Foundations

Even if you own and operate a brick and mortar operation it is important to get online. More and more consumers are researching online to find out where they will make a purchase or seek services. If you have not already set up a website, now may be the time. Yahoo.com offers affordable hosting packages as well as a free website design tool. Even if you are not too handy with the design elements you can likely find a friend or family member who would gladly set the thing up for you. For around $10 a month you can be accessed online.

If you want to launch a serious online campaign research SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) techniques. Luckily, however, for brick and mortar companies this can be much simpler. On Google.com (which hosts over 50% of all searches) when you search an industry and location together the first thing that pops up is a map and list of local stores. As long as you are listed in the yellowpages phonebook you will automatically show up in this listing. Once you get your website up and running go to yellowpages.com to make sure all your information is correct. Now your customers can easily access your new website. 

You may consider updating your website frequently with deals and specials you are running to help edge out the competition. You may even consider performing sales online. I find, however, that these websites work best with service industries. If I want to take my kids to a karate school I don’t want to have to call ten different schools to compare prices. Many people will now opt to search online for services like this. If your karate school is the only one who lists your prices and you really sell the services you offer I’m more likely to try you out as opposed to one of the places I really don’t want to waste my time calling.

More and more the internet is taking over our lives. Don’t let your brick and mortar get beat down by this beast fight back with your own website and just see where it takes you.

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