Hands up if you still use the Yellow Pages? Not Me! November 27 2014 / Posted By: Melissa Priest
I can’t remember the last time I opened a yellow pages book and I don’t know anyone else who has either. Maybe my nanna? Actually probably my nanna because she is the only person I know who isn’t online.
As for everyone else, they’re doing their research online to find the products and services they need. Whether it be for a local builder, dentist or hairdresser.
If you’re relying on the yellow pages as a channel to find new customers for your business, you are completely narrowing your market, which will only get worse as each generation grows up assuming online as part of their everyday lives.
If your business doesn’t have an online presence and you want more customers or more revenue, then you desperately need to get yourself a website.
In future in most cases, if you don’t have a website you won’t be considered by a buyer. A friend of mine was getting married recently and she was looking for a makeup artist for her wedding day makeup. She was recommended a lady through a friend and instantly went online to look for this lady’s website. Nothing. No website, no facebook page, no online presence at all. So my friend didn’t want to book her because she instantly wondered whether she was legit. And this obviously wasn’t an expensive product or service, given it was a wedding, but still. Imagine buyers who are researching a big ticket item – a builder for their house extensions, new furniture, a wedding photographer, they would need to be able to view websites of these businesses before making a decision.
Buyers like to research. Let them learn about you and build trust in you via your website. It doesn’t have to be a $30,000 website, it doesn’t have to have bells and whistles. Just a nice clean website that doesn’t cost the earth and allows you to put a professional face to your business.
Contact us to discuss your business and how we can help you bring your business online.
Below is a recent poll we took on our Web Esc Facebook page asking people how they research their buying needs. I would assume 9 times out of 10 or maybe even more that people do their research online. The rest is probably word of mouth!
