I was at a seminar the other day, and the lady next to me was complaining on how her competition is rising, and her turnover has halved year upon year.
This certainly isn’t a good place to be, and in order for her business to survive she needs to make drastic changes.
She was asking for ideas, but she comes from a (traditional) marketing background, and as such had a comeback for every person who had a good suggestion.
As her trouble stems from her website, I had a look (for free) and pointed out several severe flaws, most importantly that her website looks amateur and nowhere near as good as her competitors, very important as she in the wedding industry where image is everything!
I wasn’t touting for business; in fact I deliberately suggested free alternatives that she could implement herself, but my advice still fell on deaf ears.
She’s not alone, I know of a national organisation that seems to be failing and asking their team members for suggestions. For the most these members all highlight the same issues yet the reply from head office is the same “no you’re wrong, we’ve always done it this way and it should work”. Yes it should work, but it doesn’t work, that’s the issue.
Here lies the problem; People change, industries change, competition changes, and in order to survive businesses need to evolve alongside. The business model that has worked well for the past few years may not be working now, and will definitely not work forever. This is why business plans should be assessed regularly.
The issue is that many people can become stuck in their ways (myself included) and it is very hard to let go, take a look at your business or marketing model, and admit that it isn’t working. But this has to be done, and many business owners need to stop burying their head in the sand, consult industry experts, listen to feedback from others, and not be afraid to make a change.
I personally have been producing and marketing commercial websites for 17 years, and therefore have a very comprehensive understanding of what currently works online and what doesn’t. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all and every industry and business is different.
My company Webbed Feet UK in Salisbury are experts at web design, search engine optimisation (SEO) and online marketing. If your website isn’t delivering enquiries in the way that you’d like, then we’ll happily have a look and report back with our suggestions.
This isn’t costly; in many instances we’ll do it for free and we certainly won’t be pushy salesmen!
If you’d like to take advantage of this, and would like myself, or one of our other web design or online marketing experts to look at your website and marketing strategy, then please get in touch and we’d be pleased to help.