Well, duh, it’s expensive. It’s generally accepted in the business world that developing a website requires a significant investment. Add that to the fact that most traditional business people cannot see how a web presence could improve their business profits or operations and you will understand why millions of business people around the world think websites are useless.
This is not phenomenon that occurs solely with developing countries. Even in more developed countries like the United States. Canada and Europe there are still literally thousands, if not millions, of business people who resist taking their businesses online. As internet users grow in numbers these businesses are surely being left behind. For example, take a look at population trends for internet usage of the top 20 countries in the world.
The differences in countries vary and can be accounted for primarily by population and the ease of access to the internet. Online, people are experiencing the evolution and development of social media Web 2.0 and now Web 3.0, while millions of offline businesses in every country operate exclusively offline.
The emergence of social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube have made it possible for some offline businesses to access prospects globally and locally. In most cases, the encounters are accidental because for the most part the meeting was not as a result of a coordinated strategy.
Most are not aware of the possibility of formulating a social media strategy. Thus, the reason for the emergence of sites and individuals who provide instructions on how to capitalize on the various social media platforms. One such site that is about to be launched is Social Traffic where you can learn how to use social media to build businesses both off line and online. See Social Traffic.
Consider, Trinidad and Tobago, a country with an estimated population of 1,262,000 and reasonably inexpensive access to the internet. It is estimated that approximately 17.3% of the population use the internet regularly.
According to the table below in 2008 there were approximately 212,800 regular users online in Trinidad and Tobago. These numbers also show a growth rate of about 50 – 60,000 per year. For the local market here and possibly in your own local market the numbers do justify having an internet presence.
YEAR Users Population% Pen. GDP p.c.* Usage Source
2000 100,000 1,262,366 7.9 % US$ 8,960 ITU
2006 160,000 1,320,383 12.1 % US$ 12,900 ITU
2008 212,800 1,231,323 17.3 % US$ 18,600 ITU
Per Capita GDP in US dollars, source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Source Internet World Stats
Believe it or not, the most compelling reason most businesses are not online is, in one word, “ignorance”. In this case, ignorance simply means not knowing anything about the benefits of an online presence.
Many traditional business people are totally unaware of the phenomenal growth of internet users. It’s even worse when these business owners are not internet users. Very few will never get an appreciation of the benefits to be derived from the internet. But here is the clincher, many of these businesses people are online or can easily get there, they are usually part of an internet community.
Here are the 3 myths that keep them off line:
Myth #1. Establishing a web presence is expensive.
• Truth: The business needs and the purpose for building a site dictates the actual investment in the site. Almost all businesses are seeking more customers. Establishing a web presence is not expensive in fact there are sites free sites that will allow visitors to build and host their own site; free. A site can be built within an hour with very little programming knowledge. Ironically, that’s exactly where most small business people should start. Before a business owner contracts with a designer to build a web site, like with anything else, they must have a pretty good idea of what they are buying. There is a learning curve but if time is essential the answer is not to outsource this function to a web designer, unless they have an overall appreciation of internet marketing. As is usually the case web designers are not internet marketers, intersection of those two skills is a rare occurrence.
Myth #2. Once a site is built and accessible people will visit.
• Truth: A web presence is the first step in beginning to develop business from the internet but its useless without the next major milestone; traffic generation. Search engine optimization, data based development and now social traffic are essential to making a web presence effective. All are essential, even if the purpose of a site is to provide information on the business, in other words an online brochure.
Myth #3. The internet is global and my business is local, makes no sense:
• Truth: On face value that belief seems to make sense but there is another aspect that most noobs are unaware of ; major search engine provide searches by country and even zip codes. More importantly, a business web site should be considered a supplemental information medium, unless it is exclusively a internet based business. It is not a stand alone medium and must become an integral part of all other business advertising. It is the only medium that allows a business to provide every conceivable detail about their products or services and right now the only one that allow a free medium for follow up and additional sales.
As the world ages these diehards will eventually pass on to a place where the internet does not matter, their businesses will either be inherited, sold or die naturally. The internet will outlive them all. A point in time will come when every business in the world will have a web site like a phone. When that happens not having a web site would be something people laugh at.
