The offline business owner's dilemma
I started selling websites to local business owners in 1995. I've been around the block.
I've run into everything from "We don't need a website and never will, so go away" to "We get about 20 leads a day from our online marketing and couldn't handle any more even if we wanted them, so thanks anyway, we're good."
I've met business owners who never heard of SEO. Never heard of Yelp. Have no idea what Google My Business is or what it could do for them. Have no clue how to use Facebook pages, groups or ads to drive traffic to their store. Have no email list, and in fact never even thought of creating one.
I've talked to people who have a great looking website, well written, overall satisfied with it -- but never looked at it with a phone, on which it looks like shit. Didn't know that the majority of people use phones these days, especially when they're "in the neighborhood." Didn't know you could optimize for mobile. Didn't know you could add a phone number so people could just click to call. Or click for driving directions.
The common denominator is this: business owners know their business. They don't know marketing. And they don't know online. Most "don't have time for all that stuff," and if they do, they don't want to have to learn it. OR pay someone else to do it for them.
What they don't know (or realize) is how much money they're leaving on the table.
They don't realize that when people Google what they sell and find their competitor and not them -- that's lost business.
They don't know that just a few tweaks in what they do online could make a HUGE difference in their revenue every month.
But I'm curious...
If you sell online services to offline business owners, what kind of experience levels are you finding these days with business owners? More savvy of late, or still mostly clueless?
What pain levels are you finding and exploiting? If business is slow, do you press the point that Google might just be able to send them new business? Etc...?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I've run into everything from "We don't need a website and never will, so go away" to "We get about 20 leads a day from our online marketing and couldn't handle any more even if we wanted them, so thanks anyway, we're good."
I've met business owners who never heard of SEO. Never heard of Yelp. Have no idea what Google My Business is or what it could do for them. Have no clue how to use Facebook pages, groups or ads to drive traffic to their store. Have no email list, and in fact never even thought of creating one.
I've talked to people who have a great looking website, well written, overall satisfied with it -- but never looked at it with a phone, on which it looks like shit. Didn't know that the majority of people use phones these days, especially when they're "in the neighborhood." Didn't know you could optimize for mobile. Didn't know you could add a phone number so people could just click to call. Or click for driving directions.
The common denominator is this: business owners know their business. They don't know marketing. And they don't know online. Most "don't have time for all that stuff," and if they do, they don't want to have to learn it. OR pay someone else to do it for them.
What they don't know (or realize) is how much money they're leaving on the table.
They don't realize that when people Google what they sell and find their competitor and not them -- that's lost business.
They don't know that just a few tweaks in what they do online could make a HUGE difference in their revenue every month.
But I'm curious...
If you sell online services to offline business owners, what kind of experience levels are you finding these days with business owners? More savvy of late, or still mostly clueless?
What pain levels are you finding and exploiting? If business is slow, do you press the point that Google might just be able to send them new business? Etc...?
Inquiring minds want to know.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
What I do for a living