6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Website
November 18, 2016
Not having a website could be the biggest mistake your business makes.
Like it or not, technology is an integral part of our daily lives. As time goes on, it becomes more and more ingrained and shows no signs of slowing down.
Your business may be doing okay without a website right now; you may have even seen some growth.
However, if your business remains solely offline, you’ll see that growth stagnate and then begin to drop as digital continues to become more and more important to your customers.
If you’re wondering, or have ever wondered, why your business needs a website, these 6 reasons are for you.
1. Your customers are searching online.
Your customers are searching for information online before they’re contacting your business, and oftentimes long before they’re even ready to buy.
When it comes to the B2B research process, 89% of B2B researchers use online search as part of the B2B research process.
For B2C, 81% of shoppers research online before buying.
In addition to looking for information, users are also taking action.
50% of users who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day!
Your customers are online and they’re searching for information about your business and services.
If you don’t have a website, you’re missing out on these opportunities.
2. Your competitors are online.
Your competitors are also online.
They might be researching as well, but most importantly, they have websites.
If your customers are researching online and you don’t have a website, they’re finding your competitors instead.
Without a website for your business they can visit instead, they’ll get the information they’re looking for from your competitors and build relationships with them instead of with you.
3. It is a trust signal.
Customers like to know they’re dealing with real businesses, run by real people.
Having active social media profiles and a listing in Google Maps helps, but all of it revolves around your website.
When customers are researching online and come across a business, they want to be able to check out a website and get in contact from there when they’re ready.
If you don’t have a website for them to explore, it throws up a red flag that perhaps your business isn’t trustworthy or credible or a good fit for them.
4. It’s a foundation to build authority.
In addition to being a trust signal, your website is also a foundation upon which you can begin to build authority.
You may be the authority for your product/service, but if you don’t have a website to support it, potential customers searching online won’t know that – and they won’t be able to verify it for themselves.
Once you have a website, you’re in charge of the content on it. It gives you a branded space online to share that expertise, answer questions for your customers, and provide the information they’re looking for.
A great way to share that information and build your authority online is to start by building out informative and valuable pages of content in both the main pages of your site and through blog posts as well.
Eventually, customers and potential customers will come to know you as a trusted authority and will come to your website for information, and eventually your business for your product/service.
5. It should be the main hub for your marketing efforts.
You can market to your heart’s content without a website, but you’ll also be wasting a lot of money and missing out on a lot of return on that investment.
Technology is far too ingrained in our daily lives. Ignoring the digital side of marketing is a mistake.
Having a strong website as the main online hub for your marketing efforts ensures they are that much more effective.
Plus, it opens you up to a potentially new segment of customers who are tech-savvy and live online.
6. A website provides opportunities for lead generation.
Having a website means your business is more readily available to the customers who are researching online.
This opens up a lot of opportunities for lead generation from both an increase in phone calls and the addition of web leads who fill out various forms on your site.
Sure, you’ll likely get some spam every now and then, but the opportunities to reach people you would not have otherwise more than makes up for it.
A website built with your customers in mind can become a vehicle for lead generation and increased revenue, building trust with potential customers and strengthening your relationship with current customers.
The digital revolution has been here and it still shows no signs of slowing.
If you missed the boat the first time around and have been waiting on the fence to see what happens, it’s long past time to get your business online and stop missing out.
Need a little help with your website?
Reach out to the VIG team for a helping hand.