by Patrick Zuluaga, PMZ Marketing [Download Article]
We are likely preoccupying our thoughts with how to continue managing growth for our business.
For many business owners this gives us theopportunity to reflect on how we can get better with our business moving forward.
One area of wonderment is the number of times various research reports state that small businesses are missing out on the use of the Internet to research business requirements and consumer desires with a significant action to purchase online after looking up their options. Researches cite that between 40-50% of small businesses do not have a web business presence.
The lack of a web business presence seriously impairs the potential for growth and lead generation for the business. Yes, some businesses may argue that they are doing well without one and use this to justify this situation. However the question really is how much more your business can be doing with a well performing online web business presence.
Let us explore the 4 most common reasons why businesses justify having no web presence and why failing to act in overcoming these obstacles is much more detrimental to the business.
- Lack of Time – marketing is business development and your online web business presence is your marketing communications channel to your markets in the virtual world of the Internet. All business owners and managers must commit and schedule a number of hours each week for marketing and business development. This commitment must include how your own web presence will generate growth for your business. It is a management priority and any business person that fails to put in marketing time for their business is sabotaging their own success by limiting their business opportunities
- Lack of Funds – a very common view of small businesses. Do you find yourself thinking that you cannot afford to spend money on marketing with a web presence? If you do, then do not be surprise to find out that your business will not be achieving its capacity to grow. Can you afford to let your sales opportunities run out? Absolutely not! The fact is that you simply cannot afford not to invest the resources for your online marketing. There are many alternative solutions to establish a cost effective web presence today for your business today
- Lack of Knowledge – I have seen many a business owner give this as a reason for inaction. It really is an excuse for a lack of accountability and ownership! As a business owner you cannot ignore the Internet and how your potential customers use it. To be successful you need to really understand what and how your online web business presence can do for your business. This is the knowledge that you need to learn and understand well. You need to understand about conversions because conversions are web visitors responding to your ‘call to action’ and flagging to you that they are interested. Ask about conversion rates and how you can achieve the best for your business
- Don’t Need a Website – perhaps the most difficult of the four points. In the first three, the majority of business people will change their mind when the will the potential benefits that can be derived when the overcome the issues they are faced with. This last point is in most cases a position taken to justify why they have not taken any action. It will be entrenched and an emotive position to be defended. If a person has come to believe this to be so it will be extremely difficult to convince. I am not at all saying this is impossible and may be overcome if information is available to compare versus similar competition that could demonstrate irrefutable evidence that their own business can benefit from opening a new online marketing communications channel to their potential customers
If you are a small business in this situation to think about how you can achieve better marketing results for your own business with an online web business presence.
