10 Reasons Why You Need a Website and Strong Online Presence
Creating a strong online presence for your business is no longer a nice little extra on top of your physical marketing strategy. In fact, it has become the essential component.
Research from Google has found that 97% of consumers use the web to find local businesses. Clearly, if your customers are active online, you should be too.
On-the-go searching and 24-hour availability of information has meant that customers want instant results. Being visible online ensures your organization can provide what they need.
In addition to just being seen by prospective customers, being digitally active is crucial across all aspects of marketing. This includes accessibility, branding, sales growth and long-term customer loyalty.
Here are 10 reasons why you need a website and strong online presence.
Be accessible to your customer
As previously mentioned, customers no longer only seek out services and information between 9 and 5.
Even if it’s outside your working hours, you need to show what you do and when you can be contacted. If you’re not visible on Google, there’s a high chance that consumers will be directed to your competition.
Being accessible online is an easy way to communicate and showcase your business. Moreover, you don’t need to spend hours on the phone answering customer queries.
Taking the time to understand what information is likely to be important to your customers saves you time and money in the long run. Furthermore, it’ll show that you offer a professional service committed to taking care of their needs. A clear, well-structed website and search engine listing allows for a hassle-free connection between business and consumer.
Reinforce your brand identity and strengthen your credibility
For the majority of consumers, the fact is that any brand without an effective online presence lacks credibility.
There may be some exceptions for particular services, but for the most part not having a website is unprofessional. Moreover, it implies that a business lacks authenticity. This will of course have a negative impact on your overall brand identity.
A strong online presence also provides an opportunity to solidify your brand image and unify the different sectors of your business. A website allows you to get creative with your brand color schemes, logos and fonts. You can combine everything you do in one place, making your business more recognizable to customers.
Provide more sales opportunities
Having a website also makes it easier to market your products and sell direct to the customer online.
Depending on what you sell, it effectively provides 24/7 opening hours with considerably less workforce power and resource required.
Giving detailed and even persuasive content can also help influence buying decisions. Moreover, it allows you the chance to tell customers why they should choose to use your service.
Encourage long-term growth
An online presence is central to the long-term growth of your organization. A website is an undeniable requirement in modern business. On the other hand, it provides an easy way for you and your customers to direct others to your services and encourage new business.
Develop customer loyalty
Incorporating ways for customers to easily contact you and make enquiries, as well as having active social media accounts can help establish a connection with your customers.
Not only do they allow for clear, quick communication between both parties, they also let you show the human side to your company, in a digital space.
Social media, along with a Google listing etc. also gives your customers a chance to leave positive reviews. Helpful feedback helps spread the word around your business and allow the opportunity to share mutual appreciation.
In addition to this, mailing lists and social media posts can also inform customers about any sales or promotions you may be running. They will help you encouraging repeat business and long-term customer loyalty.
Showcase your products and services
You’re proud of what you do. Having a website allows you to virtually demonstrate what you provide for your customers.
A well-designed site, complete with images and descriptions of your products or business gives clear examples of how you operate. Moreover, it can give customers more of a feel for your organization than a simple business listing.
In addition to this, it gives you more space to describe your services and help. It attracts the appropriate attention from the right people and avoid time wasters.
Control your brand perception
Having a strong online presence means you can cultivate the image you want for your brand. With various platforms and marketing channels available online, you can rely less on physical word of mouth to encourage new business and start actively chasing it up yourself via targeted ads and improved SEO.
Your website lets you control your own narrative and have enough space to tell your customers everything that you want them to know. This allows you to position yourself in the market and only attract the right consumers.
Reduce your advertising spend
Transitioning your marketing strategy online helps you reach more people for less money. There are many digital marketing tools available to guide you, whilst marketing agencies can also specialize in making sure your business is considerably more visible.
With the ability to easily target particular demographics, you can also reduce the amount of resource wasted on advertising to the wrong people and therefore improve your ROI.
Learn more about your customers
There are a number of tools that can analyze who is visiting your website. Moreover, seemingly there are limitless possibilities to dissect how they interact with your service. This can include how long they spend on your site, how they found you and what they did next with the information you provided.
This data can be essential in pinpointing just who your customers are and what they expect from your business. Delivering invaluable feedback that will allow you to better plan your strategy going forward and make informed marketing decisions.
It’s easier than you think!
Nowadays building a website, Google listing or overall online presence is easier than ever. With professional help available at completely affordable costs and plenty of online tools and resources. There is nothing stopping you from taking advantage of the power of digital marketing to further your success.
