With the world becoming a global village and information technology advancing, getting information has become easier! It is therefore safe to say that whatever business organization that has refused to identify with the change is already out of the market! Even as rising entrepreneurs and small scale business owners, the importance of a spot on the internet cannot be over rated!
People need information frequently and can be willing to pay reasonable amounts to get them. Therefore every rising business owner that tries to achieve business success must endeavor to maintain a strong online presence; this has been made easier by the availability of smart phones and palm computers plus cheap internet packages! As good as internet has been, so many people are still yet to maximize its functionality!
As a business oriented person that I am, I went to Balogun market in Lagos recently and so many thought kept running through my mind, I studied the big shop and small shop owners and how they managed their businesses! I was actually in the market to find out the prices and styles of Ankara design to be used for a friend's wedding! What a stress I went through, and then I wished only that there could be popular aso-ebi stores online like we have jumia.com and other sites where we could view pictures of clothes available and order from there. Then it struck me, lots of business owners are still yet to identify with the usefulness of the internet and social media!
Probably they feel people know their way to the market and it is additional expense to run an online presence or maybe they have not even been open to the idea! If only they knew that, a marketplace is not just a physical structure or place! New markets are emerging everyday and only the fittest will thrive! The trick is about getting ahead, and I believe the internet is a veritable tool to get ahead. Business owners need to establish an online presence for their products and services and connect with people on social media to get ahead in their businesses; an online presence goes beyond setting up a website and leaving it to run itself: the website has to be publicized and updated regularly! If I had gotten a good store online where I could view designs of different Ankara fabrics with their prices and have it delivered to me like Jumia does, I would have taken that option gladly. Though it would have come at an added cost but I would not have seen that as a problem!
Time really is short and we try to manage our time well, we appreciate services that make things easy for us. A lot of times I have been disappointed at the myopic reasoning of some business operators especially on the Lagos Island axis; there was a time I entered into a big shop on Dosunmu street and wanted to snap pictures of different towels as samples for a client; I intended to buy some but needed to get the approval of my boss as to the right size to buy but to my utmost amazement, I was sent out of the shop in a bad manner! I was disgusted and walked away, if only they knew the chance they had lost! Of course I could always get the chance to snap them somewhere else (We were going to buy a large quantity after getting the right size and quality our client preferred) but at that moment the importance of the online presence struck me, if only some of the business men and women had a functioning website where I could view samples of different sizes and download pictures to send to my boss, I would have gladly taken that option and placed my order instead of walking the whole market.
Online presence is not only about having a website, it is more than that, it relates to the organizational activities and achievements that is constantly shared via social media; customers need to know more about their preferred brand, so it is important that they can obtain information about the success of their brands in a less stressful manner. This is why it is important for rising entrepreneurs and local business owners to concentrate some of their efforts in keeping their products and company alive in the minds of their prospects and current clients. A large number of people surf the net every day, they open different links from so many sites seeking for information! Most times information relating to price and values, terms and conditions, and effectiveness of the products! It is important for service providers and business owners to always make this information available on a daily basis! So many websites have stale information, changes in information about products and services should be constantly updated with pictures and other relevant articles! This is one of the things that stands most online retail firm out of the crowd! Business owners need a re-orientation, they need to stop feeling like it is wrong for people to ask about their products and services when they are not yet ready to purchase them, they need to start seeing it as an obligation they owe to their prospects and clients and be glad to provide them!
Having a strong online presence makes things easier for them; they should work on having a forum on their sites where customer’s enquiries are dealt with.
Let me highlight some of the side attractions that make an online presence achieve desired results; In my little discovery over time, I have found the following aspects to be very attracting in websites:
1. Question and Answer section
2. Picture updates
3. Product development activities
4. Stories related to ongoing projects and achievements
5. Customers feedbacks
6. New discoveries
7. Price splash
Online presence need not only be through websites, small business owners can effectively make use of their Blackberry phones to communicate with clients and prospects! I've seen so many firms do it, there are lots of tools that are available on Blackberry phones that can help relate information easily like the Broadcast messages, display pictures and personal messages. Blackberry phones are becoming cheaper by the day, so business owners that cannot afford to set up and maintain an active website can easily make use of their blackberry phones.
Effective online presence can help achieve a lot such as;
- Wider reach
A business owner no longer has to invest lots of funds in setting up branches in all the states of the federation, the business can easily put up a strong and active website that provides information about all the products and services available and make delivery services available.
- Increased profits
With wider reach comes an increased profit, so many businesses are still denying themselves this chance for higher profits by being internet deficient.
- Customer preference and referrals
When clients have all the information they need about your products and services it is easier for them to be loyal to your brand and make referrals to others because of the confidence the information they have about your product has helped them to build. I cannot over emphasize the importance of online presence to business entrepreneurs.
What is your own view of the topic?
Tosin Kayode is a regular writer on @OLATUNJISPEAK's blog. She tweets from @tospet16
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