Image is everything. Standout!

Image, what others perceive, think you do or even awareness of is everything. If they can’t find you or have no idea what you do, they’re moving onto your competition or until they find what they want or someone sells it to them!

Whether you’re a bricks and mortar business, website based or direct sales, everything is about image. Image is everything and you have less than seven seconds to make that first impression count or they’re moving on.

Latest research tells us we see somewhere between 4000 and 10,000 messages a day, compared to around 500, back in the 70’s. That means that you better standout! You may have had a chance to wing it back then but no way now. Everything needs to stand out beyond the other 10,000 messages we are getting bombarded with each day.

I met a lady a couple of weeks ago that asked why she couldn’t get her webpage onto page one of Google. I asked what her business name was and what the most common search terms for that business were and they were poles apart. Nothing ever, other than spending a small fortune on SEO and Google add words was ever going to get that website on the front page of Google.

I caught up with a business recently that I had an incredibly hard time finding, eventually I did through a process of elimination and finally seeing a couple of street numbers. He was tucked in the back in a group of factories and commercial buildings and no sign. I asked how business was going. He said not well! I asked do you think it had anything to do with the fact that no one can find you, you don’t have a sign. He said I’ve been thinking that has something to do with it and maybe I should get a sign! He still hasn’t got one!

There’s no rocket science here, if they can’t find you, they’ll look for someone else, if they can’t find your website, they’ll click on the next guy. All too often we seem to be looking for another reason, reduce the price, the product is wrong, the economy, too much competition, technology and more, when maybe all that’s needed is to get the fundamentals right first!

If we are being bombarded by up to 10,000 messages a day, you better at least have one that can be seen for starters. Consider this. Let’s say you have a business on a main road somewhere in amongst a strip of dozens of shops and signs. Tens of thousands of people walk and drive past daily, maybe 100,000 people a week, yet maybe only 100 walk in a week to your business. At some point, they may want what you have but either aren’t aware you have it, can’t see you, your businesses doesn’t look like the sort of business they want to deal with or it’s too hard to get there. What do you have to do to change that, to maybe get twice as many at least walking in, clicking on, to make that initial inquiry and then what happens next is a another story.

If you accept the current closure statistics of new businesses which in fact is around 92% of what opened each year, (a report released in July 2016 reported that 285,000 businesses started, yet 263,000 closed) and even if it’s half, that’s still far too many that maybe may have had a dramatically different result had they only focused attention on the core basics first, things like their image. Here are a few ideas, the bare minimums that every business, start-up or established business should have in place.

• Signage. There’s no point in being the best kept secret in whatever it is you do. Sure you can get there eventually but it’s got to take longer. Street, office, vehicles, billboards, bus signs, banners, anything that helps to get you noticed. Even a building number. If your address is 123 Smith St, it might just make it a little easier to find.
• Staff uniforms. It’s a simple thing but it continues that branding, you know who the staff are and it’s another opportunity to put your business in their mind. Many times over the years I’ve been stopped in the street because someone saw my business logo on the shirt and wanted to know more.
• Websites. It’s a lot easier if your name says what you do and especially if that’s what they search for but if not, try setting up additional landing pages to direct traffic to your main site with the weird name that you don’t want to change.
• Point of sale stationary. Business cards, brochures, flyers, information on how to use your product are all easily produced and relatively cheap. The amount of times I’ve come across a business that “just run out” of business cards (two years ago) is incredible. Business cards are still one of the most effective marketing tools and people still keep them, they may scan and keep them but they still want them. (Once they walk in, then we want them to remember us and where we are)

It’s easy to get missed, so you want to do everything possible to make sure you don’t. If you’re not at least doing the basic minimums then that’s probably a great place to start or even review if you’ve been in business for a while and looking for opportunities to get a little extra exposure.

Of those 10,000 plus messages every day, consider how many people (maybe 100,000) are walking or driving straight past your business or your webpage simply because it couldn’t be seen. If only 100 people a week “see” your business now, imagine the result if you doubled that to 200 people even just seeing your business. They might not be ready to buy now but in the future they might. If they can’t see you, they won’t.

Image is everything and you have less than seven seconds to make that first memorable impression. Miss it and they could be gone forever, get it right by simply getting the fundamental basics right, you could have additional clients for life!

Mybusinessnow helps businesses focus on those key fundamental’s that make a huge difference to the way you attract, convert and retain more clients. You can find more information on our website at Mybusinessnow.com.au or contact us via email at info@mybusinessnow.com.au