Today we are living in an era of progress and development. This is the era where new ideas are being given shape to and development of these ideas are enhancing the quality of life human beings are living. Be it the varieties of food that have started to come now a days in the market or be it the latest fashion trends which attracts people or be it the advancement in field of technology like Machine Learning and AI are providing us with robots to help us in our daily chores which saves our time and energy, Android and iOS applications which has made our mobile phones of much more use than just calling and sending messages. And, the biggest success humankind has achieved in development is the Internet. The Internet has helped a lot in making these ideas and developments popular and available for every individual. We can say that the Internet is the wheel for Cart of Development.
Now, these new ideas after being developed need to be given a proper shape, publicity and a proper set up to execute its flow to make it reach to customers and provide services. And, all these setups need money to run. This is when the start-ups and small businesses come into existence. It’s a simple 4 steps process:
1. You have a new idea.
2. You try to develop it and get success.
3. You set up a new small business over it.
4. You make sure to reach to customers.
Here, are some justifications which will help you to understand the importance of a website for small businesses :
- First Impression :
- For Small Businesses or Start-ups, it’s very important to give a very strong impression to your investors and customers so that they are attracted to your business and agree to trade with it. It is scientifically proven that people than to get more attracted to and remember what they see as compared to what they listen.
- It is difficult to believe that only around 45% of small businesses have a website which is very less when you realize that people typically spend 6-7 hrs a day on the internet.
- You can show knowledge and expertise in your area of work. You can also write blog posts and articles on the site that educate visitors and help them understand your business and offerings.
- A well-designed, well-produced website can make a start-up business look and perform like a seasoned pro.
- A beautiful website, explaining all your perspective and a website which has features which are user-friendly tend to attract more customers.
- Often, your site will make a better first impression as compares to what you will make because not all of us are polished salespeople.
- So, owning a website gives you an upper hand and a better first impression.
- Build & Grow Your Business :
Having a website helps you in growing your business and team. And in order to so you can try the following ways :
- Set up a career page which will contain details of vacancy of positions and other important details so that prospective candidates can go through it and fill out the application.
- A study showed that 36% of clients prefer to deal with businesses that have websites while only 21% work with businesses without websites. They say have more trust and feel safe in making a bond with businesses with websites.
- You can share your story like how your business started, how has it been handled, bring out positive contrasts between past and present scenario so that candidates might get attracted and want to work with you.
- You can share reviews of people already working with you to attract candidates to grow your team.
- Increase your visibility :
You are probably an emerging business that means you are not a well known national or international brand. But even if you are a startup or a micro business, having a website will help you in getting more exposure and visibility than a business without a website.
Around 91% of the world’s population are active internet users, which means that millions of people surf the internet every day.
It is as simple as to relate yourself with a stall at fare, which showcases itself to people coming to visit fare and attracting customers. Website is just like the stall at the internet where you showcase about your business in the best possible manner you can, letting people know about all the services you provide and their benefits.
And, your business might be the one people have been looking for.
- Save Money :
Having a website helps you to cut down advertising costs, survey costs and to some extent traveling expenses. If you own a website, you can set up an online brochure about your company, put online surveys and polls which online visitors can fill. Online marketing is faster, more efficient and inexpensive. There are many tools and techniques that you can use for online marketing but without a website, these strategies will fall short. Social Media, Blogging, E-mails and videos are some efficient ways to marketing about your business.
You can set up a video conference for meetings which would have been scheduled at places which are very far. Hence, it would also help you in saving your as well as customers’ time.
- Increased Opportunity :
- Setting up a website gives you a chance or an opportunity to prove your credibility and increase your sales. Through your website, you can tell your customers why they should trust your services and products. It can also help you to earn feedback about your services and products.
- Your, website serves as a channel for potential investors to explore your business and it’s future perspectives.
- Websites also help to increase sales of a business. You can drive more people to your site by consistently updating and promoting the contents of your site. The more informative your site is, the greater the possibility of increasing your sales.
- Business Sales Tool :
- Websites help you to learn about your audience, you get know that :
- who your frequent users are?
- what are their expectations from you?
- are you able to meet their expectations or not?
- what more can you do to make their experience with you a pleasant one?
- When you will be updated about the complete requirements of your customers only then can you make ways to meet their expectations deliver them the best of your services, and hence increase your sale.
- For this, you can create simple surveys or create rating options or even ask them to leave some feedbacks based on which you can improve your services.
- By personalizing your website, you can offer your customers special deals and limited items, specifically for them.
- Accessibility and Availability :
“Sorry Sir, we are closed for now. Please see us tomorrow.” Ah! That sounds so irritating to a customer who’s traveled to your office from a long distance only to manage to reach at the closing time of your working hours. It might be so frustrating for him that he traveled so far to reach you and you didn’t serve by giving your few minutes. And for you as an officer of your company, there might be a fight between your heart and brain to serve him after office hours or not. And, if your business is still emerging you can’t afford to lose a customer,
Well, having a website for your business solves your issue. A website never closes. A website can be visited from anywhere and at any point of time. Website makes your company and services available for customers 24×7. People can look into your website to get the services required instead of running to your office.
You just need to make sure that you have posted enough information about your products and services.
- Easy to Analyse your efforts :
If you put in effort into your business but don’t take time to analyze your information, how will you know if the effort you have put in is actually bearing fruits or not? And because you are an emerging business there are probabilities that your team would be a bit smaller one as compared to the team of fully established Multi-National Companies, making it a bit difficult to take out time to analyze your efforts and its’ results.
Well, now if you have a website there are various powerful tools available on the internet like Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics or WordPress Analytics which will keep a track of visitors, their locations, demographics, reviews and many other things for you. Without a website, you will not be able to track this information.
These tools will also help you a lot to manage your data and check in the fruits of efforts you sowed for your business.
- Customer Friendly :
Having a website for your business is customer friendly. You provide all the services keeping in mind the comfort of customers’ visiting your site.
A website can offer free advice about your products and services. This information can be delivered in a well thought out and consistent way. Some visitors might take a quick glance and place their order quickly while others might review and analyze every inch of your product before they make a purchase.
Information requests can be handled promptly and electronically. Extraordinary or special deals and reward purchases can be situated on the site and communicate through email and instant messages. Client reviews and concerns can be accumulated on the web and action can be taken rapidly.
Using chat tools your clients can rapidly and effectively reach you with inquiries without sending an email.
Perhaps the most important benefit of having a business website is that it is customer friendly which will attract customers and in turn increase your sale.
- Easy to use and always Up-To-Date :
If maintained properly your website will always be up-to-date and current. Indeed, even a bustling entrepreneur can make refreshes and alters, effectively, from any PC. You won’t need to pay a software engineer each time you need to change date or include an item. Set aside your cash for huge activities or overhauls. Never again will a client need to call attention to an out-of-date price and claim they saw it on the site.
