Last week I was thinking about the importance of websites, especially to small businesses or start ups.
93% of business purchase decisions start with a search engine search, and as the old saying goes – “if you ain’t in it, you can’t win it”.
Social Media is a crucial part of any marketing strategy for a business, but don’t forget that ensuring you have a strong presence on Google Searches is the foundation for any businesses success. Having and owning your own domain name, website and business e-mail address also ensures that you will always have a sustainable and accessible online presence that you control fully, which could be crucial to building and retaining a customer base.
We’ve put together some of the most important reasons why every business should have a website, so prepare to be enlightened!
1. PROFESSIONALISM
In todays age, there is a big portion of the market that won’t even consider your business if you don’t have a website. Having a website gives the impression you are a legitimate business and can be trusted. The same goes for a website that is out of date, would you have the impression a business is worthwhile working with if they have an out of date website with incorrect information?
2. YOUR AUDIENCE IS ONLINE
Your business might not be ready, or want to, sell online, but your customers are. They are constantly scanning and researching you and your competitors, comparing products and prices. An online presence puts you in the race, even without fully selling your products online. Therefore, having a website provides your target audience with more information on your start-up and it’s offerings, while also affording you the opportunity to grow your customer base at a low cost of investment.
Your website is also your digital business card. At any given time your next potential customer could be looking for you online. If you have no online presence, then you risk losing genuine leads that you may have worked very hard to generate elsewhere.
3. LASTING VALUE
The great part about a website is that once you invest in it, you have it forever and it continues to work for your forever. What other advertising methods are there that once you pay for it once it continues to work for your business for ever? Not many. When you pay for a newspaper ad you get that one ad and any benefit that one ad generates but after that ad it is done. With your own website, your ad is running permanently.
4. YOUR BRAND VOICE HAS A HOME
Having a brand voice, creating valuable content and distributing it across all your digital platforms will boost your Google rankings if done from your website, which should also make your start-up more visible and competitive online. Your website is the ideal, centralised platform for housing, distributing and measuring your digital marketing campaigns. Integrating your website with your social media platforms creates the ultimate online presence, the constant flow of traffic from your social media platforms to your website will substantially improve your search engine results.
5. YOU’RE ALWAYS OPEN FOR BUSINESS
You are open for business 24/7 365 days/year with all the information the visitors needs to make an informed decision. You can get a great nights sleep knowing your business is still alive online ready to inform customers of all your products and services.
6. COST EFFECTIVE
Well, with us it is. You might think the cost of building or updating a website is substantial, but it honestly isn’t. We offer very fair rates and in the long run, it’s the best investment your business will ever make. Drop us an e-mail at contact@kcdigitalmarketing.ie for a free website design or re-design quote. We also offer a full suite of Digital Marketing services to really bring your business to life.
We’re located in the beautiful town of Cahersiveen, but open to the world.