Entrepreneur: Ecommerce – Bridging The Online-Off Line Gap
Chris Brogan explains why both bricks-and-mortar and purely online small businesses need to build bridges between the two worlds and how to go about it.
“More than 40 percent of small businesses in the U.S. have no online presence whatsoever. This stat baffles me. Do they think consumers still pick up the yellow pages when we need to find a service or product? But the opposite happens often, too. I know plenty of web-based companies that believe there’s no such thing as the physical world. To me, it’s a matter of building better bridges.
Let Them Eat URLs
If you’re handing someone a printed surface of any kind and there’s no website address attached to it, what are you thinking? Your coffee shop napkins could be pointing me toward your new loyalty points program. Your incredible book about business secrets had better be pointing me toward websites at every turn (Jeffrey Gitomer’s sales books are loaded with links to sites where he continues his efforts). Put URLs on everything you offer, and use them as ways to engage your customers or potential customers, such as sign-ups for e-mail newsletters or other offers to extend their experience.”