just as you want it to, some are closer than others - and some you wonder just what they think they are doing - but in every case to make it look just as you want it to it has to be done manually. It's a pain, but it's true.
We have looked at a lot of pages that have been created using these services and they are BAD! It shows that they are hammy do it yourself pages. Is that the way you want your business represented to the world?
If you really think you can do it yourself, first go out and look at some of the pages that have been created by others that way.
Ask yourself
- Is this a good web page?
- Does it appeal to me?
- Does it give me the information I feel I need to order this product or service?
- Does it give me that ‘warm fuzzy feeling” about this company?
- Do I like this page?
If the answer to any of these questions is NO then maybe you should reconsider your web page strategy.
As a business owner do you do everything that is related to your business? Do you cut the lawn on your business property, do you repaint the building or the interior when it needs doing? Do you redo the roof? Do you print up your own brochures/forms stationary? Unless your business is one of these specialties the answer is most likely NO. You have more than enough work running your own business without adding other chores to your list. Do it right use a professional.
Ask yourself a few questions
- Do I advertise my business?
- Do I want to grow my business?
- What am I doing to grow my business?
If you don't advertise and you don't have an advertising budget then it's unlikely that your business will grow in leaps and bounds. If that is the case having a web page won't appeal to you in the first place and you probably won't be reading this anyway.
If you do advertise consider how much it costs you.
If you buy just a small advertisement in a local paper it's likely to cost you at least $200.00 for an insertion. That's just one issue, then it's gone, or maybe at the bottom of the guinea pig cage.
With a web page you pay a tiny fraction of that FOR A WHOLE MONTH! (for an unchanging page, which would be the same as a newspaper ad).
You have a one time only creation fee and then a small fee every month. For that you get a HUGE advertisement that is available 7 days a week 24 hours a day to anyone in the WORLD! WOW!!!
You can say much more than you ever could before.
If you pick a custom design site, the price can add up, after all you are paying a professional to craft a page just for your business. It is probably well worth the money you spend, but the initial outlay can be expensive.
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