It is strange in this day where nearly everyone is glued to a mobile device to heard that there are still businesses who have little to no presence on the internet.

According to a Clutch.co survey,  46% of businesses do not have a website.  

Validate’s Business  Existence

Since websites are the anchor for a business’ online presence it would appear these same amount of businesses do not understand how consumer’s thinking has changed towards how they shop.  This goes for both B2C or B2B industries.  

Every business has to have at least a website to validate their existence as a business.

Root Causes

I asks, why would a business not want to be on the internet?  I emailed my offline community to find who did not have a web presence.  It did not take but a few emails to find in fact there is a surprising number of businesses who know they need to be online but, for reasons I clearly understand, they are not.

The two popular reasons I heard on why they are not online were:

1. Lack of Understanding Digital Marketing
2. Fear of spending a lot of money and getting nothing from it

Got To Get Over It

Granted, the fear of the unknown is a natural instinct of most business owners.  Making a mistake resulting in any loss of any amount of operating funds can be devastating.  However, businesses today have to get over this fear they have of the unknown, especially towards digital marketing.  IF they fear the cost of developing a digital footprint they are really going to freakout on the cost of going out of business because they had no presence online.

Most of the fear businesses have is based on the price tag on effective digital marketing.  Their fear is based on their attempt to administer their own digital marketing.  Naturally their efforts resulted in absolutely nothing.

How To Get Over It

What I have suggested is to search for a Digital Marketing businesses to talk to.  But finding a Digital Marketing agency they can trust to set them in the right direction was also their challenge.  Almost all of the businesses I talked to had taking time..some spent days of time…talking to digital marketing firms who wanted them to go in their direction, not the direction the business should go.  

Granted, most digital marketing agencies have a cookie cutter approach to marketing businesses online.  Many will completely ignore portions of digital marketing, like videos, that hold consumer’s interest. 

Expectations

Amongst the many things businesses need to get use to is digital marketing is not going to result in a windfall for the company.  We have found from many years in the business that over 80% of the effort a business makes using digital marketing will not result in any ROI.  For most businesses that is a number hard to swallow, but is what can be expected if there is not a strategy.  

However, the remaining 20% of effort a business makes will result in far beyond what is expected.   The consumers touched will be the consumers who have ground to respect and trust what the business offers.  Their word of mouth, or second tier, marketing will be where the business will start seeing the ROI.  But, don’t expect that to happen overnight or to happen for Free.

Search for Experience, Search for Solutions

I offer my company’s digital marketing consulting as part of the solution.  Our clients have found it worth the effort, time and funds to have someone counsel them on what digital marketing does, and what can be expected, before they shell out the big bucks to make it happen.  

Developing a presence online comes with a price tag.   The amount should always be based on a strategy.

Those who attempt to go into developing their own digital footprint generally use a strategy squarely based on hoping they are doing it right and hoping they are going to get results.   Knowing how digital marketing works and what to expect takes the ‘Hope’ out of the strategy.

Let me know how I can help.

SyncLab Media is a video-centric digital marketing agency with a wide range of consulting and production packages to offer businesses ready to build a solid web presence.  Contact SyncLab Media today to schedule the development of your company’s digital marketing roadmap.  info@synclabmedia.com