When you’re trying to run a successful small business, one of your top priorities is to keep it lean. It’s about doing big things with small investments and avoiding bloated expenses that don’t deliver a good return. For some small businesses, this means avoiding building a business website.
This, of course, is a mistake. No matter how expensive top-quality websites can look, it’s possible to build a very good website on a more than acceptable budget. And when it comes to delivering a return on investment, websites are great assets. But if you’re still on the fence regarding the use of websites for small businesses, here are some things that can change your mind.
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A Small Business Website Can Be Really Inexpensive to Maintain
The best thing about having a business website is that you choose how much money you want to spend on it. You can invest a huge sum of money in building the website, and then do very little to maintain it. Or, you can opt for a moderately-priced website, and then keep investing in its content. Or you can just build a simple website and leave it be. It’s completely up to you.
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It’s Proof of Existence
We live in a time when, if something doesn’t exist online, it’s almost as it doesn’t exist in the physical world. Your customers and clients expect to see your online presence. It’s even more important for attracting prospects — when they search for your business, if a website doesn’t appear, they’ll think your business doesn’t exist.
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Your Competition Already Has One
The number of businesses that don’t have a website is rapidly dwindling. Most business owners understand how the digital and the physical worlds interact, and how to reap the benefits from it. And if you want to stay competitive, you need to understand it as well.
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It Will Bring More People to Your Physical Store
Business websites are one of the things that play a role in Google’s local search rankings. Local search rankings, on the other hand, help bring people into your brick-and-mortar store. Local search is great because people perform it when they have an intention to buy stuff, and a website helps you catch them at that point.
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Websites Offer Great Branding Opportunities
When you’re trying to brand your small business, there are some things you can only do on your website. Digital assets, and primarily websites, are the places where you can develop and present a narrative that will define how people view your business. No other business asset gives you so much public space at such a low price.
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Learn About Your Customers
You can learn a lot about your customers from their behavior on your website. You can learn how they react to your products, when they like to shop the most, how much they like to spend forming a purchase decision. Using this information, you can optimize your products and services, and you can target your customers better.
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It’s Always Working
If you pick your hosting well, your business website can be offline for only a couple of hours each year. The rest of the time, it will be there, working for you even when your business isn’t working. It’s a digital storefront that never closes, and it’s always available to your customers.
Of course, if you decide to give attention to your business’ online activities, your website can become the central location of your digital marketing efforts. This is where you get to see the real value of having a business website that can host your sales copy, product information, and your whole sales funnel. Using your website this way will require more work and a larger investment, and the sooner you start utilizing the full power of your website, the better.
Disclaimer: We are getting compensated for recommending these products and services.
