If you find your small business not reaching its productivity potential, and with a desire for growth and higher revenue, building a strong website is an essential strategy. In terms of microeconomic efficiency, the short-term investment of a website is a no-brainer for small businesses, regardless of industry or location.
1. Unlimited opportunities to be seen.
At a brick-and-mortar storefront, fixed factors like manpower, physical environment, and location limit outreach and visibility. But a website has virtually no ceiling for accessibility. Anyone from anywhere at anytime can get information about your business or reach out to you. This is especially important if you have any type of local competition.
2. Easily facilitate customer service and reduce your costs on it.
With your phone number, hours, business information, stock lists, and FAQ on your website, your employees will return higher productivity rates. Rather than answer the phone to answer simple questions like “Are you open?”, your employees can spend their time on other pressing tasks and give your in-person customers more attention.
3. Exponentiate business with online sales.
If you’re a small business with a local consumer base, you can expand your business without ever leaving your store. Sell your inventory online to your service area and revenue and get better discounts on bulk purchases from your suppliers. Same products, same store, more sales.
4. Opening the Doors to Many Other Forms of Marketing
Websites have become an essential tool in many forms of marketing. Content marketing requires a place to put content that is accessible to a wide audience — this is why most websites maintain blogs or other resource pages. Being able to derive an email address @yourwebsite.com makes your email marketing campaigns much more credible and trusthworthy. Enhance your social media marketing by having a website for potential customers to trace back to and learn more about your products and services.
5. Get Solid Answers About Your Customers with Data and Analytics
Data opens doors to more statistically sound business decisions and a greater understanding of your customer base. Metrics such as access rates and locations, search terms used to find you, what pages people are accessing your website from, and purchase patterns can be applied to your marketing and inventory strategies. They can help you shed fat from your business to increase overall profit rates.
6. SEO Rankings: Make Sure Your Business Gets Found
Even if a website and content doesn’t directly appeal to your business, to get your brick-and-mortar shop’s address and contact info (Google My Business) to show up through Google and other search engines, having a website to back up your listing greatly increases your rankings and visibility to potential customers. Link-building benefits of SEO are also impossible to achieve without a website.
Interesting Statistics:
The top three marketing channels used by small businesses are Email Marketing (54%), a Website (51%) and Social Media (48%). (Blue Corona)
Less than half of small businesses had websites in 2016. In 2017, 71% of small businesses had websites — more than a 21% increase from the year before. (Espresso.digital)
75% of small businesses owners claim internet marketing is effective or “very effective” for attracting new customers. (Business 2 Community)
70-80% of consumers search for a small business online before making a purchase at the store or online. (Blue Corona)
Of American small business owners who have a business website, 83% feel they have an advantage over their competitors who do not have a website. (Devrix)
Further Reading: