Web-base Marketing: Why You Should Care

Today I would like to discuss two small business situations that I see occasionally in my line of work, which is website design; but, first let me describe these two situations to make it clearer for what I will talk about.

Situation 1: This includes businesses that have been around for quite a while and seem to do just fine base on their business reputation and current customers. These businesses tend not to bother promoting themselves online. They only rely on their past reputation to gain new clients.

Situation 2: This includes businesses that are fairly new, often have low budgets and always are thinking of better ways to gain customers and market shares at minimum cost.

Therefore, the things I would like to talk about are how current consumer behaviors affect the business landscape and how businesses should prepare to adapt to this changing environment. Most of it goes back to the economy crash in 2008, which caused consumers to worry about their financial security, thus making consumers pay more attention to their spending than ever before. Meanwhile, today Internet has made it very easy for consumers to compare prices and deals online with a few clicks of the mouse; thus, this helps consumers save money, time and get the most for their money.

Furthermore, mobile devices along with free public Wifi internet make it more accessible for consumers to instantly find the best deals and prices for the products or services they are looking for. From the birth of Apple iPad to the increasing trend in smart-pads, companies such as Apple, Google and HP are moving quickly to meet this increasing demand.

Today, consumers are so comfortable with the Internet (especially among the professional and the younger generations) that majority of their communication time happens online through email, text, game, Internet free Chat, social media, etc. Look at the business situation 1 above and you can bet that in a short time those businesses will have lost out to businesses in situation 2.

Now, information travels much faster than ever before through the internet and phone connections. Thus, brand image and reputation can be built in just a short period of time utilizing digital marketing tools such as email, social media and website. Something that took a reputable business a decade or two to build in the past is now taking a new business only a few years to build. One good example is: the Yellow pages vs new directories such as Yelp, Thumbtack, Delicious, etc.

Come back to the two business situations that I was talking about and with what I just discussed above, you can see that businesses in situation 1 are making a bad decision. That past reputation doesn't always insure future success in this digital age of fast changing technologies. Also, good perception in the past may not be so good now or in the future, especially when the majority of current and potential customers are using different kinds of media to find products and services businesses provide. With that being said, you should not underestimate the importance of Online marketing to your business. Establishing a strong web presence is a wise investment for businesses who want to survive and thrive in today’s environment.