Top 12 Website Benefits for Small Businesses
In today’s technology-driven world, one could make the argument that all businesses should have a website. Surprisingly, 44% of small business owners reported they don’t have a website, in a recent study by Capital One. Half of all small business owners have yet to create a website which is the first major hurdle of creating a digital marketing strategy. If you want to stay competitive, check out the top 12 website benefits for small businesses in 2018 below.
12 website benefits for small businesses
The internet is the modern-day phone book
When was the last time you saw someone actually use a Yellow Pages book to find a company’s contact information? People now Google a company and call within seconds directly from the page. If your website can’t be found, customers cannot contact you and will choose your competitors.
Get more ROI on your marketing campaigns
Before the internet, the return on investment from marketing campaigns was limited in comparison to today’s age. An example of this would be when a company pays for an advertisement in a newspaper. The ROI on this marketing technique is limited in relation to the amount of people who read that day’s paper. With the internet, one great social media campaign has the chance to reach billions of people. For example, Budweiser’s “Dilly Dilly” campaign managed to receive over 2 million YouTube views in just 2 months! That’s over 30k views per day!
Websites are available 24/7 and never sleep
If you do all your business offline, you limit your availability significantly. The benefit of having a website is customers can contact you at anytime. For example, I have a customer contact form which you can use to reach out to me to get your new website project started today!
Give your company the opportunity to appear in Google Search Results (a.k.a. SEO)
Creating a quality website with a strategic SEO (search engine optimization) plan, allows your site to show up in search engine results page (SERP). An example of this could be if someone searches for, “pizza in Crown Point, Indiana.” If you’ve built your website with proper SEO Best Practices, then you’re likely to show up on the first page. This would result in more leads or in this situation, more pies sold out the door! If you’re still confused about SEO, check out this article by Moz, What is SEO?.
Analyze your customers’ behavior
Having a website allows businesses to understand their customers’ behavior through data collection. Creating website analytics gives companies the opportunity to make informed decisions based on users’ interaction with the site. It also allows businesses the ability to make improvements to their business strategy to increase customer leads. We consider website analytics to be one of the most important website benefits for small businesses.
People judge a business based on their website’s design
According to Standford Web Credibility Research, 75% of consumers admit that they judge a business’ credibility based on their website design. Therefore, it’s important to create a website which is aesthetically pleasing while still being user-friendly across all devices.
Communicate with your customers and provide contact information
Having a company website allows customers access to your contact information or social media accounts. You can also utilize your social media accounts to communicate with your customers and resolve any issues they may have had with your product or service.
A chance to tell your company story and build your brand
The importance of telling your story and growing your brand are more important than they’ve ever been. Successful brand stories build emotional connections and have the ability to drive long term sales strategies. The key is to differentiate your business from the competition and one proven way is through building relationships with your customers.
It allows for customers to provide unbiased feedback
According to Yahoo Small Business, 90% of consumers say online reviews impact buying decisions. In addition, unbiased online reviews are free advertising! Legitimate customer reviews are more likely to increase conversions or sales. For small business owners or freelancers, it’s important to have a website that Yelp or Google can link to.
Small business websites offer multiple new marketing channels
Once a business establishes its website, it offers the opportunity to take advantage of new marketing channels such as: social media, paid advertising, email campaigns and more. Without a website, the majority of these channels are useless.
Customers assume you have a website
Most consumers assume that all businesses have a website. This point sounds like an obvious website benefit for small businesses, but we think it’s important to call out. If a quick Google search doesn’t find what they’re looking for, your competitors are likely to win the sale. It’s not uncommon for competitors to take advantage of your offline only approach by paying for ads when your company is searched. Let’s be honest, no one wants to be that company.
Create a resource section for your customers
Many companies utilize their website to create a resource center where customers can easily access resources. Some of the many include: brochures, contracts, agreements, policies, menus and other various documentation.
Conclusion
These are only a handful of the website benefits for small businesses and the list will continue to grow in the future. Zreux Web Design is dedicated to providing small businesses with affordable website design services. What website benefits have you experienced for your small business? Leave your comments below. We’re on a mission to provide valuable more content so if you have any ideas please drop a comment. If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Thank you!
Reading the text content of your article was extremely helpful. Thank you for such high quality (and helpful!) content.
Great post looking forward to more!