Will the web boom while the world is in recession?

Posted by Rob on 22 Nov 2008 in The Internet | Permalink

You can’t escape the downturn in the economy at the moment. Turn on the news and some bank is broke, or a business is shedding thousands of staff.

It’s gloomy news for some people, but many web professionals I know have seen a noticeable increase in enquiries - how can that be if things are in meltdown?

Lowering costs

In times of recession it’s quite normal for companies to lower their costs because sales and revenue are down. But, in an effort to be innovative and find new markets for products and services, it seems businesses are now looking closely at their on-line activities.

The web is a cost effective sales channel

Take out an advert in a glossy magazine and you’ll be paying a 4 or 5 figure sum every month for the privilege, and over a year that can mount up into a huge sum of money. When you compare this to the price of running an average business web site, it makes common sense to turn to the web to use that as a primary source of information.

Web sites have many advantages

They’re cheap to run in comparison with traditional advertising methods
They’re available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
Information can be updated instantly, no waiting for the next print ad to be published!
A truly global audience
They can be used in conjunction to traditional advertising to provide value added features
They can easily grow and adapt with changing business and customer needs

A major shift in thinking?

The internet as we know it has been with us for more than a decade now, yet many businesses are still not exploiting their web sites to their full potential. I’m making an informed guess that they’re now starting to realise this, hence the sudden upturn in interest many web professionals are seeing.

Are we going to see a second dot com boom, albeit with a more focused approach than the last one?

A structured approach is still needed

The old phrase “build it and they will come” used to be common place, but that’s not the case any more. Any web venture needs to be highly focused on the customer, people have a lot of choice and if one site doesn’t suit their needs they will move onto the next.

If business orientated sites are to succeed during the recession they need to be 100% customer orientated…

Provide the customer with the information they are looking for, not necessarily what you want to tell them
The site must be easy to navigate to find the right information
Text copy needs to be relevant, jargon free, and in a plain, easy to understand format
The sites content should be up to date, old content can be misleading
Enquires are dealt with promptly, orders are dispatched on time

Free useful advice!

If you’re planning to enhance your web presence during the recession there are some things to always bear in mind…

Don’t let your office junior throw up a few pages with Dreamweaver - use a professional web designer who knows what they’re doing
Don’t let your marketing department write text copy unless they know how to write for the web (few marketeers do!) - use a web copywriter
Don’t use cheap or free web hosting for a business site - if you site is down you will need a reliable web host who can solve the problem quickly
Avoid “design by committee” - too many cooks spoil the broth!
Listen to the advice your web designer gives you - they’re professionals for a reason!