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Web Enabled

When it comes to the internet, Real Businesses tend to be split pretty much down the middle. Roughly half the companies I meet with are web savvy and the others either think they are but aren’t, or are still ignorant as to the importance of the online market. 

I think that the dotcom boom, bust and revival is probably to blame for so many businesses still not realising how many opportunities they are missing out on – perhaps traditionalists believe that the internet isn’t really right for them and that it’s still a lot more hype than substance - and if you are still sceptical in any way shape or form of just how dramatically the web is reinventing the way we do business…read on. In fact, let’s examine a few of the more typical negative preconceptions to see if they hold water:

“The web is fine for things like books but not for serious business”

Get real! Letterstone plc specialise in property investment (in Eastern Europe amongst other areas).  They have an agency business which negotiates bulk discounts on residential properties in places like Warsaw and Budapest and then markets these opportunities to investors in the UK.. Letterstone also offers clients ‘Emerging Europe Funds’, the first of which raised €8.5million, and they are looking to expand and double that figure. Far and away the largest source of investor enquiries (of the kind that convert to become clients) come via the internet; and search engines in particular.  In other words, Letterstone’s financially astute and well heeled investors discover the company by typing ‘property investment’ or similar into Google.  A far cry from just ‘books’!

“I have a website but I doubt if any business is generated by it”

Come on! The very first thing I and my colleagues do when hearing about a company, be they a potential client or a supplier, is to visit their website. Countless surveys of investors - private and corporate - reveal that they do exactly the same.  Very rarely will anyone actually tell you that they looked at your website before deciding to contact you, and be warned, even fewer will tell you that they decided not to do business with you after seeing you online.

“The web is largely used by kids”

Oh really? GMAC RFC are in the business of creative mortgage lending and one of their divisions specialises in providing loans to people who the Halifax and other ‘major’ lenders would turn away for reasons of bankruptcy, debts and CCJ’s… or, because they started their own business last month (entrepreneurs are negatively categorised by the mortgage industry for the most part). Today, over 80% of business direct from consumer comes via the web and GMAC RFC is now the tenth largest lender in the UK. The web is not only accessible to just about everyone, it is in fact being used by just about everyone too, although the exception to this is children who find it difficult to buy online without a credit card.

“My customers prefer the personal approach – they don’t want to use the web”

Where have you been?  According to the National Statistics Omnibus Survey of May 2005, 55% of households in Great Britain have internet access from home and the MORI Technology Tracker 2005 highlights that 60% of the adult population used the internet in September last year. Broadband has transformed online business and if you’re not giving customers the choice of buying this way then they’re probably being looked after by your competitors.

“You can’t sell expensive things over the web”

Oh yes you can! My very good friend Brian Aris is one of the world’s leading photographers. Think of someone famous and it’s more than likely he photographed them – his credits include Band Aid, Live Aid, The Beckham’s wedding, The Queen’s official Jubilee (to name-drop a few) and you can buy a selection of his prints via brianarisonline.comfrom around five hundred to several thousand pounds each.  And, quite a few people do, everyday!

Check your website against this list to see if you’re web enabled:

1. Are you in the ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ category because someone told you that the web is only for the youth market?  Make sure your website looks and feels like your business.
2. Is your ‘latest news’ section filled with dull press releases from last year with nothing from 2006?  Get your content up-to-date and maintain it.
3. Do I have to sit and download software or watch some ‘clever’ flash introduction before even entering your website?  You need to make it easy for me to visit and get what I need, even if I am searching via my Blackberry.
4. Is one visit quite enough thank you?  Give me a reason to come back.
5. You do have a website don’t you?

Peter Knight is chairman of Phoenix, a communications agency, and author of the best-selling “HEMP: Highly Effective Marketing Plans”. If you run a real business and have come up with a stunning marketing plan, or you want help to create one, Peter would love to hear from you at pk@phoenixplc.com.