One of the themes from Aussie business owners that we have found repeated regularly in our research (MYOB Business Monitor) is the difficulty with marketing and attracting new customers. While getting in a marketing expert is one option, looking at how customers find businesses today is a great (and cheaper) first step.
Some small business owners have become used to the directory listing option. But buyer behaviour has moved on from just looking at a listed directory – they now want prices, maps and recommendations from other shoppers. They access websites via a quick search engine request that provides recommendations and star ratings on products and services (with prices) that are linked to maps that allow them to decide whether your business is easy to find and (more importantly) to find a car park. And they can do it on their phone, in under two minutes.
While at first glance this seems to raise the bar on how you market your business, it in fact makes things a lot easier. Firstly your potential customer base just became global. Secondly, by doing your own search on how search engines work (for free) you can create a website that appears on the first page of any Google search of key words related to your business, with maps, a complete description of your business and products/services, sign up for newsletters section and maybe even your own blog or ecommerce facility. And finally you can start to analyse where your best customers come from and turn your marketing efforts into more sales.
I know many of you here are very online savvy and are taking advantage of what the web offers, but there are business owners that aren’t and they have a world of online opportunities available to them. Aussie business owners can make their lives much easier if they add an online presence and reap the benefits of making it easier for customers to find them.
If you’re not online now and are keen to get started, Getting Aussie Business Online is an initiative we’re working on with Google and is a great place to start.
For those web savvy business owners – once you set up your own website, what benefits did you see as a result? Anything surprising? Do you have any insights that would help other SMEs who are about to ‘get online’?
