You sit at your desk, staring blankly at your computer screen again…
A little dumbfounded.
A bit confused.
And feeling a little numb…
You quickly check over your figures again, just to make sure you’re not mistaken…
Yep, only 2 new leads this entire month.
Even after spending a whopping $2,000 on that business ad in the local newspaper, and adding some new content to your business’ Facebook page.
“What am I doing wrong?!” you ask yourself, shaking your head in disbelief.
Could that friend, a fellow business owner actually be right when they said, “You really need a great website for your business, to bring in more targeted leads and new customers!”
But, you’re afraid…
You’re afraid a professional website will cost too much. You’re afraid that it won’t actually be any better than other marketing methods you’ve tried before. You’re afraid that the Web Designer will be a complete moron and difficult to deal with.
And most of all?
You’re afraid of looking stupid for investing in a website if it doesn’t even bring the results you’re desperate for.
Many small business owners have been in your shoes, wondering whether or not to invest in a website for their business.
It’s true – not all websites are created equal. But, if you choose the right Web Designer and have a great, thoroughly search engine optimised website tailor-made for your business, then this kind of website could definitely bring you more targeted, paying customers. Even more than you ever imagined.
Don’t waste any more time making guesses about your digital marketing strategy, throwing darts aimlessly and hoping you’ll get lucky and hit the bull’s eye.
Sometimes that works, but usually, it doesn’t.
Thankfully, there is another way…
Let’s look at 14 undeniable reasons why you should absolutely invest in a great website for your business and why a professional website is crucial if you are really serious about growing your business brand, and not only surviving but thriving in today’s competitive local business space.
1. Today’s tech-savvy customers expect all businesses to have websites
There is no question about it!
We are living in a digital age and an age where people turn first to their mobile devices and computers to research anything and everything, including local businesses.
You need to provide what your customers need, want, and expect, and this includes a professional website.
Otherwise, let’s face it – your potential customers will go straight to your competitors.
These days the majority of customers expect businesses to provide information about their businesses on a digital platform. And most consumers will go straight to a business’ website to find out details such as opening hours, contact details, and information about their products and services.
If you don’t have a website, and if your business can’t be found on Google, it’s like you don’t even exist!
Your business is at a huge disadvantage, because people will quickly decide to look elsewhere, and they will do so in a split second if they can’t find your business easily online.
What’s more, many customers also make their purchasing choices way before they are anywhere near an actual physical store. They may still visit your store to make the actual purchase, but they have already made their decision to buy from a particular business during their initial research phase online.
Your competition may be picking up many more sales than you if they have a website and you don’t have one that ranks well in Google and where customers can easily find and make contact with you.
2. A business website provides proof that your business is credible and can be trusted
A website is often the first interaction that your potential customers have with your business.
It’s an amazing opportunity to make your business stand out from your competitors and create a professional, welcoming first impression.
You can easily convince visitors to your website that your business is credible, reliable, and trustworthy. It shows that you are an established business and that you are an authority in your marketplace.
In addition, online reviews now influence many consumers’ buying decisions, and you can easily include noteworthy customer reviews on your website in order to build rapport with and impress your potential customers.
3. You control your story with your small business web design
Even if you don’t yet have a website for your small business, I’m guessing that you’re probably already taking advantage of social media to market your business. That’s awesome and such a great start!
There’s just one big downside to having a business page on a social media platform to market your biz… Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram don’t offer many options for the way you can present your unique business.
You simply fill in set information about your business and it’s displayed using their standard layout. You are restricted by their static format for business pages.
Whereas, with a small business website design, you can completely customise the look and feel of your own website, and better showcase your business’ unique personality, and the stand-out benefits you provide to your customers. Plus, you can more easily get your potential customers taking the action you want them to take.
What’s more, while you can’t control what people say about your business on social media platforms, at least you can influence how the public sees your business by creating your own personal story through a custom business website.
You can clearly, quickly, and easily present your business’ message, mission, and personality to your target audience, and much more rapidly than what you ever could through printed brochures or ads in newspapers or magazines.
4. A great small business website can save you money
Have you ever advertised your business by traditional means such as printed brochures, newspapers, magazines, or TV ads?
If you have, or if you have ever gotten quotes to do so, you were probably shocked at the price! It can be super expensive to advertise in local brochures, newspapers, magazines, and on TV!
And, often the leads and sales you might generate from these forms of traditional advertising methods are not very high, compared to the huge amount of money you have to outlay. Plus, you are usually reaching a wide and very varied audience, not a targeted set of people most likely to buy from you.
A great business website can more specifically target your ideal customers and get your business in front of many more potential customers for way less than what you would spend on traditional advertising. Especially when website design companies like ours offer such affordable website design packages for small businesses.
5. A professional website allows you to keep up with your competitors and increase the visibility of your business
Do you feel like you’re falling behind in your marketplace or losing customers to your competitors?
Let’s take a step back and remember that the first step in the buying process of many consumers is to research online or ask for recommendations from family and friends.
Most consumers also look for testimonials and reviews from others online.
If your potential customer heads online to search for the products or services you provide, but they don’t come across a website listed for your business, it’s highly likely they will choose to buy from your competitors who do have a business website, and who they can find quickly and easily during their initial online search.
There’s no sugar coating it – this will result in lost business for you.
As a business owner, you can’t ignore the trend of consumers to research buying options online and to utilise internet shopping.
People are so time poor these days and to save time they reach for their smartphones and mobile devices during their lunch breaks, while commuting, waiting in line somewhere, and basically any spare moment they have. They also do this when researching products and services, making buying decisions, and quickly communicating with businesses online.
People no longer have to physically get in their cars and drive to shops to choose what they want to buy. And many people simply don’t have the time to do that anymore.
Your business website is basically an online shopfront for your business. You need to have a visible online presence so you can capture the huge number of consumers who are researching and buying online from businesses each and every day.
6. Business websites have no restrictions on time or location
Unlike your traditional business shopfront, which has a set physical location and specific opening hours, a website allows you to interact with potential customers who are located anywhere in the world and at any time of the day or week.
Most consumers now want and expect the flexibility of being able to shop and communicate with businesses at any given hour and on any day of the week.
A small business website allows your business to interact with prospective buyers at a time and from a location that best suits them.
It gives you the opportunity and the freedom to promote and sell your products and/or services online 24/7.
There are many benefits to this, including a boost in your sales, better brand recognition, easily controlled and monitored marketing campaigns, smooth customer service, and added customer relationship building.
7. Harness the power of Google search results
An unbelievable number of people nowadays go directly to Google first whenever they want to quickly lookup something they don’t know about and when they’re searching for information about businesses in their local area.
If you don’t have a business website, you have very little chance of showing up in search engines such as Google. Even if you have a Facebook page for your business, for example, Google doesn’t tend to prioritise social media business pages in its search results.
This puts you and your business at a huge disadvantage!
On the other hand, if you do have a website that is properly search engine optimised, such as the sites we build here at Cutting Edge Web Design, you have a much better chance of your business being listed on the first page of Google’s search results.
If you can get your business mentioned on that first page of Google for a specific search result, you have hit the holy grail!
That first page of Google is prime real estate online, and it’s like having your shopfront on the busiest street in town.
8. A business website can also function as an excellent resource centre for your staff members
Along with helping customers learn more about your business, a custom-built website can also be created with areas on the site dedicated to your staff so they can access business resources and materials.
You can use your website to easily provide instructional materials for staff, self-guided video tutorials, and even important documents for internal use, to assist with staff training exercises and distributing important information to team members.
9. A small business website can save you time
You might be worried that if you have a website for your business it’ll just end up being one more thing you have to add to your neverending to-do-list. I get it! As a busy small business owner you already have enough to take care of!
But, once you have your website up and running, it’s actually a very efficient tool to use to promote your business, market your products and/or services, and let people know about the latest developments in your business.
It takes much less time to update and distribute information via your website than what it would take using traditional forms of advertising such as printed ads and flyers. Not to mention the amount of money you save in the long run!
10. An effective small business web design allows you to be more easily contactable
When designed properly, your business website will be an excellent point of contact for both potential and existing customers.
People searching for your business online will visit your website to find details such as your business’ phone number, email address and location.
You can also include a special contact form on your website which people can quickly and easily fill in and submit a query directly to you, no matter what time of day they visit your site.
11. Generate more leads and sales for your business
Another major benefit that a well structured, search engine optimised business website can bring is an increase in qualified leads and sales. Just what every business needs!
Your small business website can help to bring more customers into your physical storefront or office location, and it can function as a place where you can make sales directly to your customers online.
As more and more people take advantage of online shopping, having a method by which you can sell your products or services directly to an additional group of potential customers via the internet makes good business sense.
You can now easily reach out to more people who live beyond the local area where your business is physically located and have more people using your products and/or services.
12. A professional small business website can add huge value to your business
When it comes time to sell your business, having an effective and professional website that you can include in the sale of your business adds massive value.
A business website that brings in targeted customers 24/7 can definitely add inherent value to your company and increase the saleable value of your business.
You could increase the sale price of your business simply because it includes a great business website.
What’s more, your business website will continue to help your business grow over time by increasing market presence, keeping existing customers engaged, and bringing in new customers for the potential new owners of your business.
A huge win for everyone!
13. A business website enables you to easily and accurately track your customers’ wants and needs
It’s possible to easily and very accurately track the behaviour of your customers, including their wants and needs through a business website by utilising a high-quality analytics tracking program, such as Google Analytics.
You can easily check statistics such as the amount of time your visitors spend on each page of your website, where they enter and exit your website from, and much more.
All this data gives you incredible insight into what your potential customers are actually looking for.
Consumer trends change rapidly, particularly with ongoing improvements in technology, so to better understand and to stay ahead of your marketplace it’s a great idea to take advantage of the amazing opportunity that a website can bring for you to better understand your customers.
Then you can easily modify the way you do business to match these evolving consumer trends.
14. Easily modify your business marketing strategies
You can easily mold a website to suit your chosen marketing message.
Websites are very dynamic and it’s much easier to change the design and layout of a website, than it is to remodel your actual shopfront, for example.
This makes it much easier for you as a business owner to adapt to suit your customers’ needs as they change.
You can adjust the look, feel, the layout, and marketing message of your website far more quickly and cost-effectively than you can via any other marketing strategy.
In Conclusion
As you can see, a professional business website provides so many benefits for small businesses, that are newly entering the marketplace and those that are looking to expand.
A great small business website design can help you reach many more ideal customers, and in turn, it can do wonders for your business’ bottom line! Don’t miss out on another lead ever again!
A beautiful website that is user friendly and search engine optimised can help you grow your business faster than you ever imagined!
We are living in the digital age, where the internet is now a central part of our everyday lives.
Take advantage of all the opportunities the internet can provide for your small business by investing in a professional website for your business today.
Consumers today value speed and convenience. The internet and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets certainly provide that.
This means your business really needs a professional and effective website if you want to be found by more potential customers.
Don’t get caught out by not listening to the current marketplace and by not preparing your business for the future.
Here at Cutting Edge Web Design, we believe that every small business needs and deserves an amazing website!
We would love to help you create an awesome website for your business that brings you more leads and sales.
Wishing you all the very best and happy marketing!
Ready for a new, highly effective business website?
Get in touch today to harness the power and high quality leads a Cutting Edge website can bring to your Gold Coast based business!
Melissa is the Owner and Head of Operations at Cutting Edge Web Design. She began her digital marketing career by purchasing and selling online businesses. With a background in creating highly effective digital marketing strategies, she is an expert when it comes to designing and building high quality lead generating websites and results driven online solutions. On the weekends you can find her enjoying the beautiful local Gold Coast beaches and outdoor cafes around Currumbin, Broadbeach and Mudgeeraba with her 2 children.
