Most of my clients have a pretty good grip on their business, as well as how and to what extent a website will help their business. However, with the down economy, I do get the occasional client who calls me four days after their website goes live, and says something to the effect of:

“Hi, my website has been live for four days, why am I not having to replace my front door because people are beating it down wanting to buy my product? Why have I not had to install six additional phone lines to accommodate all of my new business from the website? Where are all of my new customers? I thought my new website would solve all of my problems!”

I have gotten a lot of new website jobs from people hoping a website will save their business, or at least keep it afloat until the market turns around, and I have to say, this may not be the best approach for several reasons:

1. It can take months to get your website on top of search engines for keywords related to your product or business, and this is if you have the money to pay for search engine optimization of your website. This service is normally not included in basic website design, and can often cost more than it did to build your website in the first place. In the long run, SEO is usually highly beneficial for any website (especially e-commerce websites), however if you are looking for a website to miraculously save your business in the next few weeks by people searching for it through google… its not going to happen.

2. Check your demographic. If you are selling walkers, canes, and dentures, chances are you are not going to save your failing business by putting your company on the web. The age group of people who would be looking for your services might be way out of  line with the typical age group that goes to the internet to search for local businesses and services. Its possible people aren’t finding your website because they are 90 years old and think a mouse is a small creature who eats cheese.

3. Is your product a luxury or custom item that costs the same as my mortgage? If so, that’s often the first thing people cut out when they are on a budget, even if its a pretty high budget. The fear produced by a down economy keeps people from purchasing products that are high end luxury goods. If someone needs a new quilt in a down economy, they are more likely to go to a department store and buy a brand name comforter on sale than purchase a custom quilt hand sewn with gold thread by angels.

4. Don’t put all of your advertising eggs in one basket. If your website is the ONLY way you are advertising your business, you will be sorely disappointed by the response you get. When a website is new, you need to find ways to drive traffic to it and to keep that traffic coming back. Try offering online coupons for your business. People will keep visiting your website if you offer monthly coupons that can only be found on the web. Always put your web address on all of your print material as well, including business cards, letterhead, mailers, print advertisement, etc. Your website isn’t going to help you if its just sitting on the internet where no one can find it.

5. Don’t be lazy! I think as a result of those “sit at home and make money” infomercials, people seem to think that they can start a business, put it on the web, sit back and watch the dough roll in. This is a MAJOR fallacy. Starting a new business of any kind, or even trying to save a failing business takes A LOT of hard work and motivation. So please, do not start an online business  if you think your website or web designer is going to sit there and do all the work for you.

6. Sometimes what you think is great… isn’t so great. You may think you have a one of a kind, no one’s ever thought if it, best in the world product, but let me tell you right now, its been done before in some form or another. Either way, your product could be successful if you take the right approach. On the other hand, there are plenty of products and ideas out there that should have been swept under the rug long ago. Let’s face it… if you are getting traffic to your website and no one is buying, maybe people just don’t like your product and its time to think of a new idea.

This being said, a website is a great way to get your business name out there given time and patience. If you have a budget to search engine optimize your website, I would highly recommend it. If you don’t, I recommend using print materials and print advertisements to drive traffic to your website. There are also many free advertising resources that you can use to drive people to your business. Try adding your website to free business directories such as superpages.com and google local business directory. Both are totally free and can help you get business through the door.

Also try to keep your costs down, you can always add to your website later, so don’t spend your website budget all at once. Spend some of it, see what’s working and what isn’t, and use the rest to make changes or additions and tweaks to your website as you start to figure things out.

Just remember, its your job to make your website work for your business. Only you know all of the ins and outs of your business, who your clientele are, what you need to sell and at what price, etc. If you do a little business analysis and marketing planning before you jump in to creating a website for your business, and have the patience to let your website grow and develop over time, you should be ready to roll!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.