Is your web presence up to speed?

PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

Leading web guru visits NZ - Is your web presence up to speed?

With the recent announcement by Fairfax that it would be focusing its efforts on streamlining its operations with an emphasis on online mediums, it comes as a timely reminder that less than twenty years ago for most businesses a glossy brochure, a business card and a couple of adverts in the local paper were how they got their message out

According to Internet World Statistics there were 3.6 million users of the internet in New Zealand as of the 31st of December 2011. Approximately 1.9 million Kiwis have active Internet subscriptions via mobile phone. While the results of Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast showed New Zealand’s mobile internet growth in 2016 will outpace traditional fixed-line services by between three to five times. In Australia around 49% of Australians now use their smartphones to research businesses.

Lachlan MacPherson, Director of Sennza, one of Australiasia’s leading digital agencies who will be visiting New Zealand in September says that it is an “exciting time to be in the online space with the state of the web and how quickly and cheaply you can achieve things. A few years ago it woud have cost tens of thousands of dollars to build a professional and functional web site, whereas today it may cost as little as a few hundred dollars. Now the back button is your biggest competitor, because once a customer is on your website the goal is too keep them there, if they don't like or find what they want, they can hit the back button and your competitors are just one search away.” MacPherson says.

“The huge mainstream success of Apple and their current line of products over the last five years have really put a huge emphasis on design. We are entering a golden age of design where products need to be beautiful as well as functional, and that goes for your website as well. You are now marketing to Gen Y who is very tech savvy, they understand the difference between good and bad design better than you might think. In terms of your online presence, you really need to think about how your brand is being presented to your customers. MacPherson said.

“Things are changing rapidly and there are now many initiatives and options businesses can use to improve their public profile and connectivity. It is important to update your web presence on an ongoing basis as businesses that don’t are at a significant disadvantage. Often you only get one shot at the customer, when someone clicks onto your site and it looks dated and user unfriendly, then you may have just lost a potential client. One of the biggest traps people fall into is thinking that once they have a web site, that’s it, they don’t have to do anything else. This is a mistake many businesses make and they wonder why the site isn’t attracting or driving new business. The web is a moving feast and you have to adjust and tweak things once in a while to maximise its potential.” MacPherson said.

“With many of New Zealand’s businesses focused on tourism, it is a no brainer that the web presence of any tourism operator be founded on a platform that is asthetically attractive and functionally powerful. Someone isn’t going to travel half way around the world to check out your accommodation offering when they can click a few buttons and see what you have to offer online. It surprises me that so many businesses that depend on tourists have such a poor web presence,” MacPherson says.

Lachlan MacPherson Director Sennza

MacPherson will be conducting a half day web optimisation workshop in Queenstown on Friday the 14th of September to coincide with the Tomorrow's Business forum where Dick Smith (founder of Dick Smith electronics) Sam Johnson (Student Volunteer Army) and Rod Oram (economic commentator) will be speaking later the same day.

The web optimisation workshop will focus on helping small to medium business owner’s leverge off cost effective and free software that is available online to build functional and professional web sites on a shoe string budget. MacPherson who manages the web presence of some of Australasia’s leading companies will also provide insight into how to automate your business for next to nothing, give tips on how to increase traffic to your site and how to manage your web content so it remains fresh, compelling and gets results.

To find out more about this event visit:
www.tomorrows-business.org
ends

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