Thoughts on Building a Business

Sensis undertakes a quarterly Questionnaire on business confidence for Small Business, called the Business Index. The June 2009 questionnaire focussed on how Small Business was utilising technology and the Internet. It had some very interesting results that I thought I would share with you.

Business Computer Ownership

• 97% of all businesses used a Computer
• The highest usage is Communications & Business Services, Finance & Insurance and Health & Community at 100%
• The lowest usage is Building & Construction at 90%

Business Internet Connections

• 95% of all businesses use the Internet (up from 34% in 1998)
• Finance & Insurance the highest users at 100%
• Building & Construction the lowest at 87%

Business Internet Usage

• The main use for Internet in Small Business (97% of connected businesses) was email and communication
• 92% use it to look for information on Products and Services
• 83% use it to access Online Directories (such as Yellow Pages)
• 78% to place orders for Products and Services
• 78% to pay for Products and Services

Consumer Internet Usage

• 90% of Households have a Computer with 85% having Internet
• 78% of all Australians used the internet to research Products and Services
• 61% ordered Goods and Services
• 41% used a Social Networking Site
• 41% read a Blog
• 27% belonged to an Online Community
• The biggest increase in usage for the last 12 months was the number belonging to an online community (up 7%)

So what does this all mean. Well to be blunt, it means that if you don’t have an Internet Presence, than you are not being serious about growing your business. But don’t worry if you don’t have a website, only 56% of Small Business have a website.

Now forgive me as I get onto my Soapbox, but I find this astounding. The Internet is arguably the fastest growing area in our life. More and more people are using the Internet for not only research, but connecting with other people and businesses. This is only going to grow as Gen Y becomes more influential in Society. Yet there are still a large number of businesses out there refusing to get on board.

Recently we’ve seen businesses seize opportunities with Government funding in Water tanks, Solar Panels and Insulation and develop their businesses to take advantage of these. Yet many of these same businesses are still resisting the Internet.

So as Professor Julius Sumner Miller asked – Why is it so?

This is the million dollar question, but I believe that it boils down to 3 main reasons:

1. Don’t really understand the Internet and what it takes to develop an Online Marketing Strategy
2. Believe that it’s expensive
3. Or just refuse to embrace technology

So if you don’t have a web Presence, I ask you – which one are you?

Download the full Sensis eBusiness Report

I came across this amazing video on Youtube with interesting Stats on Social Media. It reinforces my opinion that any Business that is serious about growing into the future should focus on their online presence. The Internet (and Social Media) is here to stay, so don't get left behind.

 

If you don't have time to watch the video, some of the key points to come out of it are:

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers
• 96% of Gen Y have joined a social network 
• Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
• The years taken to Reach 50 millions Users: 
  • Radio - 38 Years
  • TV - 13 Years
  • Internet - 4 Years
  • iPod - 3 Years
  • Facebook - 100 million users in less than 9 months
  • iPhone applications - 1 billion in 9 months.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia
• China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their services
• 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
• 80% of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook
• The 2nd largest search engine in the world is YouTube
• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. Some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica and 78% of these articles are non-English
• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
• 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily
• Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
• 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
• 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
• People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations 
  • Only 14% trust advertisements
  • Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
  • 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
• Hulu (a TV Show Download site in the US) has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
• 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
• According to Jeff Bezos 35% of book sales on Amazon are in Downloadable format
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
• In the near future we will no longer search for  products and services they will find us via social media
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
• Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy Listening first, selling second
• Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser

For sometime I have been a fan of David Blain and have probably referred him to some of you. He is Scottish (we won't hold that against him) and has a really good take on Internet marketing.

Anyway, he has just released his latest version of "The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing". This covers what he considers are 13 key strategies to maximise your internet marketing and is a really easy read as well as being incredibly informative. He has released it on a site called scribd.com, which is a really interesting site. It is essentially a Youtube site for Articles.

So I thought the best way to show you both, would be to embed David's article in my blog and you can then see both. So here it is - enjoy!

The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing

Previously at Probity Web & Print, we have focused solely on our Online Business Websites (using the GoodBarry Platform) as I believed that you'd be mad to want anything else. However, we have still from time to time, met people who really just want a simple 5 page Brochure site with a Contact Us Form. In these cases, we have referred them onto other Web Businesses that do these Brochure Sites. With Dan becoming a Partner, we have reviewed our current offerings and have added the following solutions:

Online Brochure Site

This is simply a Brochure Site with 5 Pages and a Contact Us Webform. It is a cheap way to get your business a Web Presence with low ongoing costs (hosting is only $10/month). We are offering these sites for only $550 including GST, but have a special introductory offer of only $440 inc GST for the month of May only.

Build your Own "GoodBarry Powered" Online Business Solution

This is the platform that we used on all of our previous sites. It is incredibly powerful and allows you to have pretty much any functionality a Small Business would want on the Internet. This includes Email Marketing, Online Shops, Secure Zones, Online Database, Easy Build Webforms, Blogs, Forums and much more. You can now build your own GoodBarry site by choosing from our Templated options. Unlike our usual Custom Designed sites, these are templated sites and you are responsible for building them. The good news is that you can sign up for a FREE 30 day trial to check it out and then when you want to go live, simply pay us $120 inc GST. For this, we will help you redelegate your Domain to your new site, submit your site to Google etc and set up your Email Accounts and auto responder addresses. To get started go to our Online Business Builder.

Domain and Email Solution

Our Reseller Agreement with TPP Internet means that we can now offer Domain Registrations (or Renewals) at $30 for a 2 year licence. If you have a Domain already with another Reseller, we can easily transfer it over to our system for Renewal (don't get caught paying more, they are all the same). We can then combine this Domain with an Email Hosting Package for a further $30. This includes 5 Email Accounts, 2 GB Disk Space, 10 GB Data Transfer, Webmail, Anti-Spam and more. That means for only $60 inc GST you can have your own email accounts. So if you currently use a Bigpond, Yahoo, Optusnet or similar email address - STOP promoting their business and start promoting your own.

FREE Website Support

We have always prided ourselves on our ongoing support to our Clients. In fact, many of our Clients have come across from other Web Businesses, because they were frustrated with no support (or if it was available, it was charged at exhorbitant prices). Our clients can simply contact us and we'll help them make changes at usually no charge. However, we have decided to formalise this a bit so that it is fair for all parties and so that we can promote it to our Clients who aren't taking advantage of it. So from now on, we will provide up to 1 hour of FREE support a month as part of your monthly hosting. This may be simply talking you through how to do something, or even doing it ourselves. To access this simply email support@probity-web-print.com.au and we guarantee to get back to you with a response within 3 Business Hours.

Additional Website Maintenance

What we have found is that our Clients that work their websites do well and those that just leave them do no better then a Brochure Site. So if you are going to take advantage of our GoodBarry websites, then you need to work it. For those clients that either don't have the time, or struggle with technology, we now offer a Maintenance Solution. We have modelled this on Bookkeepers, so you simply pay us for any time that we spend maintaining your website. This could include updating your content, changing your designs, adding new Products, setting up your Email Newsletter Campaigns, Optimising your site, updating your Blog or managing your Social Media Integration to name a few. We will simply discuss with you at the start of each month what needs to be done and expected hours and then charge you at $55/hour for general maintenance and $88/hour for Graphic Design changes. We truly believe that you will recoup these costs through the increased effectiveness of your website.

So if you've been thinking about improving your Internet Marketing, give us a call and we will help you get the option that suits you best.

In a previous blog post about how Twitter can help market your business, I mentioned that it was originally designed to keep Gen Y up to date with their friends. Now I personally find this concept incredibly strange and way over the top. Which is why I loved the video below when I stumbled onto it on Youtube. Now as much as I laugh at the original concept of Twitter, I do believe that it has potential in a business sense (see my previous post).

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Afterall, Business isn't always about being serious.