As someone who has started a business or running a successful business, has it struck that ‘does my business need a website’? Learn from this article on why every business needs to have a website to be successful.
With advancements in Internet and web technologies, online presence has become a norm for everyone.
A huge online population offers potential opportunities for businesses to advertise themselves. Thus businesses need to go digital these days.
People learn more about businesses and products online. Websites are the most attractive formats for this purpose.
Whether you sell safety pins or factory machinery, you will need a website for your business. It will convince your customers why they need to choose you.
The digital world has expanded beyond computers to handheld devices. Websites are scalable to run on any device.
Today anyone using a smartphone can easily access your website on the go. Customers always look online before any purchases today.
Seeing your business website can only be a green signal for them to go ahead with your products. Websites appear as the end to search quests.
When a user searches for products relevant to your business or enters your business name in the search query, finding you online shows your authenticity and credibility.
So does every other business have a website? How will you decide if ‘your’ business needs a website?
Let us understand why your business must have a website.
Today, the world of business and start-up ventures is amplifying. Entrepreneurs are growing at an exponential rate. A simple bankable idea is becoming a full-time business.
As much as this world welcomes anyone with open arms, it takes effort to reach the top. Also, you need more effort to keep your business visible.
Does my Business Need a Website?
Your business may have a bankable idea. It can make you feel convinced that you will have customers.
But for how long would they be with you?
— If you lose some, do you have a chance of getting more customers?
A website for your business would ensure you always have customers who can locate you online.
With entrepreneurs rising in every area, people find it confusing to choose. Customers seldom prefer businesses with no online footprint.
1. People want to make conscious choices.
- They wish to know your brand’s history and why it started in the first place.
- What is it that your business is offering?
- How does it differ from your peers? Giving brief and credible information about these on your website will help people choose your business.
2. Online shopping is on the rise these days.
- People look for online reviews, recommendations, and ratings before making a purchase. If they find your products or services highly rated, they will want to know more about you.
- Links leading to your website from reviews are most sought-after by online shoppers. Your website will let them learn about your business, services, and products in detail.
3. Your website is a complete portfolio of your business.
- It always stays above other modes of advertisements, branding, and influencing.
- Many web developers, hosting services, and CMS tools are available to develop websites today at affordable costs. They won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
So, Yes! Your business needs a website.
8 Benefits of Having a Business Website
Whether your business has a brick-and-mortar store or operates completely on social media presence, investing in your website gives much more information on why a consumer needs to choose you. It makes your business appear ethical.
A lot of your business peers have websites. Businesses with websites always have an edge to gain customers over those without websites. So you will need to follow this trend to be on top.
- Every business comes as a result of a requirement. This spark can motivate your customers to buy from you. You can tell your business story through your website. Users today look for humble beginnings of businesses.
- Websites establish credibility and social proof for your business. It gives a sense of security to those who wish to partner or buy from you.
- Your business may target local or global markets. Your reach across the globe will be enormous at any time with a professional website. More viewers mean more potential to turn them into your regular customers.
Now, let us discuss these ideas in depth. Let us understand the top benefits you get from your online presence.
Benefit 1: A Business Website Gives You a Professional Look
- Your website acts as an online portfolio for your business. Giving the right information in crisp language, accompanied by catchy media like images, gifs, or videos helps in etching your business in the minds of the customers.
- A well-structured, laid-out, visually appealing website with just the right amount of content helps to elevate your brand presence online. The user experience of your website conveys a lot about you and your professional attitude.
- Within a minute, the customer must be able to view and skim through all data relating to your business. Include your history, what you offer, why they need to choose your brand, media coverages, mode of operation, contact details, etc.
- The key to any business is to know your customer’s needs proactively. For this, you need to analyze your customer’s requirements (when querying about your business).
Your product lists and services may change occasionally. A product you once sold is out of stock or no longer produced.
It won’t be possible to share this or broadcast this news to your old and new customers individually without a website.
Alerts, notifications, and broadcasts are best viewable as bulletins on your business website than other media channels.
Such professional ethics in your website make your business stand out.
Benefits 2: Websites Do 24×7 Marketing for You
A business today needs both forms of marketing – online and offline. Is it necessary for every business?
A blend of both is necessary, but an online business website is mandatory. Let us analyze this.
Offline modes of advertising include print and visual media.
- Their major drawbacks are limited in terms of time, space, and words.
- Also, the costs of advertisements are high and require periodic renewals.
- For example, a newspaper advertisement is space-constrained in print and e-paper.
Tele-commercials and YouTube ads are time-constrained. Conveying all your business information within such constraints is difficult.
Being in an online space means information is available anytime and anywhere.
- This way, a website promotes your business 24/7.
- Dedicated customer catering is possible through websites.
- Anyone can locate any page within your website with relevant search terms.
Publishing website links in affiliate blogs and social media posts increases marketing opportunities online.
Also, mentioning your website address in advertisements, commercials, videos, etc., make your website familiar to your viewers.
It gives you the potential to convert your viewers to customers. So you get the best of both worlds in marketing.
In terms of costs, the costs of hosting and running a website are far cheaper compared to offline modes.
Renewal of hosting rentals, resource usage, etc., are done on a yearly or monthly basis.
Depending on your marketing requirements, you can get customized support like a dedicated business email service.
With a professional website, your marketing woes will come to an end.
Benefit 3: A Business Website Increases Your Visibility
Almost everyone across all ages owning a smartphone today knows how to Google.
The first time someone hears about your business, it invokes their curiosity. Their involuntary action will be to type it in their browser’s search bar.
The top results would be your business’ social media handles, press coverages, reviews, etc.
Having your website would mean – it would appear above all other results. It saves the consumer from going through an overwhelming result list.
To be competent with your business peers, have a website showcasing what your business offers.
It is important to highlight what is unique about your business that your competitors don’t have. This way, you prevent losing potential customers.
Website mentions by influencers and marketers are looked up immediately. Today, influencer endorsements increase the ‘Google’ count of a business.
The absence of a website in search results would mean most followers go back without scrolling down. Thus, lesser business awareness.
The same influencer is out there promoting another business, which has a website. At least 50% of the followers will know about that brand and what it offers!
With a visible and active website, a large follower traffic will get directed to your business website anytime.
Benefit 4: Websites are Essential for Local Businesses
Websites are very crucial for the development of local businesses today.
Today, college students, professionals, and homemakers are turning their hobbies or passions into a full-fledged business. Sometimes, they target region-specific ethnic groups located across the world.
Websites let global citizens know of a popular regional start-up that may interest them.
Say, a business locating Indians traveling to and from other countries to deliver parcels from families whenever they return to their home city.
— Or a homemaker selling homemade bath powders, incense sticks, agarbattis, etc., suited for Indians living outside the country.
If you are a small business owner, this is a stepping stone to expanding your business across horizons.
Specifically, you lack the budget to invest in costly modes of advertising. For start-ups and small-scale businesses, the website is an entry ticket to the sea of business.
The online world treats everyone equally. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced shark, your viewers will choose what they feel is best for them.
Today, there is a trend among the millennial crowd to prefer homegrown brands. A website helps them learn about your humble beginning, motivation, and a great way to stay above bigger businesses.
Do not worry that creating and maintaining a website may be difficult. Content management tools like Joomla and WordPress are boons for novices.
Web hosting in various modes is available. If still doubtful, web development companies offer customized packages at affordable prices.
Benefit 5: Websites Show How Credible Your Business Is?
Do you know that websites are social proof of the existence of your business?
Suppose a customer tries to Google the name of your business and doesn’t get a standalone website. There are a lot of chances for the customer to not prefer you.
Why?
Because your competitors will have websites with all the information that customer needs.
It will be providing the same products, sometimes with comparatively poor quality. But a website online makes them appear more credible than yours.
Without a digital footprint, a business’ existence and credibility are doubtful today.
Today, other forms of marketing can be successful only if a website name is displayed along with the promotion or advertisement.
- Influencers and affiliate marketers would be skeptical to advertise or review you if they don’t see your business website.
Promotions and advertisements are only a means to let customers know that such a brand exists. So, websites are the best way to increase proof and reason of existence, following which actual business transactions happen.
Like, how there are two sides to a coin, most online businesses and their websites are scams. But you need the online world to promote your business.
To prove that your business is here to stay and is legit, a website with proper contact information, an offline address, or store details will improve credibility.
Benefit 6: A Business Website Gives Long-term Value
To learn about a business in depth, anyone would want to view your portfolio. Printing out brochures and pamphlets will never be sufficient to cover all your information for everyone.
With a full-fledged website, you can cover several details about your business. For instance, people want to know these before they decide to choose you;
- What was that spark that gave birth to your business?
- Why did you come up with this brand name?
- What is the best offer you have from your competitor?
Customers love to know about the history of a brand and the faces behind the brand and would love to connect on a deeper level to collaborate.
Use your website to give significant and interesting bytes about your brand. It is a great way to establish an emotional connection.
Furthermore, this helps you get long-term value for your business. Customers want to know more about your offerings, discounts, partnerships, etc.
Such open information makes your audience prefer you over those without a website.
You may think, why can’t these be done without a website? I can use another way, like social media!
Yes, surely, you can. But as we know, all sources of branding and influencing will end, only if there is a website for your business.
One isn’t patient enough to scroll through stories/posts made during the inception of a business on social media. Such static yet significant data are best viewed in multimedia format on a website.
Benefit 7: You Can Target a Global Audience
The power of information on the Internet is being online and available all the time. It means citizens across the globe can be online according to their time zones. But would your business be active 24/7?
In order to cover the global audience, advertise your company 24/7 throughout the year. To achieve this, your business will definitely need a website!
One can post inquiries any time, and you may follow up with them during working hours.
For example;
You have a business dealing with homemade spice mixes and snacks from a remote Indian village.
Your products are popular among the locals in your place and neighboring districts.
Hearing about your products, a firm in the United States wants to partner with you and know if selling your products can profit them.
If they find a website when they search for your company’s name and products, higher their chances to connect with you, go through your offerings, and learn about you.
Shopping websites use this global target to host sales. It has been proven to achieve higher sales than any brick-and-mortar store. Post Covid, online shopping has only seen surges.
Whatever website you run, educational courses, selling products, needing business partners, affiliates, etc., a website for your business can achieve a global connection.
Benefit 8: The Website Improves Customer Experience
Just like how websites help customers find and learn about a business, they allow business owners to learn about customers.
Browser cookies can store customer’s details and browsing activity on your website. This information is gold for business owners.
The next time someone browses your website, with their previous history, you can show suggestions and predictions.
Social media advertisements can attract viewers and lead them to your website.
A user can type a word relating to your business in a Google search, say XYZ jewelry. Anywhere else you browse, advertisements related to XYZ jewelry will pop up. Clicking on them will lead to your business website. Such is the power of Google advertising today!
Responsive websites improve the longevity of your business. Fast-loading websites, redirected from e-commerce portals and search results are always sought after.
Increased customer visits mean improvement in your business orders.
- Today, 98% of businesses have online customer support on their website. Support could range from introductions, negotiations, troubleshooting, outsourcing, etc.
These happen through telephone conversations, emails, external chatbots, or in-built customer support chat assistants on websites.
With constant customer feedback comes valuable opportunities to improve your business. You can renew your product offerings and offer discounts to regular viewers turned customers.
Such changes based on customer preferences are the best way to affirm that your business is always in the game.
Conclusion
The key to keeping a business flourishing is 40% business innovation and 60% branding, marketing, and following the latest media trends.
With growing environmental concerns regarding the usage of print media, a business cannot flourish only through print advertisements.
- Social media marketing targets specific groups of customers based on back-end data analysis.
- Visual media influencing has gone down to 15-30 seconds of ‘reels’ scrolled hopelessly by users. It makes it hard to convey the entire aim of a business.
Including a website in the above platforms gives the customers an option to know a lot more in their free time by accessing the website.
Hopefully, these will convince you to have a website for your business. It is also important for the website to be maintained and enhanced periodically.
Website templates have evolved, and their user experience has become more portable to suit multiple handheld devices of today.
In the future, there is a high chance that the web experience of a business will be more ‘realistic’, incorporating elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Websites will be suitable to be used in the Internet Of Things (IoT) environment where devices take up the roles of customers.
Now, ask this question yourself again.
— ‘Does my business need a website?’
I am sure your answer will be Yes!
