Reaching thousands of people using only traditional marketing methods such as direct mail or print advertising can be very expensive and unreliable. By going online, you can reach more people locally or outside your area while paying less for exposure, and you can even measure specific results. In fact, 77 percent of U.S. small businesses said a website is a great way to find new customers.
Your website is always open and available for customers to buy your products at any time of the day, or provide a way for a visitor to inquire about a service. While the web has been around for a while, it’s true that you didn’t always need a website to find your audience. It was much easier to market through direct mailings, yellow page ads, and local word of mouth. However, these days, your website and social presence are the factors customers are looking for when researching a small business. When you create a website, you set up an online store and show customers that they can go here to find information about you, read articles you’ve written, and learn more about your business.
By the way, don’t ignore the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets and apply responsive web design to provide mobile users with a satisfying user experience. There are many benefits to having a website for both small business owners and owners of large companies, for startups and for large companies. However, Online marketing it’s surprising that 46% of small businesses still don’t have a website, while 12% probably won’t believe it in the future and 10% aren’t sure. Now, when modern humans spend about 8 hours a day on the internet and influence the way we live and work, any successful business needs to have a presence on the web.
You can build a brand presence for your business on social media, but the platform limits it in terms of design, process, and technology. A website can help small businesses increase flexibility, control, branding, and credibility. Eighty-four percent of U.S. consumers believe that a company with a website is more credible than a company that has only one social media page. To be credible and attract new customers, a website can make all the difference. Because having your own small business website gives you full control over how you tell your story, it becomes the foundation of all your other online marketing efforts. The ads you create, the social media profiles you set up, and the local listings you manage should bring users back to your website.
Tracking tools allow you to gain insight into your customer and understand who visits your website and how they interact with them. This data can help you improve your website, your products, and your sales tactics. One of the most common data tools is Google Analytics, which is free for most small businesses.
A BIA/Kelsey study indicated that 97% of consumers will research an online business before buying or asking for more information. If a consumer doesn’t find you during their searches, it’s safe to conclude that they’re losing business, and a lot. According to InsideView, companies that blog regularly generate 67% more leads per month and therefore have 67% more leads than companies that don’t have a business blog.
And it’s where all your other marketing efforts should attract interested customers. The next time someone searches for your online store, they’re more likely to be greeted by search results that contain your store details. Even if they’re on the go, they can search your business, find your address, and quickly enter it into your GPS. By working with your staff and product distributors, you can offer as many details about products and services as you want. Email forms and contact information can help a small business build a more professional customer service system. While some companies have jumped on the ecommerce bandwagon, others choose not to sell their products on their website.
As a general rule, each piece of content should focus on a different keyword so that as your content list grows, your site can rank for more keywords. There are some great SEO plugins for WordPress that make it easy to do this, without prior training.
Nowadays, customers are constantly searching on computers, tablets and smartphones. A website allows them to find your business and learn more about your business and what it offers anytime, anywhere. If anything, an excellent reason to have a website for your business is that it’s one of the cheapest methods to provide top-notch customer service. With the right approach, your website can act as a “self-help resource” for your customers. That is why a website is an asset where you can predict and answer many pre-sale questions.