Getting Found in the Wide Wide World (WWW)

Being popular and having a great reputation is important, but if a referrals can’t find you, then what good does having a great reputation do?

My guess is that few people have your (business) phone numbers or address memorized.  It is important to make sure that your referrals can find you. Things have changed over the years (big surprise). It used to be that the yellow pages were the single most important marketing tool a local small business had. People would schedule their business openings to coincide with the publication of the new phone book.

Today, there are three main places that people will go to find information about a business. You must be in all three to succeed.

Telephone Directory

Some folks still go to the telephone book. Granted older generations mainly rely on the phone book, but they are also the ones with the most money to spend. If this is your target market than you can’t afford to just skip out on the phone directory. There may come a time when the phone book is dead, but it’s not here yet.

Computers

The second place people will turn is their computers. Go figure, with the growing comfort level of computers, it will continue to grow as source of all information. Not only do consumers use their computers to get recommendations, they use it to find businesses and it some cases make the purchase on the spot. You must have a good internet presence to survive.

Mobile Devices

The last place is closely related to the computer. It is mobile devices. This may be either a phone or tablet. This is not the same as just being online and having a website. In order to appeal to the growing masses of mobile users, a business must have a mobile ready site. The format of your website must change to accommodate the limited real estate of a mobile screen. The days of scrolling and pinching a screen to read from it are over. Your website must be responsive and automatically change and adjust to the device it is being viewed from. This solution is integrated into your website design, but many older websites do not have this capability.

This is an article on advertising, not on digital solutions. Your target market will help dictate where you advertise, but the use of computers and mobile devices is becoming more important and subsequently your maximum use of these advertising methods must simultaneously increase.