Is your online strategy up to date?

The Internet is back in the news and some commentators are forecasting another dotcom boom. Google is looking at floating on the stock market with a value of $20 to $30bn, over 50% of Americans and western Europeans have web access, the Chinese online population is higher than the total UK population and broadband uptake in Britain is increasing at breakneck pace. Is there going to be another dotcom boom like the late 90’s? I don’t think so, but if the last time you thought about your Internet plans was a year or two ago then it could be time for a fresh look.

It is almost unthinkable for a business not to have a website these days. Yet many sites are pretty awful and many chief executives are ignorant of the fact that a really bad website can cause as much damage to their business as fire or disgruntled employees. Bad design, confusing navigation, unhelpful help sections, FAQ’s that nobody ever actually asks are all common mistakes that many company websites show, FTSE-100 companies are frequently the worst!

A website is becoming increasingly essential – customers expect it these days. But if you cannot do it well, you are better off not having one at all. If customers are unhappy with the web experience, they are more likely to complain and less likely to buy your product. Either way you are losing money. Many website problems come down to the fact that they’re just plain old. Internet time tends to magnify real time so that a website from before 2002 can be sending out the same message that kipper ties and flares on staff or the ‘Birdie Song’ as your phone holding message would say about your company. It’s worth spending a some time and money on making sure your website toes the current company line.

A website can cost anything from a few hundred pounds to hundreds of thousands, depending on its complexity and the number of functions needed. But a small business simply requiring the online equivalent of a marketing brochure can expect to pay around £2,500 to £3,000. The options beyond a basic website are limitless – product databases, e-commerce capability, interactivity, web only services, regular updates and news, recruitment opportunities among others. A web design firm will be able to point out those features and applications that will help your business stand out from the crowd and not tie your website down with pointless graphics or annoying pop-ups.

Five years ago when the web was still a niche part of business its use and management was largely determined by the IT department at most companies. It led to sites that were inaccessible to many people and jargon was endemic throughout. Today, as the web has reached into more than half of UK homes, the management has shifted to the marketers within companies as business realises its increasing importance as a channel to the end customer. It is paramount to realise that a website is not a bolt-on service, but an integral part of the business. The website is a brand experience, it’s the same as walking into the store.

Designing a good, accessible website is one thing, getting people to visit it is another. Long gone are the days when a website was enough to establish an online presence. Now companies are weaving the web throughout their marketing mix, from graphical ads that build brand identity to search listings that drive immediate customers towards a purchase.

76% of the UK’s 29 million Internet users are now online daily or several times a week – and according to NOP research, they’re spending more hours online than in front of the telly. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of time online. It gets better though. Internet users tend to be relatively well off – while the AB socio-economic groups account for 18 per cent of the UK population, online they make up 26 per cent. There is also a higher percentage of C1’s online than in the population as a whole. These audiences, with their large disposable incomes, are the ones that most advertisers want to reach. There is one more big reason why company bosses and marketers are getting excited about the possibilities for business online and it’s the times people access different types of media and the advertising they contain.

Consider your average working day a few years ago. You listen to the radio first thing in the morning either waking up or in the car, you reach work and flick through the newspaper before starting work and then when you get home you relax in front of the TV in the evening. Other than reading through trade magazines, you’re barely exposed to advertising while at work and when B2B advertisers want to hit you. Fast forward to 2004. The day is largely the same except that over 75% of you are spending large amounts of your working day online. Searching for products and services, booking holidays, checking bank statements, emailing friends and on and on and on. All the while you’re being exposed to adverts, using search engines to find companies, reading newsletters that you’ve signed up for and a myriad of other marketing methods aimed at getting you to a company’s website. Those businesses that have well built websites and have invested in online marketing are now reaping the benefits of a direct line to the key customers they want to reach when they want to reach them – online is the new primetime. The Internet is now the leading daytime daytime communications medium delivering those elusive at-work audiences.

The Internet is an ever-growing medium to do business in as the stats in the first paragraph show. It may be back to the days of the pre-millennium dotcom boom for some ( especially those guys that own Google ), but for the Scottish business community there are still opportunities to build an online brand and the sales which will follow.

The website development process is one of ‘evolution not revolution’. Get it right and on the web, with its global reach, can put a small business on an equal footing with the largest multinational, opening up new markets for little money.