Business Websites
Reasons for a Business Website
There are many reasons you may want to have a presence on the internet. Everyone has their own reason, but we will try to outline the main purposes of a business website. For personal websites, see our personal websites article.
Whether you have a home based or bricks and mortar business, having a website makes a lot of sense and is almost a necessity now-a-days.
Benefits of a Business Website
- 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 day a year promotion to a worldwide audience numbering in the millions.
- Reinforcement of or establishing a branded identity
- Increased credibility with consumers
- Support Channels for existing physical or on-line products
- Pre and post sales customer satisfaction reinforcement
- Lowers advertising costs by allowing detailed explanations about products or services. Point your regular advertising to your site to make the pitch. You can cut down the the size of your print media ads simply be referring readers to your website and putting the details there.
- Allows easily tracked customer surveys
- Over 50% of consumers research products online before buying. Your business could benefit by being the knowledge base for your products)
- Convenience and efficiency of email personalized to your company. Don't ever use a free email address if you are in business. Free email accounts make businesses look small, uninformed, and cheap. It also lends a transient feeling to your credibility (Here today...gone tomorrow)
- Allows even a one person home business to compete with the conglomerates on an even playing field
- Convenient and accessible product catalogue for your sales force. Can be updated instantaneously as orders are placed or products are changed
- Storage and retrieval of multimedia presentations
- Improved frequency and reach for your advertising dollars
- Product detail for comparison shopping consumers. No need for expensive brochures or mailings. Just refer them to your web pages.
- Extract email addresses from site visitors and stay in touch with future promotions, product enhancements etc. Back-end sales can make a lot of money for you.
- Customer database that can be updated by the customer
- Controlled communication environment for employees. Make sure they know what they need to know, when they need to know it.
- Direct shopping for your products. No more middlemen creating problems or taking profits
- Reach a broad audience for consumer or product research
- Top of mind awareness to internet surfers
- Opportunities to develop network synergy with similar or like-minded businesses
- Timely and convenient information updates for changing products (mortgage rates for example)
Building a Business Website
There are many ways to get your business on the internet ranging from do-it-yourself to out-sourcing. Read our article on Designing and Building a Business Website for the pros and cons of the various methods available. Whatever method you choose, you will wonder how you ever survived without the site.