A business without a website is like a person without a face
A business woman without a face has no mouth to tell you who she is, how to reach her, what times she is available, what services or products she has to offer. Her lack of any defining features and her inability to communicate means that it will be very hard to get know her or to decide whether or not you can trust her.
A Beauty Business in the 21st century without an Internet presence is like that woman. How will consumers know what you can do unless you have the ability to tell them? How will they know what you are like unless you can show them? How will they be able to find you unless you are able to direct them to your door?
Whether you like it or not, the world has changed. Are you running an ad in the Yellow Pages? Well forget about it, that’s nothing more than a waste of time and money! Today, most people don’t even own the “big yellow dinosaur” and even if they owned a copy of the Yellow Pages, most people wouldn’t even know where to find what they are looking for. But you say, Vaughan, my Salon number is in the phonebook, my customers can find me there. They can but they won’t because the majority of people now use a Search Engine like Google to find the phone number of the Salon that they already do business with, not a phone book!
In fact, up to 75% of the searchers who come to a business website put the name of the business in some form or other into Google. They didn’t write down the number the last time they called it. They didn’t program it into their phone. Why bother with that when they can find a phone number in a few moments by searching the Google for it?
This assumes that when an existing customer or prospective customer comes looking for you by your name that you have a website so it can show up and tell them what they want to know. They wanted something, your phone number, your hours, your location, details on your products or services but they didn’t get it! Not from you, anyway. So, if you don’t have a website, and somebody want to get in touch with you but can’t, what will they do? Maybe they will find it somewhere else. In any event, you already have a strike against you. You’re still operating your business in the last century while most of your customers are living in this one. Think about it. Only a customer with perseverance will succeed in finding you when you’re operating in Internet stealth mode by not having a website! Making it hard for a customer to find you is not a recommended business practice, in fact it falls into realm of “how to lose customers and prevent sales.”
You, yourself, probably use Google frequently to get information about businesses that provide products or services that you need. Everybody does…but if you have no website to tell your story, they won’t find you!
The absence of a web presence in the Internet age is devastating. People are searching on the Internet for exactly what you do! How much are you spending to find new customers? What are you doing to help them find you? So, if you don’t have a website, you need to get one! Any website is better than none. Even a crummy website will allow your existing customer’s to stay in touch with you but why stop there? It’s not very hard to have a good website that will be found by prospective customers. The bottom line: If you’re like a woman without a face, your competitor’s may be attracting your customers away from you and also getting the new customers that should be visiting your Salon. It’s time that you start planning to find your voice, tell your story, let customers know who you are and why they should give their business to you. Trying to run a new consumer-oriented business in our highly competitive industry without a website is like trying to run a successful Salon without a telephone, physical address or signage to promote your business. It just doesn’t make business sense!
For help on building and marketing your website contact Salon Management Studio now!! What do you think about this post? We would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.
