She won’t be right mate

As a business owner you’re flat out getting your widgets out the door, juggling cashflow, hiring staff, sorting your tax, calming irate customers. The list goes on until you fall, exhausted, into bed at night.
It’s why you’ve put off focusing on your company website while Facebook and Twitter just seem too hard.
That’s if you even have a website. A recent MYOB business monitor of 1000 businesses found only a third have websites and 20% sell online. I choked on my cup of tea over that, though when you drill down into the figures, small to medium enterprises (those with five to 19 employees) are more active online with 68% having a website compared with 28% of sole traders. The Porirua plumber may not feel he needs one.
Those that do are benefiting with 37% of businesses with websites enjoying yearly revenue gains compared with 28% for those that don’t. And half of those with a website forecast further revenue rises this year compared with 39% of those without.
If it’s any comfort, the Aussies aren’t great at this either.
MYOB’s research shows 35% of Australian companies operate a website (1% above here) and they lag slightly behind in e-commerce with 19% selling online.
In some areas Kiwis are doing it better. New Zealand retail and hospitality businesses outstrip the Aussies in having a website and selling online. Aussie businesses, however, lead in the use of social media, with 18% using tools such as Twitter and Facebook compared with 14% of Kiwi businesses.
We keep bleating about closing the widening economic gap between New Zealand and Australia. The global internet economy provides the opportunity to do that, says MYOB general manager Julian Smith.
But we have to lift our game, including harnessing ultra-fast broadband for more than playing computer games and moving beyond ‘billboards in the desert’ — company websites where a profile page is slapped up and then largely ignored. A ‘she’ll be right’ approach won’t cut it anymore.
Hairy Lemon co-founder Graham Dockerill says Kiwi company websites are two years behind those in North America, where his Christchurch web development company now reaps a quarter of its revenue.
We need to see websites as an investment rather than an expense, have higher expectations of the way they behave and get smarter on user engagement, he says.
“The world has moved on from company websites being a brochure online. They should be generating serious revenue.”
It’s not all bad. New Zealand has some great online retailers — think of the now-entrenched Trade Me or rising star 1-day.co.nz.
When it comes to bricks and mortar companies, Air New Zealand and the Hansells Food Group have also been savvy. Air New Zealand’s Grabaseat, launched in July 2006, now attracts an average 100,000 visitors daily. And the $1 international Grabaseat deals typically win more than half a million hits in one day.
Hansells has a standard corporate website but launched a separate online baking club, Hansells.co.nz, in 2009 to boost user engagement. The move followed a successful online promotion where people shared their favourite recipes. More than 1000 consumers voted for the winner. The baking club allows Hansells to interact with the end users of its baking products sold in supermarkets. Trialled only in New Zealand so far, the club already has 4000 members.
Senior brand manager Susan Harvey says it engenders brand loyalty and gives valuable feedback on how customers rate existing baking products, ideas for new ones and any retailing hiccups.
It also launched an online store, Hansellshop.co.nz, in October, selling just a baking book at this stage. But plans are afoot to extend the club to Australia in a couple of years and take the online store worldwide, selling other branded products beyond baking goods.
The company married its online strategy with an in-store promotion in December, displaying a gingerbread Christmas village in a couple of upmarket retailers and encouraging store visitors to download recipes from the baking club website so they could recreate the village at home. Website users could also download an image of the village to send as Christmas cards.
It’s about companies engaging with the end users of their products or services, which isn’t necessarily that expensive or actually that hard. So why aren’t most companies doing it?

Your name

Listed as anonymous if blank

Subject *

Comment *

Comment composition options »

Allowable HTML: <!--break--> <a> <em> <i> <b> <strong> <pre> <u> <strike> <sub> <p> <table> <tr> <td> <thead> <tbody> <sup> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <br> <hr>
Line and paragraph breaks are recognised automatically.

Captcha *

This is a test to prevent automated spam submission. To receive a new challenge click below or click to receive audio challenge.