The Power Of Getting Noticed On The Internet - Peter Sinclair
I recently spent a significant amount of money in order to learn how to change certain aspects of my business operations. It was money well spent, so that I could more effectively tap into the marketing power of the Internet.
I suppose it’s for that reason that I looked VERY closely at a Local Business Directory that arrived in my letterbox recently. This directory was prepared by one of the local Chambers of Commerce here on the Gold Coast. It contained a listing of hundreds of businesses in our local area.
Flicking through the directory, I quickly noticed that many of the businesses failed to promote their Website (that’s if they had one) and most of them didn’t even bother to at least include an e-mail address.
That’s what then brought me to the following discovery.
Now it’s not my normal practice to do such things, but as I said, my Internet senses were highly alert. I took out a pencil and began to circle every Website I could find and put an asterix next to those businesses that promoted their e-mail address.
These were my findings:
The business who took a full-page ad out on the inside front cover didn’t even bother to promote a website nor an e-mail address. Neither did the ad on the inside back cover. Fortunately, the outside back cover had a Website featured. Then in the first few front pages of the newsletter, I noticed that the distributor of the directory, along with some politicians, had featured their e-mail addresses.
But this then brought me to the next section. These ranged from small ads to quarter page and even half page ads. Only 20.1% of businesses bothered to promote a Website and only another 19.07 % promoted an e-mail address. All up, 39.17% of businesses, which had paid good money for these ads to be placed in this directory, bothered to promote one of the most powerful assets that are now available for businesses to use - THE INTERNET.
I then went on to the final section of the directory where businesses were provided with a free listing. Here there were 766 businesses featured. My research revealed even more alarming results. Out of the 766 businesses, only 6.39% bothered to promote their Website and another 6.91% promoted an e-mail address. Out of all these businesses, only 13.3% thought it necessary to present an Internet presence within their ads.
So what can we deduce from this simple research?
Any of us who have a Website and promote it, even if we don’t YET have a full understanding how to best utilise it for our business, are in a POWERFUL POSITION to get noticed.