5 Reasons Every Business Needs a Website.
Regardless of the product or service you offer, the clientele you promote to, or the amount of hours put in weekly to sustain your business it is crucial that every business have a web presence.
Here are five reasons every business needs a website:
Validation.
Clients expect a website. It is a way to justify the validity of your services and expertise. When a client is searching online for your company, they expect to find your website. Think for a moment about this: if you don’t have a website, you may be losing a client. Why? Say you own a business called Joe’s Handmade Clocks. Sue starts searching for your website to see your weekend hours. While searching for “Joe’s Handmade Clocks”, she does not find your website (because you don’t have one), but she does find your competitors website “Mike’s Handmade Clocks” and notices they have a special going on through the weekend. Her initial intentions were to go to your store, but after searching for your stores website and finding your competitors, you have lost Sue’s business. Credibility is attached to a website. New clients often will use your website as a means to validate the legitimacy of your business.
Phone book extinction.
Is a portion of your budget going towards advertisements in the phone book instead of online? Nowadays when anyone needs a product, service, information, or anything they go online to Google.com or Yahoo.com or any search engine. The phone book is a tool of the past.
Level playing field.
Even though you have a small shop, it is still very hard to compete with the advertising dollars the big guys have. A website allows you to compete on that same level at least within this medium. A good looking, well functioning website does not have to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars (although the big guys might spend that much). Ease of use and simplicity to find the answer is all the customer is looking for when on a website.
Works for you 24/7/365.
When you turn off the lights and lock the doors to go home for the evening, your website is still up and running. Website statistics can show you what hours of the day/night your site is receiving visitors. In the example with the handmade clocks, Sue works full-time and is not able to peruse the web during work hours, so she was probably at home in the evening surfing the web for handmade clocks. If you were selling product online, the site would be collecting orders for you to fulfill upon your return to your store the next morning.
Your competitor already has one.
Chances are this is a true statement. Whether your competitor is the big guys or another small shop up the street, it is more than likely you will find your competition is already on the Internet. Without your presence on the web, you are only hurting your businesses opportunity for growth and are also at risk for losing many opportunities to your competition.
Want to learn more about web development and getting the design perfect for your business? Contact us!