Online for the Offline
Tomorrow will bring yet another college campus to view. It’s the first of two consecutive Friday trips with my sister on her quest to find the college of her dreams. This has been an ongoing process for a number of months and will continue until, I suspect, mid fall. Luckily, this one isn’t too far, right on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Next week’s trip will take us all the way to the home of the Little League World Series, which is really only an hour or so away. I’m just being dramatic.
Universities are a perfect example of a product that you can’t sell online alone. And it is a product. After all, you spend thousands of dollars on an education and you have a lot of choices in where to go. But you’re not just going to hop on the web and add it to your shopping cart. You need to feel it out, explore, and see if it fits for you. So that’s what we’re doing; yet another stroll through the classrooms, dorms, library, lunch in the cafeteria, and trip to the bookstore.
Just because you don’t choose a college based on its online presence alone, doesn’t mean the website should be neglected. Think of the site as bait, something to reel people in, and get them interested. It’s the first step in getting them to convert. There are many, many businesses, companies, and fields that fall into the same category. Some still operate under the assumption that because the bulk of their business is not conducted online, they don’t need to pay any attention to the website. Yet, they’re still exploring other marketing and advertising avenues, thinking they just need to ramp up their print materials or trade show presence. What they’re not realizing is, without an attractive, relevant, and interesting web presence they’re missing out on a chunk of prospective customers.
Everyone surfs the web and most people you talk to these days, even if it’s a product purchased in-store, like to do their research or get familiar with a particular company or service, before actually buying anything.
DDA’s traditional and interactive website design and development services and organic search engine marketing (SEM) can greatly benefit all companies and businesses, whether the majority of your business is done online or offline.
Entry by: toni