After my somewhat harsh post last week the question begs to be asked “How do I get people to use my business then?” Not everyone can afford a fantastic Viral Video, Flash Game or regular competitions, so how do you get people to use your services over the multitude of other businesses that have gone on-line in the past year? Well that is a damn good question and one that has no simple answer.

The evolution of the internet has had some very interesting social implications. What many people forget about the internet is that it is, at it’s core, a source of information (and porn, but that’s a whole different ball game.) It is a massive database of millions of computers constantly collecting, recording and storing data at an unprecedented, ever increasing rate. Having said that let’s look at the implications:

Information has become not only free but readily available. Gone are the days of our Parents and Grandparents who passed information down generation to generation by teaching and example. In today’s post-war, baby-boomer, capitalist society, we see parents being necessarily caught up in the dog eat dog corporate world. It’s hard enough finding the hours in the day to put food on the table and eat it, let alone help your son or daughter fix their rusted out first car.

So how do the kids get by? As you know a large percentage of the young population in the modern world have grown up with computers and, in the last eleven years, the internet. The new “Generation-Y” kids, that marketers were once so baffled by, were not raised on Television like their older “Gen-X” siblings. They were raised in a rapidly evolving realm of information. They participated in the forums, looked at all the porn sites, laughed at the dot com boom and giggled at the apparent ineptitude of the older generation.

What eventually grew out of this environment of precocious young up-starts in a world of information is nothing short of phenomenal. If there is something to be done and you don’t have the answers, it can be found on the internet. The internet has become the Zeitgeist, the Hive Mind, the Collective Unconscious, and where dad can’t teach you how to fix the spark plugs in your clapped out bomb, the internet can, hence the birth of the “Google Expert”.

People now have the ability to do anything they wish. If it is a simple task, or even an affordable complex task, a growing percentage of the population can now perform it simply by hunting down the information on-line. This makes it difficult for businesses that are providing base level services. These businesses survive because of convenience rather than lack of knowledge. When dealing with a more educated client you may find yourself over charging as the monetary expense may outweigh the time saved by paying for the job to be done.

So what does all this mean? How does that mildly depressing, relatively confusing, seriously nut-shell bit of writing help you to bring people to your business? The answer is there, it’s hidden between the lines: Give your audience the information for free.

GASP!

Yes you read that line correctly; “But why!?” I hear you cry “If I provide potential clients with all of the information they need they may just go and do the job themselves.” That’s true and my answer is relatively simple: Even if they have the time to do the job themselves chances are they will run into a problem that will require a level of expertise that they do not have. Now my question to you is “Where are they going to go at that point?”

The information that you give them for free is already available. In fact there is probably even more information than you are willing to give somewhere on the web. If your potential client did not get their information from you they will go straight to the service provider that gave it to them first and I doubt that service provider will recommend you (being their competition and all).

So you see, even if you can’t have the greatest flash app or viral video on your site to entice your potential clients or generate word of mouth marketing, you can still use the internet to your benefit by providing key information. At it’s very core this is what the internet provides. Don’t try and change it like so many other businesses have tried, and failed, to do. Utilise it. Give your target market the respect they deserve and you will get their respect, and business, in return. Do not insult their intelligence, encourage their growth, and your business will grow with them.