Esther C Kane

With the recession in a holding pattern, at least it seems that way, the emails and phone calls we’re getting in here at Eckweb Designs, Inc. are coming from a large variety of businesses, small and big.

It used to be we would only get contacted by small or very small businesses.  But in the last 6-8 months, the size of the companies have grown.  We figured it was the recession.  Companies were looking for ways to either begin their Internet marketing or for ways to reduce their Internet marketing budgets.  Either way, we had to re-scramble some of the ways we conducted our business in order to accomodate these types of clients.  I’m sure many of you have had to do the same thing during these recent times.

But, in the last 30 days we have seen an increase in the number of small businesses contacting us.  So, now we’re getting both!  But the fact that small businesses seem to be getting back, or at least feeling comfortable enough, economically, to be getting back to Internet marketing is another sign that it seems the economy is at least, not getting worse.  Who knows after these recent layoffs of car dealerships how it’ll be in a few months but, for now, it seems to have halted the decline.

But, I have to tell you, the ROI (Return on Investment) that can be had through your website is extremely good.  After all, you have complete control over the website.  You can dictate how you want it to present your business, what it says, how it says it, etc.  And the best of all?  You can find out what your audience is looking for and then just give it to them!

Let’s say you are a physician at an Urgent Care Center.  And you obviously are servicing a community but you also want to bring in patients that may be looking for additional services.  How do you know what they’re looking for?  Easy – conduct a keyword research – or add a search box to your website.  From these two, you’ll be able to see not only what the audience is looking for but what is popular, competitive, etc.

Maybe they’re looking for information on seasonal medical issues like flu, poison ivy, allergies.  If so, then add that information to the website.  This makes you an expert in your field.

Maybe they’re looking for weight loss clinics.  Do you have the personnel to conduct weight loss classes?  Maybe you can offer your clinic as a meeting area for a weight loss group.  Maybe you can “hook up” with a local gym?

Maybe the community is looking for anti-aging treatments.  (That seems to be all the rage these days).  If you have the equipment and personnel to handle that service, it could be a great source of income for you.

The idea is, that you may THINK you know how to run your business, but the truth is, the business is only as good as what it offers the customers.  If the customers don’t want what you’re selling, you won’t have much of a business.  So, find out what they want and give it to them!