My grandpa has a saying that I always hated, but now I feel compelled to trot it out: “Do as I say, not as I do.” He often said this when I caught him doing something he told me not to do, and it drove me crazy. Unfortunately, now I find myself saying it to you, in response to my own negligence about maintaining an active web presence.
The truth is: your business benefits immensely when you maintain an active Web presence. There are some businesses with demographics that don’t really use the Web, but those are few and far between – and the rest of us rely on the Web to research a business we’re thinking about hiring or frequenting. With that in mind, here are five reasons your business depends on you maintaining an active Web presence:
1. Your Web presence tells clients what you do, and establishes you as an authority.
In the world of Web 2.0, many clients immediately go to the Web when they’re researching potential providers. They look for information about who you are, what you do and how much you have to say for yourself. If your website is a basic barebones overview of your company, containing little more than contact information, clients have very little on which to judge you. If you’ve got a content-rich, frequently updated website, your clients know you’re serious about your industry and are more likely to respect your skill as a business.
2. Lack of recent updates may tell your clients you’re not doing much.
One of the worst things you can see on a business website is a section for news updates that hasn’t been updated in months, or even years, or a blog with no posts for months at a time. (Don’t look at me, here – you’re doing as I say, remember?) By including these sections but not updating them, you tell clients you don’t have much to say, and your business doesn’t do much that’s noteworthy.
If you’re not going to have frequent news updates, don’t include a news section. If you can’t keep up with a blog, don’t maintain one, or hire someone else to do it for you. You don’t want clients to think that your business isn’t very active, and if clients don’t see updates for years, they may even think you’ve gone out of business!
3. Frequent updates, especially containing valuable information, keep clients coming back.
If you’ve got a website, you want clients to keep coming back. The more frequently a client visits your website, the better your chance that the client will consider your business when they need your services. Time to trot out another old saying: “Out of sight, out of mind.” If you’re not right in front of your client regularly, they might not remember you when they need you.
At the very least, update your website regularly to keep clients coming back. Add new products and services, update your policies, write a seasonal greeting or offer special deals – do whatever you can do to keep your clients coming back. A blog or adding articles to your website is a great way to ensure clients come back again and again; especially if it pertains to a specific niche, and clients get valuable information about your field that they might have trouble finding elsewhere.
4. You get more word of mouth from an active website.
Remember that value-added information I mentioned above? Not only is that a good way to keep potential clients coming back; adding useful information or deals is also a good way to get clients to tell their friends about you. How often have you seen a sale and told a friend about it, or had a conversation with a friend where you mentioned something relevant that you saw or read a few days ago? Keep your clients coming back regularly, and eventually a time will come when they send a friend in need.
5. Your Web presence is your chance to convince clients to use your business.
Too many business owners don’t recognize Web space for what it is: a virtually free space for marketing. If you have a well-designed website with plenty of useful information, you can use that website to market your products or services to potential clients.
It doesn’t have to be a generic “Here we are, and this is what we do.” Get creative. Tell your clients how great their lives would be if they use your products. Show them how successful they’d be if they only did this one thing, which just happens to be a service you provide. Get creative with your Web space, and don’t miss the opportunity to use it for free marketing.
