The internet offers the opportunity for small businesses to level the playing field with bigger competitors, but yet many small business owners fail to take advantage of this opportunity by not paying attention to their image and branding.
Perception is everything!
For example, I have a client who is a local plumber that we recently completed a website for; he is now competing with larger plumbers who are part of national chains. He is able to do this because he has a new website that projects a professional image and establishes credibility as a reliable and established company.
Because his website design was professional, and he has taken an active, affordable approach to advertising his business on Google, when someone gets to his site, they have no way of knowing he is a small business, giving him the opportunity to generate a lead and connect with his prospect and alleviate any doubts that prospect might have before being rejected on the sole basis that he is a small business or one man shop.
What message are you sending prospects?
Now, consider another scenario: another plumber who has a basic template website design that several other plumbers have, usually one obtained from superpages.com, yellowpages.com, or some other template site. Do you think it will have the same impact convincing a prospect that they are an established reliable business when their website is plain, they have no logo, or the information is simply distorted on the site, and it appears unprofessional?
The message these types of websites send is that I don’t care about my business; I don’t care how I am perceived.
The funny thing is, most business owners who get this type of template website design aren’t aware of the ramifications it has on their business because they think simply getting a website design and establishing a web presence is enough, but it isn’t.
Small business owners should think big
I was speaking to a prospect recently, a small business owner, an electrician to be exact who does work for large corporate chains. I felt like speaking to him on and on because he was so enthusiastic about his business and marketing his business. He had a unique value proposition.
He had a unique and catchy tagline, and He had a professional answering service to set the right impression. He had a clear strategy in place for increasing his business, and He was speaking to me about improving his website.
Why? Because he gets it! Although he is a small business owner, he is doing business with BIG CORPORATIONS, because He GET’s IT, he understands, it’s all about Marketing and Perception.
In this economy, business is slow, there is no doubt about it, but you can still get new business. You just need to get in front of your target market and make sure that you STAND OUT. What can you do today that will get you on the track of thinking like a BIG Business so that you can have BIG Results?