Everyone knows that I am a huge proponent for websites, especially for small service businesses like spray tanning. In fact, I created an entire website building system to help remove any barriers that may exist. When I asked people why they don’t have a website the most common responses were always the same:
- I don’t know where to get started
- I don’t know how to create a website
- I don’t know what to put on my website
- It cost to much
- It is a waste of money
I have a rebuttal for every single response listed above and I would explain that to people:
- I don’t know where to get started – happytans website builder (this was created specifically for you!)
- I don’t know how to create a website – We created a step-by-step guide and process to help you get started, including step-by-step how-to videos
- I don’t know what to put on my website – We created a guide to show you what content needs to be on your website
- It cost to much – We created a system that is only $25/month (less than one tan per month)
- It is a waste of money – This article will show that this statement is completely wrong
However, most people would just brush it off or probably assume that I was trying to sell them something that they didn’t need. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t create the happytans website builder to make money. I created the system to help spray tan business owners create a professional, SEO optimized website to help grow their business. I knew that a website could and would be essential to the success of their business.
Prove it!
The best way to show the value of anything is to use real-world examples, so here you go.
I have a good friend that owns a mobile spray tanning business. They started their business in December of 2015, which is why and when we initially met. They knew that they needed a website because the person they took training from told them that they did. So, they came to me.
We created the website using the happytans website builder because I knew that it was set up and optimized specifically for spray tanning businesses. Additionally, I let them know that it would be optimized for SEO (aka ranking highly on Google).
SEO is a longterm goal because it takes time for a new website to rank on Google. However, I like to tell people, if you don’t have a website yet and want to rank, you need to get started today (like it was yesterday!). The sooner you get the website up and running, the sooner it will rank on Google (if it is optimized properly).
I told my friend that it would take time to rank highly on Google, and they were perfectly fine with that.
Fast Forward
Fast forward to today and they are just past two years in business. I asked this person to kindly go back through their records to see what % of their appointments had found them online through their website. We had been tracking this from the intake form that they require every single client to fill out.
Here is the breakdown:
2016 – 61.53% of their revenue was generated from people who found them online.
2017 – 79.67% of their revenue was generated from people who found them online.
(The numbers above reflect clients that found their business directly through organic search results. No PPC or Adwords have been used.)
I wrote this article to explain how important it is for you to have a website and an online presence because I want to make sure it is optimized and ready to go from the launch. One advantage of a happytans website is the fact that I’ve created over 100+ websites in the tanning industry, and all happytans websites come built-in with this knowledge (through SEO).
Think about the numbers above for a minute.
Would this business even exist without a website?
If you took away 62% of your business, followed by 80% the next year, would your business still exist?
Make sure you invest in your business. A website is not mearly an expense, it is an investment, and a foundational one at that.
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