Consumers agreed with this sentiment, with an overwhelming 95% stating that they are more likely to trust a small business that uses a professional web url and associated e-mail address. They expressed their suspicion of entrepreneurs trading on free e-mail addresses, such as hotmail or yahoo.

“The internet now plays a critical role in most consumers’ decisions to purchase or hire a service,” said Rodger Armstrong, from Easily.co.uk. “It’s great to see that small businesses and tradesmen are increasingly realising that having a professional website is vital to their business.

There are a myriad of providers of low cost hosting and email, and it is relatively easy to acquire and use a professional web and email address. However, as much as the availability is there, there are still many, many small businesses trading on free or their home ISPs email addresses. It seems that many of the small web companies and freelancers who have been working with the small businesses are not advising them fully so that they present a professional face to the rest of the world.

This world-view fits in with our Internet Maturity Model. The 5 stages of growth show the stages of maturity that companies go through when adopting Internet technolgies, starting with email at the base level, and evolving through professional website design, and then embracing e-commerce, integrated business systems, and even creating new models of working. Although companies are following this maturity curve, consumers may be a little slower to adopt the same mindset. It seems from the British Chamber’s article that consumers are now at “Level 2″ on the model, but this has broader implications as any system they interact with on the web needs to be professional to build trust, and that means the Level 3, 4, and 5 systems too.

As a bootnote for small businesses on a shoe string, you can get set up on the web with a professional website quite easily. There are numerous web template sites on the Internet offering professional templates for a few tens of dollars. You can then customise them yourself, or get a developer to do it for you. This takes the hassle out of trying to figure out how to do all the individual bits and makes it easy to get online with a professional site quickly. (If you are interested in this service, please contact us.)

Even if you adopt the DIY approach, remember to get a professional site, a good domain name and use the email address at that domain (and not your local ISP or a free account). You will gain so much more credibility as a business in the eyes of your customers as a result.

Link: British Chambers of Commerce Article