There are so many free online marketing tools for your business that you may think creating a website is overkill. Why do most successful businesses use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and still realize the importance of having a website?
We outline our top 8 reasons why you need a website for your business:
Professionalism
Now, the internet describes this word as a “skill or behavior that goes beyond what an ordinary person would have”. Having your own website makes you stand out considerably against your competition. It also makes you look more established, even if you’re just starting out. There’s an array of stock images on websites like Unsplashed to make your site more appealing to potential new clients.
Immersion
You’re in the drivers seat the minute a new user enters your website space. You control the entire experience and the impression they’re left with when they leave your website. Tell a story or paint a picture of your business that a potential new customer might fall in love with. You can invest in high quality graphics and illustrations. Additionally, you can keep creating interesting content that will keep the customer on your website for longer.
Cost Effective
A website is a cheaper alternative to radio, television and print media because your website content is configurable. As opposed to more traditional streams, you can introduce new products and services as you wish. All of this without breaking the bank and from the comfort of your own home.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is how familiar your customer is with your brand. This familiarity could be tied to your logo, colors or brand name, that’s why consistency is very important. Aside from adorning your site with your branding, there are a few great ways to improve your brand awareness. Guest blogging is one of them. It’s when you collaborate with popular bloggers who share the same interests as you and your niche market. You then get them to write quality content for your website. Once they share the guest post with their own followers, you’re guaranteed to gain some more traffic.
Online Sales
Having your own website means that you can conveniently sell directly to your customer and get paid through online channels. This is possible even if you have your own physical store. Many business owners are pushing for online sales in addition to in-store purchases to increase sales and profitability. WooCommerce is a really cool plugin for WordPress that easily integrates with PayFast, which is a South African payment gateway. It allows you to add products, manage your stock and start selling.
Brand Engagement
Now we’ve spoken about brand awareness, but what is brand engagement? It’s in a hemisphere above brand awareness. Even though its called brand ‘engagement’, its actually more like a brand ‘marriage’. It is the loyalty and steadfastness that customers have for your business. The symptoms of such loyalty are: shares, likes, follows, positive comments, testimonials and ratings. Better brand engagement can translate into a better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking. An SEO ranking is important if you want users to see your website on the first page of search results.
Blogging
Making time for blogging in this fast-paced world can be tiresome, but its very important! Blogging allows you to reinforce your existing product and service offerings through related topics. These topics are geared towards the interests of your potential clientele. Blogs often contain a ‘call to action’ within the content or at the end. This means that it could contain a link back to your contact page or to your product and service offering. WordPress websites come standard with blogging tools that you can use to your advantage.
Email Subscribers
A website is the perfect way to entice an audience interested in your business. You can even get them to subscribe to your email posts. This can be done by generating sign-up forms and embedding them in your website. Once you have an audience, you can send out promotional emails and limited offers with links back to your website. MailChimp has a free base package which you can use to build upon your subscribers.
We manage all of the above so that you have more time to run your business. Feel free to contact us for a customized package. We offer reasonably-priced, build-your-own package offers without compromising on quality of service.