Why your business needs a website - Get and retain more customers.

The Top Advantages Of A Business Website

Have you ever wondered what a well designed and managed website can do for your business? Here is a breakdown of the top advantages of a business website, and how it can help you to take your business to the next level.

There are many more advantages of a business website than what is mentioned here, these are just a few of the more obvious ones.
I know that there are many good business people that are fairly successful in their small business that firmly believes that their company doesn’t need abusiness website. Is this you? Are you asking yourself: Why do I need a website?
Would you please do yourself a favour while reading the reasons mentioned here why your business needs a website? After each one, take a moment and think how this advantage will benefit your business. If need, take a piece of paper and write them down.

Your Customers Are Online

The first objective of any business is to “Find and keep customers”.
Market research has shown that 81% of people in the USA do research online before they even go out to the stores to buy. I know this figure will differ from country to country due to certain reasons, but it still is an indication of a trend.
If you are searching for products and services online, why would you think your potential customers aren’t doing the same?

Hot Leads

These are all customers looking for your products on Google, ready to buy with money to spend. Do I even have to say more than that?
This is what we call targeted marketing, reaching the right people at the right time. You don’t need to sell them on the product as that is what they looking for.
A small business website is a critical tool when it comes to small business marketing.
Did I mention, these are people ready to buy.

Saves you money

You are wasting money with other forms of marketing. Take an ad in a magazine or newspaper for instance. You are paying according to the circulation numbers of that publication. But, very few of the readers are interested in your product or service, not so with online advertising.
With online marketing strategies, you can set things up in such a way that you reach your target market when and where they need you, driving traffic right back to the services and products on your website.

Show your products and skills to the world
Somewhere someone is searching for it.

Your Business Will Gain Credibility

Professionalism is everything, and there is nothing that breaks the credibility of a business more than my.name197420@gmail.com on a business card, it just doesn’t resonate with people.
Every small business needs a personalised Email, something like info@yourbusiness.com. This tells customers that you are serious about your business and about them.
Thinking of applying for a bank loan? Banks are not fond of giving loans to businesses without a website, and even more so if you are using a Gmail account.
People you deal with, be it the bank, suppliers and most importantly, your prospective customers do research on you, like it or not. And first impressions count, and sometimes, they last longer than what we would like.

Keep Your Customers Informed

Your website is like an online catalogue of your products and services. When you update your goods and add to the list of specialities on your site, it can be shared through social media in an instant. You can create an Email list with an opt-in on your site. You can use this service to inform your customers of these additions you have made, or specials you are running. There is an old saying: “The money is in the list.”

Your Business Is "Open" 24/7

At night, when you lock the doors of your company, your business website doesn’t go offline. It keeps on promoting your products and services 24/7. No staff member will ever do that. People tend to surf the net at night, and that is when they will come across your offerings thanks to the SEO optimization done on your site and our friends at Google.
Furthermore, if you are running a full-blown eCommerce website, you can even make a couple of sales while you sleep. All you must do in the morning is to process the orders and ship the goods.

Improves Customer Service

As described above regarding an eCommerce business website, you can sell online. That means your customer do not have to get in his car, drive all the way to you to make the purchase. If you are selling large items, it must be shipped in any case, not all people have access to a pick-up truck to load their purchases and take it where they want it.
You can even set up a ticketing system for when customers have questions or issues with a product.
Your website design can be done to incorporate a FAQ section where you can answer most of the concerns that prospects might have. This can be used to address the most common operational problems people run into with certain products.
A live chat function can be installed on your small business website where customers can contact you directly or leave a message when you are offline.

Target A Wider Market

You might be the hot topic in the area where your business is located, but no-one in a town 50 km away from you even knows that you exist. A professionally designed website can put you right in front of those people. The internet has no borders and no limitations on how far it can reach.

Are you still wondering if and why your business needs a website?

Saves Time

Time is money, and the more time you have on your hands, the more money you can make.
Your website should have all the relevant info for people to make an informed decision on what product or service they will need, or at least narrow it down to a couple of options.
This will cut the time you or your staff will have to spend answering questions that could have been done even before the customer walked through the door. Customer service will dramatically be improved as the next customer will not have to wait that long to make his purchase.
FAQ sections will also save you time. A bonus to this is that this can actually be advertising for you. When someone is searching online for a solution to a problem he or she has with a certain product, they might just come across an answer that you have in your FAQ. They might just be so impressed with that, that they will remember your name, and when they are ready to make their next purchase, guess whose name will come up?
Product reviews are not only excellent sales and SEO tools but will cut back on your time spent with customers as they will have more info before they come to your store.

Showcase Your Services And Products

It is time to be a show-off…
Having a website is like being at a trade show 24/7, 365 days of the year. Your work and products are permanently on display for the world to see. Take full advantage of this.

Beat The Big Corporations

This is one of my favourite advantages of a business website. With some clever web page design, and attention to all the small things that matter, you and the big guys are on a level playing field, you might even be better off.
We all know how things are done in a big corporation, Emails don’t get read, never mind answered, big businesses tend to think they are untouchable, so they do not give attention to the small things that make for great customer service and experience.
Remember, when it comes to organic rankings, Google doesn’t look at your budget, they look at customer experience, keywords, bounce rate and things like that. These are aspects of web design that all good website developers take care of.

Educate People

You are the expert in your field.
Use that knowledge to educate people on your products.
Explain to them why your product or service is better than the rest.

Helps Get You Back On Track With Goals

We are all guilty of this. Once the business is doing good and some time has passed, we tend to forget what we had planned for the future, and how we would go about getting there.
Writing or updating your company’s profile and info pieces for the website will remind you of those forgotten ideas and goals.

Now that you know why your business needs a website, isn’t it time to take action and do something about it?
Would you like to get, keep and grow more customers?
Contact us today to discuss an actionable plan to help you reach your goals.