Operating a business in the year 2019 without any type of website could be extremely damaging for your brand. Just under half of many small businesses don’t currently have a website and this could be extremely problematic for a small business. As around 88% of all web users will research a brand or check out their website before they actually make a purchase of a product, not having a website could actually be cheating you out of sales.
It just missing out on sales isn’t enough for you to start considering a website, here are 10 other reasons why a business in any industry needs to have a professional website today:
- A website means no closed sign:
Instead of giving up lacquered on your business with regular hours, you can have information or a store open to accept sales 24 hours a day. By offering a website that also comes with support and an online marketplace, you can have customer service, information on your business and a sales marketplace that open at all times. Even if a prospective customer is looking into your business at midnight, they could make a purchase decision to visit you the next day when you open.
- Increasing your presence:
A website can be found anywhere worldwide and this means you could even start selling your products on a global scale. When you start to open your business up to a worldwide marketplace you never know when you might start to see some amazing sales overseas or a new niche that you could enter into.
- Looking at a larger target market:
Having a website means having a larger target market. A simple physical retail space could only be noticed by people in your neighborhood. Focusing on a larger target market through a website can be a great way that you can capture new attention and get people informed on your brand. When websites launch on pages like Google business, they can appear on local maps and get noticed by people outside of the local area more easily. Widening your reach and having a website for people in your market to find you, will only lead to improvements for the future.
- Having educational resources available:
Having educational resources available about your brand and your products can influence purchase decisions. Great content on your website can inform and engage. Just having a website with great content could be an excellent way to reach out to a new customer that didn’t know anything about your brand. A website can also be an excellent way to reach out to various suppliers and partner businesses that could help you generate more success in your industry.
- A window connection for your customers:
A website can be a place where you can offer FAQs, links to your social pages and a place to consolidate most of the content that you have created online. Having a community that showcases all of the content that you are creating and that connects people that are a fan of your business can be powerful for building brand loyalty. Customer service resources online can help to make sure that you are more available to your customers. You could have a live chat or even FAQs that can help to free up time in customer service with your staff and improve loyalty by making sure your customers can be helped quickly.
- It improves credibility:
Most people today are looking for businesses that also run websites. If you don’t have a website currently your brand might not be seen as legitimate or highly credible. Having a physical address today is not as important as having a website for your brand. As you present more information about your brand, the people working there and your location, you can only improve the credibility of the business that you’ve built.
- It’s low-cost marketing:
A website is a fantastic place where you can unite your audience and reach out to a worldwide marketplace. To get the same type of reach with other forms of advertising you could be spending an extreme amount of money. The cost of keeping a website open is quite inexpensive if you start on WordPress. Even if you choose to register for your own domain, you could be spending just over a hundred dollars a year to keep your website up and running on the low end.
- Streamlining business processes:
A website can give you access to many opportunities to streamline your business processes. You can introduce backend processes for your staff where they can check schedules, you can have automated booking for appointments for your customers and more. Having a business website opens up possibilities that will lead to efficiency boosts for your business.
- Tapping into online sales:
The e-commerce industry worldwide is booming. There’s plenty of services where you can easily create an e-commerce site and populate it with your products in just a few minutes. Countries like India are spending over $675 billion a year online and by not having a website or e-commerce capabilities you could be missing out on a small fraction of these sales.
- Reaching a younger generation:
Younger people especially value a brand that has an online presence. Younger people today are interested in convenience and this means connecting with brands online. If you are trying to target your products to a younger demographic you need to be placing at least some stake in producing a quality website that can be accessed on a wide range of devices.
For some of these top reasons and more you need to consider starting a website right now. A website is crucial for businesses of almost any size and in any industry today. If you want to be successful in your business, you need to consider launching your website now.
