Help Me Find My Mechanic!
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Does your small business need a web site?
What if you are already thriving?
What if you already have a large customer base which is growing from word-of-mouth?
Perhaps this story will help illustrate why you do need a web site.
The other day, I needed to make an appointment to take my car to the shop to have something repaired. I pulled out my phone and found, much to my consternation, their number was not in my contact list. Next I checked my business card file. Strange, I could swear I had one of their cards in here. I don’t have a phone book any more, so that’s out.
I opened up my web browser to Google and typed in their name along with the city and state where they’re located. I did the same in Bing. The only listing I got in the search results were from business rating sites and none of them had the shop’s phone number in the listing. (I guess you have to pay extra for that.)
I contend you DO need a web site. You need one because your existing customers may be looking to reconnect with you and lost your number from their phone, or lost your card and may not have access to a phone directory.
This web site doesn’t need to be fancy. It could be a “one-page” site which can look similar to your phone directory ad listing your contact information and what services you offer. Clean and simple is OK. The key is that once you put your site up it can get indexed by search engines and make you “findable.”
What about the cost?
If you have Internet service in your business, chances are your provider has some kind of web site hosting as part of your package. If not, a good host can be had for under $100 a year.
Need your web site done on the cheap? Create your “ad” in Microsoft® Word and save it as a web page. If you don’t feel confident enough to do that, ask around and find a school kid who’s willing to work cheap or barter for the work. Either way, you can have a web site up and running for less than the cost of a typical phone directory ad. And your web site can reach a lot more people.
What about email and social media? I don’t have time for that.
I highly recommend putting an email address on your web site and using email as a way to connect with your customers. Personally, I don’t normally like to do business with those who won’t communicate with me via email. But, I can understand you may not have time to check your computer because you’re busy actually working your business.
I also advocate getting involved in social media as a way to connect with existing as well as potential customers.
But, you and your business may not be ready to get involved in those things. That’s OK. What I recommend here is merely put up a simple web site so people who probably already know about you can find your contact information easier.
And, who knows? You might just get some new customers from the deal, as well.
photo credit: sludgegulper
