As the Bop Design team meets with small business owners in various industries, we become aware of the dramatic differences in web sophistication. For instance, it’s much more competitive on the web if you’re a real estate agent compared to if you’re an executive sedan service owner. Industries like real estate will have plenty of websites that are effectively designed and easy to navigate. You will also see that they allocate much more money, time, and resources developing a web marketing strategy. For some industries like real estate, the web market is saturated and you must be very creative on how to stand out.
On the other hand if you’re the owner of an executive sedan service and you can scan your competition on the web, you will probably be underwhelmed. Much of your competition does not even have a website and the ones that do, most of them look like they were designed in 1997. As a business owner in a less web savvy industry, you have an opportunity to establish yourself on the web and have a “first mover advantage” on the competition.
I hear many business owners say “Well my competition is not doing that, why should I?” That’s exactly the reason why you should be doing that. So as a small business owner, you must start using the web to your advantage and make your website a lead generator. Type keywords into a search engine that your customers would type in. See what shows up and scan your competitors’ websites. How can your web presence be different and set your business apart?
