Build Your Own Website – It’s Easier than You Might Think!

Advertising used to be limited to print media.  If you wanted to get noticed, you could turn to the yellow pages, the newspaper, printed flyers or signage.  These days, a quick way for customers to find you is through a digital method, namely the Internet.

Previously, I spoke about building a web presence by listing your business with informational sites like Google, Yelp and YouTube.  The next step to build an Internet presence is to create a website for your coin laundry.  There are several companies out there who can help you to do just that!  You no longer have to learn complicated computer code or hire a graphic designer.  There are companies who make it their business to help you to easily create a website using pre-built templates and cut through the confusion of this operation.

Planning your website is probably the most important step in the process.  Once you have collected the basic information about what you want to communicate to your customers, you can transfer this information into a template with only some basic computer skills.  What’s important?  Here are the building blocks of your coin laundry website:

1.      Contact information (Contact Us) – Obviously the most important part of the website is your telephone number and address.  This is, of course, the main reason that you’re creating a website in the first place.  This information is typically in the Contact Us section of every website.  Other information that fits in this section is your hours of operation and an email address.

2.      Summary (Welcome or Home) – Another important section of information is a basic summary of your business.  What basic services do you offer at your laundry?  What sets you apart from the competition?  Are you attended?  What amenities do you offer?

3.      Special Services – Other than laundry equipment, do you offer any other special services?  This is where you can go into detail about a wash/dry/fold business.  You can tell your customers that they can buy detergent and laundry supplies at the store.  Do you have a debit system which offers convenience and special offers?  Do you offer Internet access?

4.      Promotions – Do you offer a special day when your laundry equipment operates for a cheaper price?  Can you provide a simple coupon here to entice customers to visit your store?

5.      Specifics - How much equipment?  What capacities?  What is the square footage?  Coin changers or ATMs?  TVs?  The more line items, the better it looks!

If when developing this information, it looks like you don’t have much to say, don’t worry about it.  Remember, your webpage doesn’t have to be elaborate or even very detailed.  In today’s fast-paced digital world, an introduction, incentive and contact information are all that you need!

Once you have the outline of information, the next step is to get some content to liven up your webpage.  The easiest and most important is photos of your location.  Be sure to have a photograph of the overall outside of the store (so that people know what they’re looking for).  Photos of smiling people lets your customers know that your laundry is a welcoming atmosphere.  Photos showing long views of laundry equipment lineups imply that there is always an open machine.  Shots of people relaxing shows that it’s all not a hard day of laundry!

The final preparation step is to come up with a website address (like www.laundromat.com).  This is called a domain.  The most important thing to keep in mind is simplicity.  The most obvious choice is simply the name of your laundry.  Tom’s Laundry becomes www.tomslaundry.com.  Start by jotting down several variations since the name of your laundry may already be taken by someone else.  A .com address is preferred but there are also suffixes like .net, .biz, or .info available.  You can also add words like “online” or hyphens (toms-laundry.com).  Short domains name which are very memorable are preferred.

Once you’ve completed these tasks, the final step is to put it all together.  There are several websites that provide a simple and easy way to design a website using pre-built templates.  Some of my favorite are Intuit Small Business (http://www.intuit.com/website-building-software/), 1&1 (http://order.1and1.com), and GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com/).  All of the sites above allow you to purchase a domain (typically less than $25 per year) and then add a hosting package ($5 - $15 per month).

If you’re not up to the task of creating your website yourself, you can always ask your children or other family members for help.  The younger generation is very computer literate and can be a valuable resource!