Why do you need a Website for your Small Business? The answer is here…

To build a successful business, one has to start small and at the same time dream big. We all are quite familiar with the proverb – “Rome was not built in a day”. The same applies to small businesses. Likewise, small businesses need some time to build up and an online presence makes it grow with ease.

I have put together some valid reasons why your small business should have its own website. If you’re a small business owner who is still on the dilemma, read on!

Gone are the days when people used to visit the stores to purchase what they need. Due to this COVID-19 pandemic, it has become difficult for the customers to venture out and now the internet has become an increasingly popular purchasing channel worldwide and hence, the number of customers online is growing significantly day by day.

The pandemic COVID-19 has brought many businesses to their knees or at least to the point of rethinking their marketing strategies and business structure. Offline businesses are left with no other choice than to go online for survival.

Online presence for any business can be really advantageous and the benefits are endless. So, let’s take a look into a few of them:

A platform for diversifying one’s business

A small and unpopular business when utilizes the chance of going online, gets the chance of targeting the bigger and global market easily. With proper local SEO strategies, it gets visibility among the locals which leads to better exposure of the audience.

Sell from anywhere through your website

Online platforms give freedom to a greater extent such that the operations of buying and selling can be done from anywhere with lesser physical contact and exposure.

Affordable and Effective

When compared to offline businesses, online businesses derive the benefit of low startup or investment costs, low operational costs, lesser overhead costs, and marketing costs. This COVID-19 crisis has made it hard for many people to pour money into run offline marketing strategies like roadshows, sample distributions in the malls, etc. Where the online medium can reach the potential target audience with only a small amount of costs are incurred.

Owning a website gives you control

With only social media channels, you can not own your brand. The social media platforms limit your publishing through its terms and conditions. Having a website allows you to have full control over your brand. This is because it is yours – you have complete ownership over it.

Your website can be made as the ultimate platform to reflect exactly who you are, why you do what you do, what makes you/your business different and the value you provide. Even if people switch from one social media platform to another, your website stays as an anchor and gives your business visibility and stability.

Your website is perfect for referrals

With a single link, your existing customers can refer your business to their friends, giving them access to absolutely everything about you.

• Having your website with your own domain makes you more credible, immediately building trust between your brand and audience.
• Custom email addresses come with a website you own
• Connecting with customers made easy

At this time, where there is a widespread of the COVID-19 epidemic, close physical contact with the customers has turned impossible. Despite this, tracking responses to marketing efforts can be done easily by going online which helps to connect to the customers easily. Also, now customers expect businesses to have websites for them to find information about you.  If your business is not found in the web, it sends a negative message that you are stuck in the Dark Ages, that you’re not open anymore.

Change in your business location

Your website is easier to keep up to date. If your business moves to a new location your customers can still find you because your main marketing tool, your website, is easily changed and updated. Researchers say that nearly half of the google searches are people looking for services or products near to them.  If your business does not have a website, obviously you are missing out on those opportunities.

Your website helps to get to know your audience

Going online introduces one’s business to a world of opportunities to further build trusts, such as through online reviews and testimonials. This will work by and large because during this Corona isolation period most people spend most of their time online surfing this and that. Hence, there is a higher chance that many will come across your website. In addition, small businesses achieve instant credibility by going online because the customers find it more reliable when they take a look at the business’s website.

With website have safe and secure online purchases

Nowadays due to the Coronavirus, even in the circumstances where people who are quarantined at home by the officials would find it easier to purchase things online. Purchasing online has become safe and convenient. Hence, there is a surplus demand for online products rather than offline ones. It is easier to market the brand and easier to showcase the business’s products and services online because most people avoid live interactions at a public place due to the lockdown and safety concerns.

Easier Tool for finding your new Employees

You can post job vacancies and candidates can investigate your company online and apply online.

Have a website – Run your Business 24×7

Your website is available for your customers 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Pollution-free and lesser staff requirements.

After all, building an online presence for small businesses at this time isn’t only beneficial but it’s absolutely the need of the hour. By going online, one stays more accessible to a wider audience which leads to a stronger customer trust that paves way for endless marketing and success.

Thus, the benefits derived by establishing an online presence for offline small startups are unlimited during this crisis. So, why are you still waiting? Take the leap, invest your time, explore, and grow your business.