Good afternoon bloggers. Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there!!! Today I am shifting gears a little bit. I want to talk to all of you small businesses out there and web design. The number one goal of all business is to what? Make money of course. This is only one of the reasons every small businesses out there need a website. As the old saying goes, “if you’re not online, you don’t exist.” Hopefully this article will be enlightening on some small business owners today.
According to the research firm Clutch , almost 46% of all small businesses still don’t have a website. Even a very small business, with five employees or less, still needs a website. Why you may ask? Most of your customers are on the web today searching for products, a product your small business may sell. Without a website for your small business, potential customers simply cannot reach you. 35.2 percent of Americans are browsing on the world wide web today, and that number seems to be increasing rather than decreasing. According to a Nielson 2016 survey, found that 81% of adults own a smart phone. It is estimated that Americans use their smart phones around one hour and thirty-nine to consume media. If you are not there as part of that media, they will take their business somewhere else, and you have lost a potential customer.
In the past, small businesses didn’t really need a website for their company if the business is local. That remains no longer true. Today, people use the internet to search for information. People don’t use phone books to look up phone numbers anymore, they use the internet.
A second reason why small businesses need to have a website is because websites give your business legitimacy. Nowadays, if your small business doesn’t have a website, customers often think that is suspicious. Today consumers expect for a business to have a website, and if they don’t then the consumer loses faith in that business. Consumers ask themselves if your business cannot afford a website. This simply turns off today’s consumers. To them if your business has no website, they think the business must be so new and is not yet making enough money to afford a website.
A third reason why all small businesses should have a website is it gives you, the owner of that business, a different marketing channel. When you have a website, you can think of it as a giant billboard. Consumers will be aware of your business and the services your business offers. Your billboard must be attractive enough to get people’s attention through conscious marketing efforts. Some of these marketing efforts include Search Engine Optimization, blogging, using social media, and online advertising.
A business website gives you another opportunity for data collection and lead generation. It is difficult if not impossible to get customers to write their name and email addresses on a piece of paper in your store. However, it is not that hard to get customers to type their email addresses in a box on a website. Consumers do this everyday because they believe by signing up with their email addresses, that business will offer them something, discounts, deals, ebooks, etc…
Another good reason small businesses should have their own website is that commerce is increasing each year. In 2017, in the U.S. alone, there was a 16.0% increase in commerce with consumers spending a whopping $453.46 billion dollars compared to $390.99 billion in 2016. It is so much easier for consumers to shop in their pajamas than it is to physically visit a store.
Consumers today spend a lot of webrooming, which is a way of researching the products they want before making a purchase. If you do not have your own website, how do you expect customers to compare your products with someone else’s. Webrooming actually leads to an increase in offline sales. The owner of a store does not have to be in that store physically to make money.
Unless you are a business owner that isn’t looking for any more business, you need a website. A business website has become the business card for small businesses. Small businesses do not have to focus on ecommerce. You can provide searchers with information about your business and what services you offer through a good online website.
Okay folks, that’s the end of my daily rant today. Having a website for your small business is simply a no brainer. So, get out there, shop around, and find the best person or company to build your website today. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Until my next blog,
Good day friends!!!