Why Websites Are Important For Small Business
Why has it become absolutely necessary for small businesses to own a website?
The brick and mortar business days are fast fading away or evolving onto online platforms, as online stores grow in leaps and bounds, emerging as the most popular market place where customers can buy their products and services. Successful business owners are already taking their businesses to the next level with the help of websites. Anyone who is still operating a business without a website, is not doing that business any good. Apparently, there are good reasons why you need to start considering a website as a small business owner. These reasons include:
- Discover customers
- Build credibility
- Acquire more customers
- Expand your business
- Gain advantage over your competitors
Discover Customers
In business you don’t wait for customers to come to you, rather you go to them to tell them whatever product or services you are selling. That has been the norm before now. However, the advent of the internet seems to have changed that narrative. According to a recent revelation, over 80% of those who buy stuffs today, actually settle for their choices after conducting a thorough search online.
That is good news for anybody who has a website and is taking all the necessary steps in making sure their contents comply with all the best SEO practices. As a small business owner who does not have any website, the truth is, you don’t stand a chance against such companies that market their products and services online.
Search engines such as Google and the likes are giving these businesses the boost they need by suggesting them to customers whenever they search for their products or services. You cannot afford to not take advantage of this help to build your customer base.
Build Credibility
It is true that businesses are using social media to maintain an online presence. There is a whole lot of information exchange going on between customers and businesses on many social media platforms. As a matter of fact these transactions occur in their millions every day.
But then, there is always a catch – customers seem to be more comfortable with businesses that have their own websites. So while you may get a huge followership on social media when you are selling a product or service, you actually get more conversion when these folks find themselves on your website.
Acquire More Customers
The sole aim of any business is to make as much profit as possible. Interestingly, you can only maximize your profit margin when you maximize your customer base. As an operator of a brick and mortar business that does not have any website, your best strategy to inform people about what you are selling is to engage in a print advertising of some sort.
Sadly, with the advent of online businesses, this advertising strategy has proven to be both expensive and very ineffective. Only 64% of small businesses have their own website and over 70% of small businesses employ websites for intimating their customers with any new product or service they have offering. You can check out some more statistics from the Small Biz Genius. Some of these businesses don’t need to do anything special but to keep updating the contents on their website in line with their new products or services. With basic wordpress management skills, that can be taken care of. You can read more about the top tips we give to business owners to help them to manage their Wordpress websites like a pro here.
You can get thousands of people updated on your latest product and even implement email marketing in keeping your old customers up to speed about your new products when you have a website.
Expand your business
The parameters for defining business growth may differ from one business to another. But if a business owner who doesn’t have a website thinks they will be competing against a business that is marketed online, then that will be the biggest joke of the millennium.
Online businesses have a potential to expand ten times more than their offline counterparts. More people access online businesses than they do for offline stores. The influx of various mobile devices into the public space has helped skyrocket these business opportunities. End users are always going to find you if you get your strategy right and make sure they are SEO-friendly.
With more and more customers flocking your website, it will be easier to extend your business fronts and expand to other localities.
Gain advantage over your competitors
There is always a competition out there as far as marketing is concerned. It will be impossible for you to be the only one dealing on a product or services. There is always someone you are trying to compete with for market share.
Whoever gets the biggest share of customers eventually, in many cases, are those who know how to spark off the right emotions from their customers by using the right contents. So how do you solve this puzzle? Very simple – stack your website with the right content. Provide your customers and potential customers with the right kind of experience. Add the right designs to your efforts, better engagement, effective marketing strategy and you would be racing ahead of those competitors without you even knowing it.
Conclusion
While there are no 100% or fail-safe methods for making the best sales through websites, staying without a website is much worse and an assuring recipe for disaster. There is an avalanche of opportunities waiting for you when you launch your website. Get in the mix and attract more customers by using the right content. And as for the mastery and technical qualifications for managing a website, a basic wordpress support may be all you need to make the difference in your business today. There are multiple tools that can simplify your marketing efforts when you go online. Launching a website is nothing but a win-win for small business owners.
