About Me

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Len focuses on helping small and new businesses succeed through developing appropriate marketing and sales strategies. Len enjoys mentoring, relishes in getting both arms and feet wet in addressing technology, marketing and sales issues. He understands the drivers impacting business results for today and tomorrow including time-to-market, time-to-revenue, marketing, sales channels and social media.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Does Your Small Business Web Site Create Customers?

According to a recent Citibank survey of 552 small business executives, 37% reported that they did not use a web site to help them market their business. In that same study 84% indicated that they had not sold products or services using e-commerce and 62% did not use e-mail for marketing purposes. Of the 63% who did report that they had a web site, almost three-quarters found it to be an effective way to generate business.

No doubt you have experienced the fear, uncertainty and doubt, the FUD that comes along with making marketing investments in online activities. You are not alone. Many small business people feel compelled to create a web presence and then find themselves challenged by what next steps to take.

Creating that web site is a great first step in taking advantage of the omnipresence of the Internet as a means to communicate with prospects and existing customers. Driving them to your web site and turning it into an order taking mechanism to drive revenue requires considerable thought and then action.

"A website's ability to convert a visitor to a customer is a measurement of its effectiveness," states Joel Book, in the May 2010 issue of Electronic Retailer. Brooks talks about:

1. Driving Conversion Rates
2. Landing Page Optimization
3. Abandoned shopper re-engagement strategies
4. Creating repeat customers

In the next few blogs we are going to talk about all of these strategies in greater depth. I invite you to follow along, share your experiences by contributing to the conversation.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Len, there's a recent study by WebVisible and Nielsen showing where the customers are:

* 96% of all industrial buyers use the Internet at some point in the process of researching, comparing, and/or purchasing various products and services.
* More than half (54%) these buyers begin the buying process online, when they are researching various products that might meet their needs.
* More than four out of five industrial buyers go to search engines (83%) or specific company websites (85%) at some point in the buying process
* Seven out of ten go to industrial destination websites (71%) for the information they need when making a purchase.
* Only 44% of small businesses have a website.

regards bernie

TorontoSmallBusiness.com

Unknown said...

Hi Len. I think it also depends on the market that you are targeting. Some small businesses like owner of fast food franchises that are extensively marketed offline so they probably should focus in there, not online. Although the percentage of people using the Internet to transact anything is ever growing.



Best Wishes,

Glenn Comanda @ Offshoring, Inc.