Maximising Your Business’ Exposure

Customers no longer want just a phone number! They want to know what your business does, where you do it, how you do it and why you can do it before they would bother calling or emailing you. With this in mind, BrisbaneBuilding.com has developed a simple to use Directory that showcases a brief introduction to your business and what it could possibly do for the customer.

The web is an amazing and productive tool for your business to gain rewarding and cost effective custom. The major problem is that all tools are only beneficial if used correctly.

The following will detail the benefits your business will gain by advertising correctly and creatively within the Brisbane Building.com Directory as well as advice on productive exposure in other areas on the internet. We will also advise you how to cost effectively advertise through your present avenues.

There is only so much an advertising style can do for your business; the rest is up to you! It does not matter where you advertise, you should be able to measure the results achieved, compared to cost outlaid. With minimal effort, the following information could save you thousands of dollars each year and professionalise your business’ image.

What you are now reading is a tool and will be described in basic terms, not computer terms. If you want to learn how to use this tool correctly, I would suggest you print it out and read it thoroughly at a convenient time. Every trade or profession is different, and the following are broad examples only.

Return To Top ∧       

For this article we will call news publications, brochures, phone book directories and word of mouth the Old School style. Web sites, Internet Directories, e-mails and word-of-mouth the New School style.

All industries, including building, have previously found customers through the Old School advertising styles. Depending on your business, when the customer finally calls on you, the only thing they know about you is the type of trade you are in. You then have to explain what you do, where you’ve done it and how you do it. The customer is usually shopping around and will most probably leave with glossy brochures and various other expensive printed materials. When their research is over, they will return to their favourite choices, and if you have the right product, you may reap the rewards.

Many industries, particularly building, are Not well prepared for customers to locate them through the New School advertising styles. With the Internet, a customer can find out what you do, where you’ve done it and how you do it at the click of a mouse. They have eliminated their usual shopping and research time and found their favourite choices. All of this is achieved in the same time it would have taken them to call your business and ask for a brochure that they get next week.

We are all still Old School shoppers in some way. Everyday though, one of us is finding an easier way to eliminate shopping or research time in some area through the New School. Whether it is finding flights, movie times, or historical information, once we know an easier way, we don’t go back.

Your customers of tomorrow don’t even know what the Old School is. These customers are out there now, mainly in the under 30-age group. If they have found you in the past through the Old School methods, you are lucky, because they had no choice. Brisbane Building.com is the new choice and your business needs to adapt or find it's customer base is on the decline.

Return To Top ∧       

Many businesses may presently have a website and many businesses do not. For those who do, you are moving in the same direction as your customers' shopping and research habits. For those who don’t, the scales are gradually getting lighter on your side of the market place.

For a customer, the most important thing they want from your website is accurate and appropriate information in an easy to view format. As for Flash Introductions and elaborately decorated websites, they are more for the owner’s personal enjoyment rather than the customers. There is nothing wrong with these additions, but the content of your website is what the customer is after. They may be looking through hundreds of sites, and pass any that take up too much time to launch. The following is a checklist that will help you plan what you want in a website. If you presently have a website, please check the list to see if you are giving the customer the right information in their launch toleration period.

• Your Business Name and a summary of what you do should be seen straight away.
• There should be a menu bar that is prominent. (It can be at the top or down the left hand side of the page. Don’t place menu options all over the page, because if the customer doesn’t see the option they are looking for; next website.)
• You want the customer to view a picture that might visually sum up your business on the cover page. This picture will tell them that they are in a site that is appropriate to their search.

• Home Page (as above)
• Profile Page (Why you can do it!)
• Products Page (What you do!)
• Samples Page (Where you’ve done it!)
• Process Page (How you do it!)
• Contact Page (Where you are! Because they like the above.)

Once you have the above details worked out, you are ready to find a web designer to bring it to life. Brisbane Building.com specialise in web design for the building industry and if you need more information, fill in our Website Enquiry Form and we will get back to you.

Return To Top ∧       

In today’s business environment everyone’s customers are located in 3 areas – Old School, New School and both. Your business needs to balance its’ expenditure with both Old and New. We are not going to educate you on the Old, as you are already experts. We will explain though, how to gain precise results from your websites popularity, as you gradually move your advertising budget across to the side the customers are already moving to.

So you have your new website called, "www.yourbusiness.com.au" (fictitious). The first thing you should do is make sure this is included in all your present Old School advertising avenues for the customers who shop in both schools.

Your web designer should submit your details to search engines. A very good search engine, as an example, is www.google.com. This is a huge directory that covers every industry from airliners to zoos. Search Engines form one of the major tool in the location of websites. Only 10 businesses though can be located in the top 10 of Search Results. Businesses may spend thousands of dollars in Search Engine Optimisation - SEO (structuring a Search Engine friendly website) yet never make it to the top. Everyday an individual business is being pushed further down the list in results and the only businesses you will find in the top 10 in the future will most likely be Directories. It is already happening now!

Directories have the strength and depth of information to rank a lot higher in Search results. This is a major reason your business can not afford to bypass the advertising options available in belief that your business website will rank in the top 10 forever.

BrisbaneBuilding.com has led the way in Search Engine results for building industry related searches over the past 5 years and will continue to lead the way. The next few years will again be full of more trial and error for the Internet, but one area that even the biggest advertising companies in the world are focusing on are Localised Directories.

BrisbaneBuilding.com is unique in that it is a specialised directory with the strength of visual recognition. Forget Text Directories where every name looks the same. BrisbaneBuilding.com presents each Business Logo/Photo in a Clear and Professional looking format. This format helps customers recognise previously used and/or appropriate businesses. Each online Business Card style listing creates a professional image that can not be achieved through simple Text.

BrisbaneBuilding.com (or Brisbane Building Trades and Supplies Directory) is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, central pool of building businesses that only cater for the Brisbane region. Basically, BrisbaneBuilding.com is like a collection of interactive business cards. They are always in the same place under the same, easy-to-remember, name. – www.BrisbaneBuilding.com.

Return To Top ∧       

• New Statistics - Every time your listing is displayed to a potential customer, as well as any time a customer clicks through to your website a 'Real Time' stats section records your exposure.
• Increased Description Option - The description words that you use to introduce your business to potential customers are used in the Internal Search Engine to bring results. The 'Premium' Listing now offers up to 100 descriptive words to help bring your business into more Search Results. We have also included a NEW 'Keywords' section for up to 50 words for even better results.
• Search Options - Customers can simply click through each category and then the sub-categories to find appropriate listed businesses. They can further narrow their serch by selecting the 'Alpha' list to bring only business names starting with that letter. They can also just type in keywords to bring more results.
• Random Rotating Displays - No longer does it matter if your business name starts with AAA or ZZZ, your business will have equal oportunity to be seen at the top of each Internal Search. The Alpha Search bar can be used to filter all categories into alphabetical order if needed.



• Summary of benefits of different Listing Types: (click here for more information)
  • 'Premium' Listings - Logo/Image Listing that is always shown at the top of Search Results and are on a rotating cycle that revolves every 24 hours. Includes 100 descriptive words and 50 keywords to increase your exposure to customer searches.
  • 'Basic' Listings - Listing that is shown at the bottom in Search Results and are on a rotating cycle that revolves every 24 hours. Includes 30 descriptive words for use in customer searches. No Logo/Image.

We will only deal with 'Premium' listings in below information.

'Premium' listings are on a rotating cycle, placed in the top section of each category. This means that it does not matter if your business name is AAA or ZZZ, you will have equal exposure. 'Basic' listings then follow last. You maintain your own details, so that you can add a new phone number, or change your address any day of the year.

The photo/logo gives viewing customers the opportunity to identify with your logo, or be enticed to enter your website because of an impressive photo. Brisbane Building.com does free artwork for your business to give this photo/logo life. This photo/logo alone can make your business look more professional and will give these potential customers very positive thoughts from the beginning. They may not need your business now, but when they are ready, they will return with a memory of that image.

The direct link to your website and e-mail address is essential. Because customers will be using Brisbane Building.com regularly for anything from getting their lawns mowed to building a house, they will come back to the source they can easily remember to find your business.

Business Description is one of the most important sections of our Directory. Brisbane Building.com has an internal Search Engine built in to the site. A customer can conduct a search in all areas or each area of Brisbane. The search engine picks up all business details in your listing, as well as the description words and keywords you supply. You may be listed in e.g. "Suppliers – Bathrooms’, but also do installation, including plumbing. If you have entered the word 'plumbing' in your business description and a customer does a search for 'plumbing', your listing will come up for them.

Return To Top ∧       

10 years ago the Internet was slowly beginning to broaden its’ horizons in Australia. Many businesses joined the information super highway with no idea of where it might take them, or what it may bring to them. Many businesses then struggled without this knowledge and some sailed profitably on.

Brisbane Building.com wants all businesses involved to know where it is taking them and how to stay on the ship. The Internet opens Australia to the entire world, but it also opens Australia to a previously closed Australia.

Many businesses have increased their Old School advertising budget yearly over this past 8 years. Customers have gradually transferred to the New School in this time and many businesses have not transferred their advertising weight with this movement. If it is not addressed by your business now, you may find that customers gained, by the cost to find them has increased immensely. Prices are increasing in the Old School because of the movement to the New School. This means Old School customers will end up paying more unless your business starts to balance its’ exposure.

Some businesses keep records of how customers find them. I hope you do, but most don’t. The following will help you keep track of your future New School Customers, with advice on working out your Old School customers as well.

• Displays. This is a summary of how many times your Photo/Logo and contact details were seen by a customer on the Brisbane Building.com website directory. This total is like giving out business cards, but without the expense of printing them. The customer then knows exactly where all of the cards are when they next need them.
• Clicks. This is the total number of times that customers of Brisbane Building.com have linked through us to your website. This total is like giving out your brochure.

• Visitors. How many customers enter your site daily and monthly.
• Page Views. How many pages were looked at daily and monthly.
• Referrers. Where your customers came from. This figure would match up with our listings Clicks total. Any search engines that sent customers to you and any other sites you may have links with.
• Areas Viewed. What areas of your site were accessed most. This is important to see what products or services your customers are most interested in. These details will help you decide whether your web pages may need adjusting to attract customers to other areas.
• Systems. Even tells you what type of program they were using to access your site.

If your present website does not have a Statistics package, please contact your website host to see if they do them. Otherwise you will not be able to monitor your customer flow successfully.

Although you can get the above information to track the source of your customers from the Internet, you will still receive phone calls. It is up to you to monitor how they found you when they phone.

• BrisbaneBuilding.com - sales1@yourbusiness.com.au
• Magazine1 - sales2@yourbusiness.com.au
• Business Cards/Brochures - sales3@yourbusiness.com.au

and so on.

With these different addresses receiving mail, you can easily calculate where the customer found you. Thus making it easier to calculate your advertising expenses benefit. We suggest setting up your own 'Customer Flow’ recording procedures, where your summarise all the customers and how they found you.

Return To Top ∧       

They say you can only understand someone if you place yourself in their shoes. Not fully correct, but it helps.

It may surprise you to hear, but BrisbaneBuilding.com was developed, not so much for the customer, but for you, the business. Only you know what you can and cannot do. The customer doesn’t! Your business is hectic enough doing work, let alone finding work. What’s worse is the time you spend explaining to a customer that you can’t help them; because all they presently know from a phone number is what trade or profession you’re in. With your website eliminating the initial shopping and research stage from the customer, your business and time management can be better directed to the job or service you are good at. In time, you will find a considerably higher percentage of customers that do contact you, will buy your product.

Your business should take the time to do searches in Search Engines for all the keywords that are associated with your products and services. The businesses that come up in the search results are the ones that your customers will find. If your name is not there, you should be investing some time into Search Engine Optimisation of your website, as well as making sure your business can be included in any Directories that show in the search results.

More and more businesses and customers are joining BrisbaneBuilding.com everyday. The directory is your personal, interactive business card collection as well, and it will be in the same place you last left it. Take advantage of the Internet's affordable marketing potential and let everyone know that you now know what the Internet and BrisbaneBuilding.com can do for your business’ future.

Welcome to the Net,

Danny Gifford
General Manager
online@brisbanebuilding.com
www.brisbanebuilding.com
Phone : 07 5535 7033