10 top reasons — Why a website is important for any business?
The question is, does your company or business have a website? Come on I shouldn’t be asking this question! Why on this earth some business or company would not have a website when the whole world is going digital? The shocking truth is nearly half of the small businesses do not have a website. But the question remains — why a website is important and how it affects any business success?
Image credit: Clutch
If you see around, there are thousands of startup coming up every year. The biggest question is “Are they all going to stay forever?” The bitter truth is “NO”. Statistics says only 10% of the total start-up make it to long term and rest 90% fail to survive.
There could be numbers of reasons of startup failure. Reasons such as lack of innovation in product or service, fund crisis, resource crunch, poor marketing strategy, etc.
But I am not here to discuss any of those negative things. Rather I am here to pick one of the most important aspects, business website, which could play the pivotal role in startup success.
“A stunning website can be that crucial point of any startup success.”Click To Tweet
In general, small startups has a very lean operational model. Owners operate focusing on primary necessities of business and spend capital around that. Often they consider website out of the equation at least for initial 1–2 years anticipating to have one post success. But in reality, they end up winding up their business in next two years.
So let’s find out 10 most important factors of having a website for any business or company.
1. Acquire new customer base
Well, you might have some customer list at the very start of business. But very soon you may realise that it may get exhausted pretty fast. What do you need here? It’s very evident — “New customer base”.
A business website is the top notch tool in attracting new customers who might be totally unaware of your business. Customer search about their requirements in the form of different keywords. Keywords such as plumber, electrician, furniture shop, scooter mechanic, etc
How nice it would be to rank on the very first page of any search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing!
There are many ways to rank your website on the first page of the search engine, but the first rule is to have a website.
2. Website builds trust and rapport
It is very well said, “First impression is the last impression”. A beautiful website showcasing your product and service offering in the most efficient way creates a lot of value and trust in the eyes of a customer.
You can even showcase testimonials and reviews on your website. Believe it or not, people trust if they see authentic reviews and testimonials on your website.
There are many startups with great looking websites. The moment you go there, you get stuck and feel an urge of surfing through all its pages. Happy customers always love to share such things via social media or email referrals. More sharing means more traffic and hence more conversion on revenue or customer base.
3. Affordable marketing on website
You can very well market your product with ease on your website. Showcasing new product offers and running a promotion is damn easy on a website. Also, you may not have to shed a single penny on any of such promotions.
Somebody may ask you — why to have a pain of running website when you can easily market your product or services on different social media platforms without having any website?
Yes, you can but then running Ads on any digital platform such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc. costs a lot of money in the form pay per click (PPC). On the other hand, a website does not require an extra budget for marketing.
I am not at all diluting the importance of social media or for that matter any other platform, but I am trying to focus on things which we could control at our will. Later on, if you have a budget, then social media marketing could compliment the importance of the website.
4. Sell your product/service online on your website
Setting up an online e-commerce store is a quite a breeze on a website. I must admit that when it comes to going personally to any store front, then I am so lazy! Whereas I love shopping online since there are so many options available and moreover it’s convenient and comfortable.
Also online deal tempts you to make an instant decision. It is my experience that people often change their decision when it comes to shopping later from a store front.
So why not entice the customer with an irresistible offer to close the deal on the website itself?
5. Website makes you available 24x7
Especially small business or startup does not have the luxury of keeping 24x7 customer care hotline number. And practically you cannot be online 24x7 to take customer’s call or enquiry.
But a website can make your business presence 24x7 and 365 days without your manual intervention. Your client can easily look into your services, products offering, testimonials, etc. They can even contact you via “Contact Us” page without even opening their mailbox.
Everything happens right from your website without you getting involved. This is probably one of the biggest reason why a website is important.
6. Local, national or global presence
You might be doing great in your domestic market but will it not be great to have a national or international presence? There are many hidden benefits of national or global presence. Any small business or startup biggest challenge is long-term capital funding.
A better-ranked website could attract the attention of many investors or someone interested in your business franchise. You have to out of your local geographical boundary to gain more investors and partners.
But, if you are running a blog or media house, then it could be a good idea to look for the global audience. The global audience always comes in handy in increasing website traffic. Increased website traffic, in turn, could rank your website higher on search engines.
7. Target particular customer segment
A client has become very specific in their needs. They might not be interested in all of your product offering but some of them. But the question is “How you will come to know, what’s your customer interest”?
Some may suggest of conducting customer survey with the help of a questionnaire. But who has time to fill in all details? Contrary, it is too much of work for business owner also, since he has to feed in all these details into some kind of tool for analysis. I never trust this kind of survey since it could be rigged or falsify before it even reaches you.
Email marketing comes in rescue for this kind of requirement. There are several companies like Mail Chimp, Aweber, etc. providing email marketing services.
You can build different subscription newsletter field in your website catering to different product or services. Once customers subscribe to email, you can later send segmented product discounts, promotions or even something useful information.
8. Website building is accessible and affordable
Technology has evolved a lot. There are tools available in the market which can simplify any conventional process from tough to easy.
You do not have to be very technical or coder to build a website. When I started my journey a few years back, I was a novice in making a website. But thanks to CMS (content management system) platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, etc. which made my journey as easy as a cake walk.
My personal favourite CMS platform is WordPress, which is simple to use and search engine friendly. There are enough resources and tutorials available on the internet to get started with setting up a website on WordPress. Within a couple of weeks’ time, you can easily set up your very own business website.
A majority of people think website involves a lot of money. But you will be surprised to know that running a website could be as cheap as $8-$9 per month. How intriguing is this fact? Surprising! Isn’t it?
9. Encash mobility
Statistics shows that more than 50% of the Google searches happen on mobile than desktop. It’s a 4G world, and I won’t be wrong if I say almost 100% of the mobile-using population uses a smartphone. Will you not be interested in tapping this opportunity?
Source Data: Comscore
A mobile responsive website is crucial since you do not want to present cramped website on mobile. There are tonnes of WordPress responsive themes are available in the market. Some of my favourites are Genesis, Divi, etc.
10. Outsmart big players
If you are a new business, then it does not mean that you require ’n’ number of years to beat your established competitors. If you have a website, then you could work on various digital marketing techniques to rank higher on search engines.
This may sound overwhelming but require a lot of hard work, good plan, and patience. But this is quite achievable in a short span of time. It may take months but not necessarily years.
Conclusion
Essentially each and every business should have a website. If you do not have a website, then you are for sure missing the big picture.
This said, your business should not have a website for namesake. Having a sloppy website is even worse than having no website. It projects the wrong impression about your business.
Keep your business website updated with new information and content. It should look professional and classy. Invest some time and money. Believe me; it’s worth more than you could imagine.
Still unsure…. Why a website is important for your business? You can post your question in the comment section below.
And if you know any other important reason for having a website, then drop your idea in the comment section.
Do not forget to share this article with your friends and family on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.
Your little sharing may help business owners in making an informed decision about their business website.
Originally published at www.stemjar.com on April 23, 2017.
