MicroBusinessSpecialist

I had trouble sleeping last night.

My head was working on a speech, I will give to my Toastmaster Group Thursday morning.  I’ve decide to talk about why I think most small business’s web pages stink.

I’ve been toying with the content of this speech for a couple of weeks now.  I know why I think they stink, but have been having trouble coming up with a hook and a word picture I can use to convey my message.

The added difficulty is that I need to compress my comments into a 5-7 minute time frame.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find the right formula, and so I did a lot of tossing and turning despite  my best efforts to just forget it and sleep.

Eventually, I did, and lo and behold as I woke in the morning, in those luxurious moments before I actually woke, the winning concept occurred to me.

It’s hard on my beauty to sleep this way, but I do come up with much of my speeches at night.

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A web page is very much like a trade show.

But unlike a trade show, where most businesses would have a sales person up front to greet and engage passersby, most web pages use a deaf mute to do the same task.

This week I will work on this concept. Today let’s look at the crowd at the trade show and compare them to web browsers who may chance on your web sites.

Imagine a typical home improvement show or similar trade show.  Think of the crowd.  They are like web browsers.  There are a lot of different reasons someone might be at a trade show.  For some it is simply an outing, a form of entertainment or exercise.  Some are there to get ideas, or maybe looking for comparison products, or alternative suppliers.  Some want information on prices, or learn about features or other options they may want to consider.  A few may even have come to the show to actually buy something.  This last group is probably a minority.

So too, with web browsers.  If you are a business on or off line, most of the people who walk past your booth or browse by your web page are not actively looking to buy.

If you are to meet the needs of those people actively looking to buy, you need to give them the information they need and and the means to actually do so.

If your web page does this, you may have met the needs of the active buyer, but what about the others, those not quite ready to make a purchase?

Has your web site met their needs to the point that they will come back to you when they are ready to buy?

When you think of the crowd at the trade show, they tend to be moving in some sort of circle, streaming through the displays, browsing as they go.  Often overloaded in stimuli as each exhibitor tries to attract their attention.  If they are like me, they pass most booths with scarcely a glance, unless something grabs them and then holds their attention.

Same to with a web site.  I don’t know what the actual number is, but many people suggest you have but 2-3 seconds to catch the crowds attention with your web site. And even then, you have an uphill battle to keep them at the site.  That’s why I like the web sites the folks at David Goes Online produce for small businesses.  As part of their deal, they are offering a free video, that gives their site some stickiness.

But that is getting into the next discussion which is on the booth exhibitors set up.  In future blog posts I will also discuss the ethical bribes they offer to convert traffic into leads and then the follow-up they do, once they have the lead.  And most importantly I will discuss why they don’t hire the handicapped.  Why they don’t use deaf and dumb sales people to meet and greet their visitors, and why I think most business web pages do.

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