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Should barbers go online

This was posted on I-sales issue # 767 12-21-98.

Should barbers go on-line?

This question may seem bizarre, but it is a very valid one in the web site creation industry. Being a web site creator and promoter in a small town, I get this type of question often. Small businesses can't see any benefit to having a web site.

Let's face it. If a barber in a small town in Oregon puts up a web site, it doesn't do him much good for people in New York and Egypt to see it.

Hair stylists, local restaurants, real estate agents, and other businesses like these have no desire to spend their advertising dollars marketing to people they can't sell to. They get most of their customers from referrals and local ads in the newspaper.

Let's look at it this way: There are plenty of web sites that have universal appeal. Those are the ones we all go to. However, we must remember that most of the web sites on the internet target a small,
usually geographical market. Many of these sites are made because people hear how they need to be on the internet, so they have someone build them "a quickie". So there they are "on the 'net".
However, no one is marketing the site so no one sees it. The business doesn't benefit from their web site and it eventually gets dropped. That business owner thinks the internet is useless to them
when all that really happened is they didn't work with someone who knew what they were doing.

So how do we, as web site builders, market to this type of client?

Simple. Show them how to use the internet to increase business.

But wait a minute. I thought we just agreed that marketing on the internet for these small businesses doesn't make sense.

The trick is all in how you market the site.

Let's say, for example that a real estate agent wants to know if a web site will help her expand her business? Looking at the demographics of her local area, we find that only 8-11% of the
potential customers in her area is on the internet. Not good odds for her. So how do we increase her chances of success on with the internet?

A great marketing strategy I've used in this type of situation is to market to people outside the area THAT ARE MOVING INTO THE AREA.

More and more, people are turning to the internet to get information about where they are moving to.

With the proper use of search words in the search engines, and prominent cross marketing with the local portal sites and bigger local web sites, this real estate wizard can get the marketing edge
she needs by advertising to new potential customers before they even get into town. This is a great resource of customers for many businesses. This same strategy will work for almost all small businesses in small and medium (and even large) towns.

This, and many other marketing strategies are available and highly effective. You just have to know how to work them.

So now we work with the barber to create a web site to attract people moving into the area. That, along with other properly placed advertising, attracts more customers. He is a success and he has his site to thank for it.

God, I love building and promoting web sites.

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