NEW ORLEANS — Websites are an essential element of marketing today, said Daniel McCrory, director of Internet marketing for the Golomb Group, in yesterday’s Websites: If You Build It, They Will Come.
Sponsored by the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), the Clean Show educational session urged attendees to get on the web before other operators. “If your competitors don’t have a site now, they will,” Golomb told the audience. “And you have to stay ahead of the competition.”
A good website has to be easy to navigate and visually appealing, he said. It should also offer all essentials about the business, such as its identity, location, services offered, pickup-and-delivery registration, Internet-only specials or coupons, and more. But the difference between a good website and a great website, he said, is to get customers to see it.
The first operator to establish a site in an area typically comes up at the top of consumer searches on engines such as Yahoo! and Google, he said. Operators can also pay relatively small amounts of money, compared to traditional media, to ensure that a sponsored listing pops up alongside searches.
“Most companies that don’t sell a product or service online don’t think they need to promote their site,” Golomb said. “This is not the case. Promotion is absolutely essential.”
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