How Do Your Customers Find You?

How do you find stuff nowadays?

Whether you’re looking for where to buy the best digital camera for under $500, or the best toaster for under $50, where do you look? I’m guessing that, if you’re like me, you’re searching online.

According to Nielsen Media, 82% of consumers and small businesses use internet search engines to find out about local companies. Hardly surprising, in today’s digitally-connected world.

How Can They Find You If You Don’t Have A Website?

But the research goes on to say that a mere 44% of small businesses have a website. Most of the companies surveyed directed less than 10% of their marketing budget towards online activities – search engines, optimisation, blogs, email marketing and the like.

Based upon the types of coaching, consulting or small business marketing inquiries we receive, there seems to be an endemic feeling that certain businesses don’t need a website.

Just this morning, I had a conversation with a coach who was reliant on her business Facebook page as the only online property for customer interaction.

I asked her why she didn’t feel it was necessary for the business to have its own website. She explained that since all her customers were on Facebook, it made more sense to have a Facebook presence than a web presence.

Without going down the road of inquiring why she thought one thing cancelled out the other, I asked her what would happen if Facebook changed their minds?

Supposing Facebook started charging every time someone views your business page or mandated that businesses spend a minimum amount on Facebook ads in order to have a page at all, for example?

The answer was, predictably, silence.

A Multi-Platform Online Presence Is Essential

Putting all your eggs in anyone’s basket is a dangerous thing. Putting the future of your business in the hands of Facebook is tantamount to commercial suicide. Whether it’s failing to block fake ads designed to manipulate opinion, or just changing the way users see branded content, Facebook’s already shown its colours on more than one occasion.

But I’m not singling out Facebook. The very fact that this coach has decided her entire target audience is on Facebook just shows how poor her marketing strategy is.

I don’t care what you’re selling, your customers are not all in one place.