A few facts to help you realize why it’s so critical for your local business marketing to include attention to your website:
- ¾ of U.S. adults (164M) are internet users
- Over 35% of U.S. consumers spend more than 3 hours online every day
- 46% of daily searches are for products and services
- 20% of monthly Google searches are for local businesses
For a local brick and mortal business, the internet can be a scary place. It’s large, it’s global, and large, global companies spend so much time and resource on their web presence you are left wondering how you can even make a dent with your local business website. Well in the eyes of Google, the undisputed current leader in search engines, you do have one advantage. You are a local business.
Why is being a local business an advantage? According to Google, 20% of monthly searches are for local businesses and so they know that a lot of their search customers are searching for things in their local area. THE most important thing for Google search is that they deliver relevant content and thus Google has made changes that favor local businesses when people are clearly searching locally (using zip codes, cities, etc.). In addition, the explosive growth of mobile devices and applications that allow people to geographically locate businesses has driving further changes.
What all this means is that your website and how it is designed is critical to your business. You need to drive people to your website so they can take whatever action you want them to take – call you, drive to your store or restaurant, etc. Your website is the hub of your online presence, but unlike an ecommerce site, you are not looking for people to buy something so you need a different approach.
Provided below are some business website ideas about how to get the most out of your local business website, but I am also happy to review your website with you and/or your web designer to ensure it is optimized to take the greatest advantage of your local business. Please contact me if you would like a free introductory consultation.
As you think about your local business website and your marketing effort, ask if your website and your local business marketing effort answer these 3 critical questions:
- How do I get in front of potential customers? This is the tactics you use to drive traffic to your site via search engines, mobile marketing, video marketing, promotions, blogging, tweeting, physical flyers, email, etc.
- When visitors arrive at my website, is there a clear call to action? The action will be different for new and returning customers. It should help customers along in the buying cycle by informing new customers or offering a trial product or discount to loyal customers. Internet marketing today is about informing your visitors and building a relationship with them through the use of newsletters, email, and interesting content, so your website should not just be about obvious selling.
- Can I measure the results of the actions that customers took? To know this, you need to know which key performance indicators (KPI) are important to your business such as number of visitors, number of people who took the action, etc. It’s important that you have these KPIs identified and track spending so that you know what your return on investment is. Without this information you can easily waste money or not spend enough money on profitable marketing activities.
If you don’t already have a website, or if it’s time for a tune-up, don’t go into the process without a plan or you may be very disappointed at the results and how long it takes. Make sure you provide your developer the proper input so he or she can deliver what you need and want. Here are some process guidelines to think about:
- Define the objective(s) and target audience for your site. Look at your competitors’ websites and other websites so that you know what you like and don’t like and why.
- Design a basic flowchart for your site that describes where you want your visitors to go and what do you want them to do. Keep in mind you have different categories of people visiting your site: new customers, long time customers, and prospects or people who are not yet your customers. You can design this flow on paper or with a tool. An easy to use, free tool is called FreeMind. It allows you to graphically map out your website pages and outline content/actions for each page.
- Make sure your site is developed using a content management system (CMS) and is based on open standards. A proprietary site developed uniquely for you may look nice, but you can get locked into a single developer and that can get expensive, especially if your developer leaves the business. There are many options available today, just make sure that your site can be easily maintained and preferably that you have access to the CMS to make content changes. Consider including a blog in the design of your site as a blog keeps your site fresh and can provide valuable information to your visitors. See Blogging for Business for helpful information and tips.
Creating the perfect local business website won’t happen overnight, but with these business website ideas as part of your complete local online marketing plan, you will be well on your way to strong Google ranking. After all, if you don’t exist in Google, you may not exist at all to prospects.
Good luck with your local business website development and please contact me if I can be of assistance.