For any business, irrespective of size or industry, having a website is crucially important as it offers many benefits that outweigh any associated costs. With this in mind, this article will explore some of these benefits in more detail.
1. Your website is a digital shop window for your business
Your website promotes your business 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is online, promoting your business even when you are not. Therefore, it is essential that your website clearly outlines the products or services that you offer as your potential customers may be searching for this when you are offline.
Think about how many times you have logged onto your email inbox in the morning and seen emails about sales of your products or received enquiries about your services.
2. Your website is a place to showcase your business, including products or services and your expertise
A potential customer will want to find out more about your business before deciding whether to purchase from you. They will want to know what products or services you offer, how you can help them, your mission statement and values, your background, etc.
For a service-based business, it provides a way of demonstrating your expertise through videos, blogs, testimonials or reviews from previous clients or customers, your portfolio of projects worked on, etc.
3. Helps to create trust and show that you are a credible business
Linked with the point above, your potential clients will want to know that you are a credible, trustworthy business before they purchase from you. A website is an easy way to achieve this.
Ask yourself, would you consider using a business that you don't know anything about and can't find any information about them. Do you want to lose sales for this just because you don't have a website?
4. There is an expectation for businesses to have a website
In the technological age that we live in, it has become an expected norm for organisations to have a website even if it is just a simple informational brochure style website.
Think about how many times have you either said to someone check out our website to find out more about our products or services? How many times has a company directed you to their website? Where would you send people without a website?
5. Helps you to keep up with your competitors
If your competitor has a website and you don't, this could be the single deciding factor that influences a purchasing decision. Do you want your lack of a website to be the deciding factor about whether a customer chooses you or not? Think of the benefits of having the same opportunities to make sales as your competitors.
6. Increases your online visibility
As part of an online visibility strategy, you need to have a website so that you can be found by potential customers when they use search engines to search for products or services. Without a website, you will not appear in such searches.
Think about the number of times you have used a search engine or the internet when looking to source products or services. The results of these searches direct you to websites. Do you ever see businesses amongst the results that don't have a website?
7. Provides a central hub for your business
Every business needs to have a central hub to direct all their traffic to whether this is from social media, business cards, free or paid advertising, marketing materials, paid and free advertising, etc.
Consider how many times you have seen a website listed on such items. Without a website where would this central place be?
8. Not all your customers will be on social media
There is often the view that having a Facebook Page or a presence on social media platforms is enough. However, not all of your potential customer base will use social media, whereas we all access websites. A social media presence should instead be part of a digital marketing strategy that drives traffic to your website where the actual sales take place.
9. Saves you money on marketing materials and physical stores or office space
How many times have you produced marketing materials that quickly go out of date and you end up throwing these away? With a website, you can ensure that your customers have access to update to date information at their fingertips. Which is the better option?
With a website, there is no longer a need for you to have a physical store or office location to sell your products or services as your website can replace this. As a result of this, you can offer your products and services to a larger, geographical market or audience.
10. A website is a crucial channel for selling your products or services
In the past, there was the view that having a physical business on the high street was enough. However, if you consider the coronavirus pandemic, this has highlighted the importance of having a website.
Think about how many companies have suddenly had to set one up due to the enforced lockdowns. How has the time taken to set this up affected their sales? What if they already had one in place?
The above are just some of the many reasons that it is vitally important for businesses to have a website. If you do not have a website currently, this should be at the top of your to-do list.
To help you with this, our next article in the series will focus on where to start when it comes to your business website.
