For any business there are three types of people they must talk to:

1. Leads or people looking for the services a business offers. Following auto repair as an example, a prospect is someone that needs their car repaired and they are in the early stages of shopping for a repair shop, but have not decided on the one business to do the work. They may have reached out to several for a quotation.
2. Prospects or people that have been identified as considering a particular business to do work or buy products from. In the example of an auto repair shop these are people that have visited the business Facebook page or found them on Google maps to try to get a sense of pricing and service options but have not contacted the business directly for to quote the work or buy a product. These customers need nurturing. Many especially non-internet related businesses lose the ability to communicate with these people.
3. Customers or people buying products or requesting work. For an auto repair shop these are people that went from the lead stage and decided to visit the business and ask for quotes or to start work on their car repair without further research.

Staying with the auto repair example, some prospects can have non-urgent work that can be postponed until they find the deal that makes them want to proceed. Many businesses that are not using their own website lose contact with this second layer of customer: the “prospect.” If for example an auto repair business has a Facebook page and are visible on Google maps, they are missing the opportunity to talk to prospects because prospects cannot be “captured” using other company platforms like Google maps or Facebook or other social media or ad platforms like X (Twitter), Yelp or Linkedin.

If any business has their own website, they can capture prospects in a small database and use digital marketing email nurture techniques to keep their interest and move them closer to a sale.

A company that captures prospects can email them sending:

• Welcome email
• Educational messages
• Special offers or discounts
• Seasonal messages and greetings
• Customer testimonials and stories
• Email messages showcasing work or products offered
• Blog articles and videos
• Surveys to increase their interest

These are all missed communications that businesses without a website, or even businesses with a website that are not leveraging lead capture are missing.

In all of the websites I’ve developed I’ve noticed this is a missing part of the way many businesses operate. I started Ocilon with the intention of solving this business need: to consult and advise with companies that were not talking to prospects because they either were not capturing them or they must weren’t communicating with them in the proper way.

I went on to build dozens of websites, many for multi-million dollar enterprises that are still growing today. I came to realize the value of having a website for any business – even if that business has very little to do with the internet. I built a website for an automotive repair business that was able to double its sales in six months. Why? Because I was able to capture not only leads and customers but prospects for this business: people considering them for service but that were not ready to buy yet.

For any business there are three types of people they must talk to:

1. Leads or people looking for the services a business offers. Following auto repair as an example, a prospect is someone that needs their car repaired and they are in the early stages of shopping for a repair shop, but have not decided on the one business to do the work. They may have reached out to several for a quotation.
2. Prospects or people that have been identified as considering a particular business to do work or buy products from. In the example of an auto repair shop these are people that have visited the business Facebook page or found them on Google maps to try to get a sense of pricing and service options but have not contacted the business directly for to quote the work or buy a product. These customers need nurturing. Many especially non-internet related businesses lose the ability to communicate with these people.
3. Customers or people buying products or requesting work. For an auto repair shop these are people that went from the lead stage and decided to visit the business and ask for quotes or to start work on their car repair without further research.

Staying with the auto repair example, some prospects can have non-urgent work that can be postponed until they find the deal that makes them want to proceed. Many businesses that are not using their own website lose contact with this second layer of customer: the “prospect.” If for example an auto repair business has a Facebook page and are visible on Google maps, they are missing the opportunity to talk to prospects because prospects cannot be “captured” using other company platforms like Google maps or Facebook or other social media or ad platforms like X (Twitter), Yelp or Linkedin.

If any business has their own website, they can capture prospects in a small database and use digital marketing email nurture techniques to keep their interest and move them closer to a sale.

A company that captures prospects can email them sending:

• Welcome email
• Educational messages
• Special offers or discounts
• Seasonal messages and greetings
• Customer testimonials and stories
• Email messages showcasing work or products offered
• Blog articles and videos
• Surveys to increase their interest

These are all missed communications that businesses without a website, or even businesses with a website that are not leveraging lead capture are missing.

In all of the websites I’ve developed I’ve noticed this is a missing part of the way many businesses operate. I started Ocilon with the intention of solving this business need: to consult and advise with companies that were not talking to prospects because they either were not capturing them or they must weren’t communicating with them in the proper way.

I noticed that many businesses don’t know how to take full advantage of the internet for their business, and they don’t know who they can trust to help them. Too many companies that claim to be digital marketing and ad agencies throw around internet terms and acronyms expecting business owners and managers that are not internet experts to understand. They also charge unwitting businesses money for activities that do not directly relate to increased sales. They create expensive ad campaigns that show traffic numbers and other “vanity metrics.” Vanity metrics are measurements not tied to real sales increases. They can be measurements like increased number of website visitors or increased number of prospects signing up on a form. More traffic and more people filling out forms and not buying anything isn’t increasing sales. Yet they show these measurements to their business owner clients to justify their charges.

I noticed that many businesses don’t know how to take full advantage of the internet for their business, and they don’t know who they can trust to help them. Too many companies that claim to be digital marketing and ad agencies throw around internet terms and acronyms expecting business owners and managers that are not internet experts to understand. They also charge unwitting businesses money for activities that do not directly relate to increased sales. They create expensive ad campaigns that show traffic numbers and other “vanity metrics.” Vanity metrics are measurements not tied to real sales increases. They can be measurements like increased number of website visitors or increased number of prospects signing up on a form. More traffic and more people filling out forms and not buying anything isn’t increasing sales. Yet they show these measurements to their business owner clients to justify their charges.

– Don Henderson
Founder and CEO
Ocilon, LLC

– Don Henderson
Founder and CEO
Ocilon, LLC