Compelling reasons why you need a professional website for your business
In this digital age, more people search online for things they want, for solutions to their problems, to compare prices, or just to get some information about a store, restaurant or business before they purchase from them.
- A WEBSITE GIVES YOUR BUSINESS CREDIBILITY
Without a website, potential customers will patronise your competitors. Whether you have a home-based business or a bricks-and-mortar business, a website is essential for your business success.
Even as a “freebie” website is better than not having any website at all, a freebie site doesn’t have a good user interface that will be catchy with good look and feel. It is advisable to get a professional website, even if it’s one designed using a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress.
If you are not a tech-savvy, you can design a professional website for yourself, else, you need to hire a professional website designer to provide you with the professional image you desire for your brand.
Your business will gain much more credibility by having a professional website designer to help you design and build your website.
Whether your customers visit your website on their computer, their tablet or their mobile phone, a professionally built website we give them good user interface and user experience.
- IT SAVES COST IN THE LONG RUN.
Although the cost of designing a website varies depending on your needs and your skill level, once it’s up and running, a professional website is worth the initial investment, especially if built using WordPress, which enables you to add and change your own content regularly, saving you money in updates.
Compared with the cost of traditional means of advertising, such as newspaper ads, radio commercials, promotional materials and even networking events that often include the cost of a meal or trade tables, when you consider the potential market you can reach with a website, it is a very cost-effective way to promote your business long term.
Even if your skill levels are slim to none and you need to continually pay your website designer/developer to maintain and update your website for you, the upkeep costs are still lower than ongoing traditional marketing, and the investment is certainly worth the number of potential customers that will find your business online each year.
Cost reduction is one of the great reasons why your business needs a professional website.
- CUSTOMERS HAVE ACCESS TO DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.
n its most basic form, think of a website as being an online brochure or catalogue that can be updated at any time. It is much easier and quicker to update information about your products and services on your website than it is in a print brochure or catalogue.
A website is an effective way of introducing your customers to your new services or products, announcing upcoming events and special promotions. You can also provide added value by posting tips, resources and other information through a blog on your website. Unlike print ads, newspaper articles and flyers, which quickly become outdated, your website can provide current information and news. And if you discover a mistake after you publish a page or post, it is a quick fix.
A website can be so much more than just an online brochure or catalogue though. Now we have YouTube videos, Podcasts, Webinars, eBooks and other online media to showcase our skills, expertise and products, provide online classes, courses and workshops. Not to mention social media integration which enables you to share information on your website across numerous other channels and reach an even wider audience.
- A WEBSITE IS ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE
Unlike your brick-and-mortar location, which is only open a few hours a day, a website is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can provide both regular and prospective customers with the convenience of reviewing your products and services when your store or office is closed.
Not only that, with so many interactive features and add-ons available, visitors to your website can contact you, sign up for your courses, schedule appointments and even purchase directly through your website even when you’re away from your desk or after closing.
With today’s busy lifestyles, this is a great selling point when making a purchase decision.
- A WEBSITE ENABLES YOU TO TARGET A WIDER AUDIENCE
Websites are accessible from anywhere in the world provided there is an internet connection. Since more and more people have access to the internet, even in remote locations, you can target a much wider audience if your business has a website.
Whether you offer products or services, or you’re business or consumer based, your website provides you with an alternative location to sell. As a retailer, an eCommerce website is a great place to sell your products to a wider market. Think of all the people who can’t get to your bricks and mortar store that you could sell your products to.
Even service-based businesses can offer their services globally through a website. Now that we have so many affordable ways to communicate with people, we can do business with anyone, anywhere, any time. A website makes it so much easier to attract clients from a global market.
- IT PROVIDES A MEDIUM TO SHOWCASE YOUR WORK
No matter what type of business you’re in, a website is a great place to showcase your work or demonstrate your skills. By including a portfolio, image gallery or videos, as well as testimonials about your work, you can demonstrate what makes your company or you unique.
You can use social media, but the fact is that your audience may not be right on the channel or have access to your offerings there.
If you have a website, your portfolio can be viewed by everyone anywhere and you are in control of what people see, the quality and size of your photos, and how people interact with those photos.
Not only that, but did you know, in most cases, once you post your work on these social media channels you no longer own the rights to those photos and they could be being sold to use in those sponsored ads you see throughout your timeline?
- A WEBSITE SAVES YOU TIME
Saving time is another great reason why your business needs a professional website.
Time is an important commodity in our ever-increasing fast-paced world even if you don’t attach a monetary value to it. Most people these days don’t have enough time for leisure, pleasure, family or healthy activities. Having a professionally designed website saves you time both in the short and long term.
By providing information to your customers online, you can save a vast amount of valuable time that you would otherwise spend communicating with your prospects.
Talking to customers on the phone, in messenger or emails, face-to-face at meetings, networking events or trade shows, it all takes time. Creating flyers, brochures and other promotional material takes time – time to plan, research, communicate to your designer, printer and so on. Not to mention the time needed to distribute your marketing material.
With a website, you can save time by providing information about your products and services in various online formats—graphics, video, ebooks, flip books— or as text right on the page—no distribution required. Once your website is up and running, it is available to your customers indefinitely, saving you time having to communicate the same message over and over again to different people.
- A WEBSITE CAN IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
A website is a great way to provide value-added service to your customers and clients and is a great way to keep them coming back to you when they need your products or services.
No matter what products you sell, you can share tips to your customers on how to use or care for the products they’ve purchased from you. If it’s compression garments, you can provide tips on how to wear their garments. If you sell beverages, such as tea or coffee, you can provide brewing times and temperatures.
If you offer a service, such as accounting, you can provide your clients valuable advice to help them pay less tax at tax time or how to simplify their bookkeeping. Or if you’re in insurance, you could give advice on how to choose the right insurance policy for theirs or their family’s needs.
By including a FAQ page or a resources section, you can regularly add articles or upload newsletters to answer all your customers’ questions you can keep them better informed and up-to-date.
- YOU OWN AND CONTROL YOUR WEBSITE
Even if you have a big social media presence, another reason, and probably the most important reason why your business needs a professional website, is so that you actually own or at least pay rent for your online space.
There are lots of free or low-cost ways to gain a web presence or claim your online space, but in most cases you don’t own your online home, office or store and, even worse, you have little to no control over all that’s contained in your online space. With a professional website, you do.
Social media is a great way to bring traffic to your website and it’s a great way to share content from your website. However, relying solely on social media to attract customers or clients is not only preventing several prospects from doing business with you, but you do not own your stuff and you cannot control what happens with it. The stuff you’ve uploaded to your favourite social media channel could disappear at any moment without prior warning when they pull the plug for whatever reason and you could lose it all forever.
With a professional website, one that is self-hosted, granted you are renting space for your web address, but you own everything contained within your online space. If ever you want or feel the need to move to a different web-host, you can take everything with you (provided you have backups and/or do so before your account expires).
I’ve always maintained the importance of having a web presence that you own, and this is definitely a valid point to consider when determining whether your business needs a professional website or not.
So, now that we have made you see the reasons why you need a website, we also want you to know that we can build a website that suits your budget and purpose. Contact us now!
