6. Do-It-Yourself Websites
As dive store owners, we all too quickly become experts at operating on paper-thin budgets. For example:
- When was the last time you saw a dive store that made extensive use of anything but second-hand display fixtures?
- How many dive stores do you know that paid a high-priced consultant to design their logo and corporate image?
- When was the last time you heard of a dive store snatching a highly-skilled employee away from a lower-paying corporate job?
Unfortunately, those of us who survive in this business become so accustomed to cost cutting that, in our attempt to save money, we often end up costing ourselves money.
Case in point: It doesn’t matter how big your store is, how beautifully it is merchandised and displayed, or how professional your staff is; if your website looks amateurish, if it doesn’t enable visitors to quickly find the answers they are seeking, prospective customers will assume it’s a reflection of your store.
Most dive store websites are put together by the owner or one of the staff — and they look it. It’s much like what happened in the 1980s with the arrival of desktop publishing. With the availability of programs such as Quark Xpress, Aldus Pagemaker and Microsoft Publisher, any idiot with a computer could put together truly awful looking and utterly ineffective newsletters, brochures and flyers.
Good web design is both an art and science. That’s why you will find enough books on the subject to put together a four-year degree program at any major university. And, while a handful of dive store owners have demonstrated a knack for doing so well, for most of us, do-it-yourself web design makes about as much sense as self-taught neurosurgery.
Equally troubling is when dive stores rely on unpaid volunteers to create or maintain their website. It’s not unusual for a new or existing customer to fall so in love with the sport that he or she wants to “thank” you by putting together your website for free. This can lead to all kinds of problems.
- To start, if your “volunteer” were actually that good at web design, he would probably be so busy that he would never have time to volunteer in the first place.
- If the would-be webmaster ever loses interest in diving, or you have a falling out over some misunderstanding, your website’s content will become frozen in time — or just plain disappear.
- Even if the volunteer has the best of intentions, the fact they are not getting paid means that your website’s upkeep and maintenance are constantly on the back burner while the “webmaster” struggles with the reality of putting food on the table.
It’s important to remember that, like any form of effective advertising, a website worth having shouldn’t cost you money; it should pay you money. That’s why you should at least consider having it done professionally.
Additionally, when you are paying people to create and maintain your website, they have a fiduciary responsibility to respond quickly to your needs and keep your business.
It’s not unusual for a dive store to have a five-figure annual yellow pages budget and no budget for Internet marketing. In this day and age, that’s just plain dumb.
- In most metro areas, yellow pages advertising stopped being cost effective back when there was no longer a single directory you could use to achieve complete market saturation.
- And, in case this fact has somehow escaped you, customers in your primary demographic group no longer use the yellow pages for anything. They rely solely on the Internet.
If you have not done so already, re-think your yellow pages budget. It’s a good place to get the money you need for a more professional looking and effective Internet presence.
5. Sites That Make Users Hunt for Answers »
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