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But My Clients Use DOS…
June 26, 2007
Are you in an industry where your target market is not tech savvy?
If so, this blog post is important for your future success. Many companies know that a small percentage of their potential clients are going out to the web and purchasing. You may decide to put up a basic webpage, which of course does nothing, and leave it at that.
Here I am going to highlight three situations where people have thought that they did not need a web presence and why developing one is important.
Excuse #1: Our industry is In-Home Health Care. Very few of our clients use the Internet.
Some home health care companies I have met know just how wrong this thinking is already. The decision maker for the person getting in home services is usually a son or daughter. The decision is difficult and they are usually going to spend considerable time researching what company they can afford and can provide the highest level of care for their parent.
Lesson: Just because your end user is not tech savvy does not mean the decision maker isn’t.
Excuse #2: My clients are in the dark ages. According to research, they still run on DOS.
I just spoke to a group of vendors that sell to country clubs and this is one of the concerns they have. In this case, what does runs on DOS mean?
All this means is that the main member database and maybe the accounting is an older system that runs on DOS (a very old Microsoft operating system.) This does not mean that when they buy a new computer for the club, they make a special request to get DOS. Many companies still run their back end databases on older systems because they work and because they cannot justify upgrading just because there is a new operating system.
So to say this means that they do not surf the Internet or do research on your products and services before they buy is a fallacy.
Even if the country club does not have modern computers, consider that the board members are people that have some expendable income and probably have a very nice machine at home.
Lesson: Even if the company does not seem tech savvy, do not assume that the people in the organization cannot research you.
Excuse #3: Our Industry Does Not Have Internet Access
About six years ago I started working with a big publisher of Automotive Aftermarket magazines. When we started, they wanted to do some web stuff but it was not a high priority because they knew many of the small automotive shops did not have internet access in them.
Some of their magazines put up content management systems and started producing great online magazines, and others just posted static html pages that were hard to find and navigate.
Six years later, they tell me nearly all their clients have Internet access and it is obvious that the group that invested in the web early has a huge advantage over those that did not make the investment. They are turning a profit on the web and are able to offer all kinds of new products and advertising opportunities that the other group of magazines can only dream about.
Why doesn’t the other group catch up? The web takes time and effort, and now it is a daunting task and some of them keep putting it off because they do not have the resources now to catch up. (The excuse has changed)
In this case, it is good to think of a website like a rental property you just bought. You can try to flip it and you may get lucky, but more realistically you invest in it, keep it fixed up and maybe make improvements, promote it and hope you can attract tenants that will stay, and you may turn a modest profit on it each month, but you are also building equity for the future.
Lesson: Don’t wait until last call. Even if you think your industry is not going to see your online effort in wide numbers soon, build for the long haul and in time you will be very happy you did.
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Excuses and Lessons
Ron McDaniel posted some interesting thoughts on why you should consider having a significant web presense and addressed some excuses given for not setting up a web site or one that features you may not think you need. The three excuses being; 1.) Very…
Right on Ron:
The same attitude prevails in the educational market. In 1999 I warned alumni associations they needed to create online communities because commercial organizations like classmates were stealing their brand and alumni data. I also suggested colleges create online communities for students. Now colleges are struggling with getting not only alumni but young alumni registered in their online communities. Few organizations have understood the future is hear today!
Don