Nowadays, having a website has almost become a prerequisite for companies of all sizes and types. Check for a business plan. Logo? Done. Website? Verify. So your company is now ready to go, right? So, both yes and no.
Any business, no matter how big or small, local or online, or operating in just about any industry, must have a business. However, having any website is insufficient. You need a solid, efficient, and interesting website to ensure that it supports your business in every way it can and should.
Here are 5 reasons why you must build strong website:
1. Your Site is Like Your Identity Card
When business owners and salespeople used to hand out their business cards to everyone they met, they used to carry a stack of them with them at all times. Most likely not, but trust us when we say that this was once a crucial tool for marketing and sales. Nowadays, websites serve as the equivalent of an online business card, introducing your company to potential clients and other contacts and providing information on how to contact you and, hopefully, make a purchase.
Your website can actually serve as more than just a business card if you use it properly. It could be your catalog, portfolio, brochure, and more. This is why it’s crucial to have a solid website. You are doing your company a disservice and missing out on many worthwhile opportunities if you decide to have a very simple site with little information, if you skimp on the design, or if you decide to keep using an outdated website well past its expiration date.
By a “strong”, website, we mean one which is:
- Visually appealing, impactful and engaging
- User-friendly and encourages visitors to spend time exploring your site
- Contains important information about your business, products and/or services
- Represents your brand
- (perhaps most important of all) converts visitors into customers
Depending on your business, your website’s layout, format, information you include, and amount of information you need will vary. However, a basic overview of the goods or services you provide, an explanation of who you are as a company, and details on how customers can contact you should all be present on your website.
2. You Can Expand Your Business
As we’ve seen, the vast majority of customers use search engines to discover new establishments, goods, or services. This is a ready supply of potential customers that are just waiting for you to tap into them and increase your clientele. Online marketing offers the chance to reach new and varied target audiences that were previously inaccessible for many different types of businesses. This might include clients from different geographic regions, firms from various industries, or people of different ages.
Once more, if you have the right kind of site, this will only work. You need a website that not only attracts visitors through SEO and natural methods, but also turns them into paying customers once they arrive. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can help with this.
Similar to SEO, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a very broad and complex subject, but generally speaking, it involves convincing visitors to your website to take an important next step that will put them on the path to becoming customers rather than clicking away and disappearing from your life forever. This step might involve making a direct purchase, but it might also involve requesting a quote, scheduling a discovery call, or subscribing to your newsletter, depending on your company and website. Every business will have a different approach to this step, so before you start building your website, you should define it in detail as part of your marketing plan.
Sites that support a strong rate of CRO, in general, are:
- User-friendly and with a good site speed
- Tailored to your target customer
- Clear, simple, and not overly busy
- Have numerous, compelling calls to action (such as animated buttons and similar items).
- Provide only the pertinent information that visitors need, excluding any unnecessary details
3. Build Customer Relationship
Websites are more than just an online brochure or a place for your sales funnel to bring in new clients. They can and should be all of these things, to be sure, but they have a lot more potential. You can create solid, long-lasting relationships with your customers using the platform provided by your website.
Building and fostering customer relationships is one of the best things you can do to ensure the long-term success of your company. Gaining repeat business from existing customers makes a ton of business sense because it costs a lot less to do so than it does to find new ones. Therefore, it is essential that you keep your current customers and entice them to keep using your goods and services.
A very effective way to do this is through your website. A website can be an excellent tool for developing relationships with your customers when used properly. It will be more likely for those people to remain your customers if you have strong customer relationships. You could, for instance, regularly post blogs on your website. They will read your posts on a regular basis if you make your blog insightful, educational, and extremely helpful to your readers. They will eventually start to depend on the information you give them, which will greatly strengthen your relationship with them.
5. Strong Website Means High ROI
Building a website has a low cost compared to many other expenses in your marketing budget and business expenses in general. However, a strong site will produce a lot of leads, sales, and profits, so this has represented an amazing return on investment. Depending on your designer, the size, and the type of site you want, the cost to build a website will vary greatly, but it is always quite affordable given the benefits it provides.
If you choose to create your website from scratch, these costs become even more affordable. Even if you are not an experienced web developer, the best website builders enable you to create a professional website that attracts visitors to your site and converts them into customers. It can be challenging to decide which website builder to use given the wide variety currently offered.
4. More Exposure for Your Business
A strong website is a valuable and practical marketing tool, as we have already discussed. It is a marketing strategy in and of itself, but it can also serve as a launchpad for other strategies. For example, you can use your website to link to and advertise your social media accounts, increasing the visibility and usefulness of these channels. Links to your social media accounts on your website and the display of a feed of recent social media posts are simple ways to accomplish this.
Additionally, your website is a crucial resource for email marketing campaigns, which are anticipated to become a significant marketing tactic in 2020. One of your best resources for expanding your mailing list is site visitors, which you can easily do by adding a signup box or pop-up to your website. Additionally, your website can host your videos, podcasts, and other strong content.
5. Personal Branding
This rule applies to everyone in your network, including suppliers, competitors, and other members of the business world in addition to your customers. An effective website will showcase your brand to customers and other site visitors.
Your website is the first thing people will see when they search for your company online, so it must be carefully designed to reflect your brand. If you don’t do it right, it might be their last and final impression of you. Make sure you have a well-defined marketing strategy that outlines your brand values and attributes before you build or commission your website. After that, think about how these components should appear on your website and make sure they are used throughout.
