Where's The Tomatoes?

Businesses with a website perform better.

So says the latest MYOB Business Monitor Report and has highlighted the fact that businesses with a website have consistently higher revenue performance, more work in their sales pipeline and are more optimistic about future prospects. A few other highlights that came out in the report include:

· 31% of businesses with a website have experienced a growth in revenue over the past 12 months, compared to 26% of businesses without a website experiencing a growth in revenue.

· 40% of businesses with a website have more work on, while 26% of businesses without a website have more work on.

· 54% of business with a website expect revenue growth in the next 12 months, while only 27% of businesses without a website expect revenue growth.

For the full report click here.

So what is your online strategy and if you have an online presence, especially an e-commerce one, is it effective?

Think of this analogy. You go to the produce super store. It is a flash affair and you can enter the store through a dozen different doors. It sells a HUGE range of fresh food items in all sorts of colours. Beautifully packaged and displayed next to all the awards that the store has won for its design and packaging. But where are the damn tomatoes! All you want is a kg of tomatoes and all you see are Tahitian mangoes, Chilean Red Globes, 15 sorts of lettuce and 10 varieties of potatoes. And to make matters worse the place is crowded. You can hardly move for fear of loosing your place in line, so you give up, don’t buy anything and leave.

Thankfully there is a more simple produce store next door. One door and a limited range of basic items that one needs every day. And guess what. They have tomatoes. They are easy to spot and just behind them are other sorts of tomatoes too. This place is less flashy, but it gives you what, and you buy.

The moral of the story is this. Websites don’t have to be flashy and complicated to work. In fact a basic, well thought out website with the right sort of content that your target buyers want will win out every time. Flashy websites that aim just to attract a big crowd on the off chance it has something that you want and get lucky, don’t tend to have a good return on investment. Focus on what sort of customer you want to attract to your website. Give them a good experience while they visit and make it easy for them to buy.

Of course you don’t need to go the whole way and have e-commerce functionality on your website to begin with. The important thing is to look at the MYOB report and understand how businesses with website are generally ahead of their competitors. The important thing is to “get in the game”. If you don’t have a website for your business, I strongly recommend that you consider talking to a good website company, plan how it fits into your overall marketing strategy and make a start. For help with your marketing strategy development and for a free planning and review session click this link:

Growth For Business

Andy Burrows - Business Advisor