Making your business work on the web

SMEs are consistently failing to deliver on-line

Let's start off with some startling facts. Firstly, a recent survey carried out by Made Simple Group showed that marketing, and specifically improving visibility to generate new business, were key concerns for many small business owners in the UK. Taking into account that fewer than half of all such businesses have a web presence, we begin to see that even in this digital age, the web is still seen as a 'nice to have' or an 'unnecessary evil'.

Furthermore, of those small entities which are online, it is estimated that a large proportion are failing to promote their businesses properly. The fact is, there is little or no point investing in a web site for your business unless you take the time to ensure that it represents the best of your business at all times, and performs the job that you want it to perform.

Taking the long road, not the short-cut

The internet has enabled businesses of all sizes to reach markets that were previously unreachable. Assuming that the correct approach is taken, the web is simply the best way to increase the visibility of your business, whether you are selling your product to a global market, or offering your services to the local community.

However, most new and small businesses take the wrong approach. More often than not, this involves engaging a digital agency to design and develop an extensive website (for a not inconsiderable sum), followed by spending several stressful weeks trying to fill the site with content, then sitting back and waiting for the new customers to roll in.

For many, many reasons this is wrong thing to do, and in nearly all cases will ensure that you fail to see a return on your investment (we will cover this in subsequent postings). Unless your business is already strongly established off-line, with an existing customer base, by far the best approach for SMEs is to make a small upfront investment to get your website presence in place, then following a structured plan, make small, regular updates and additions to the site. This 'long road' approach pays off in various ways, but most importantly it ensures that your website grows with, and fully represents, your business.

In our next posting on this subject, we will look at 'The missed potential of business websites', and how your business can thrive online while your competitors remain anonymous.