When people want information on something or want to purchase a product or service they increasingly turn to the internet for the information they are looking for. If you and your organisation are not coming up in people’s searches then their business is likely to go to your competitors.
Furthermore, as more and more people are spending more and more time online, if you want to retain your customers or expand your market it follows that you need to use the internet to publicise yourself online. People need to be told of you, remember that you exist and ensure that you remain top of their minds when they are thinking about the type of thing which you do.
People may be unaware of the type of goods or services you offer and coming across information about you and what you do may open them up to the possibilities of what you offer.
Being Found by Customers
To summarise, when people want information or want to do something they tend to use some form of internet device such as a desktop, laptop of tablet computer or increasingly the mobile devices such as iPads and smart phones. When potential customers get on their devices they invariably use a search engine such as Google and put in keywords for what they are seeking. The trick then is to come up on their screen so that they can view your information and hopefully take some form of action such as contacting you or purchasing something.
A very powerful way of providing information to your potential customers and attracting their business is to have your own website.
One reason why having your own website is so powerful is that it presents the information your customers want in a way that makes them want to deal with you. In essence you present the information in the way that is of most benefit to your business.
A website is also an excellent vehicle for giving the search engines the information they need to bring you up in search results so that when people put what they are interested into the search engines your information comes up. The science of this is called Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing. You can see a bit more information at https://buildbusiness.co.nz/search-engine-optimisation/ and https://buildbusiness.co.nz/search-engine-marketing/ . If you do not have a website or you have one which is not bringing you the results you hoped we would be pleased to assist.
There are other places which you could be found by potential viewers and customers. Some of these and informational and directory sites and other places such as a Google My Business Listing. Part of our efforts involve identifying sites with a good internet reputation to create listings to attract potential customers to go to your website and/or contact you for more information hopefully to use your services. This can get quite complex but we would be pleased to provide you with more information about this strategy.
We are not suggesting that you necessarily do all of the following, but these are some of the possible ways we can assist you to be found by customers including:
- Building a modern responsive, easy to navigate website for you which is attractive to customers, gives them the information they need, showcases what you offer and encourages them to deal with you. This site could be set up as an eCommerce site with a shopping cart and payment gateway if that is of benefit for your circumstances.
- Analysing potential keywords for you, doing a comparison with your competitors to assist you to get the best possible search results.
- Setting up a Google My Business Page and social media pages such as Facebook.
- Search engine-optimisation to ensure that your website comes up as high as possible in viewers searches.
- Listing your website on directory and other sites and creating links from these to your site to drive traffic.
- Search engine-marketing including paid advertisements on the internet such as Google, YouTube and Facebook.
- Setting up an email or newsletter system to tell customers of specials of new developments etc.
We build websites using up-to-date website standards and technology including responsive design so that they display well on the various size screens on the different mobile devices people use such as iPads and smart phones.
We realise that what we finish up doing for you will depend on a number of factors such as what you want to do and how much you would like to do within your budget.
Communicating with Your Customers
There are various ways in which you can communicate with your customers online. Sometimes this is known as “push marketing” as you push information out to your customers. Some but not all of these methods include:
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing such as Facebook and Twitter
- Search Engine Marketing
- Blogging or sending out newsletters.
- Issuing Special Offers
- Conducting quizzes or surveys.
These push methods are often integrated into websites to form a comprehensive marketing system.
We would be pleased to assist you with systems to communicate to your customers so please do not hesitate to contact us.
