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Getting your Business Online - Evening the Playing Field

Saturday 16 April 2016, 4:12PM

By Adam Jay

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WARKWORTH

It's hardly a new concept - getting your business an online profile. However, many New Zealand SMEs still have zero web presence. 

New Zealand is the land of the small business owner. We are an ambitious bunch, always out to give it a go ourselves. However, a website is often an after-thought, something which is a fallacy among small business owners - the most common culprit, Tradies.

Tradies (builders, plumbers, electricians etc.), are most often the busiest of business owners. They may often find it difficult to remove themselves from their daily grind, and take a step back to concentrate on the nap inducing nuances of digital marketing. Understandable.

But those that do take the time to concentrate on establishing a solid web presence, their investment (in both time and money) is proven to pay off. A recent survey by the Mckinsey group which surveyed over 4,500 small businesses in 14 different countries found that those business who had established a web presences grew their revenue almost two times faster than those who had no website.

The reason why tradesman who run their own businesses can benefit so greatly from having a website in New Zealand is the fact that, the landscape of Google NZ is not as competitive as other countries.

This means that by investing in a simple website, which is well optimised for Google, and marketing it appropriate, SME owners can easily compete with the larger building companies. This means that tradesman can solicit their own jobs, thus increasing their revenue. 

Mike Bronkhurst, Owner of Warkworth building company, DuraBuild Construction comments how, getting his business online, an implementing a web-marketing stratagy affords him with the ability to easier connect with clients. 

"Giving people the ability to search, and find my business online when searching for a local builder give us greater legitimacy and gives us the ability to connect with prospective clients directly"

While many building companies heavily rely on work from larging housing companies, who sub-contract them, a well optimised website shifts the power back towards the SMEs and allows them to passively find their customers themselves. 

A sentimant echoed by Warkworth web design company, Warkworth Web, whose Director, Adam Dowling comments on the disconnect between tradesman and prospective clients.

"Most tradies I know have no web presence, which is a shame because, with a relitively small upfront investment, they could be passively marketing themselves to people who are actively searching for their services. If they just get one good project throught the website, then the website has easily paid for itself!"