Many small firms, especially newly established ones, operate lean. They prioritize needs and pressing issues, only spending money as necessary. So it’s simple to understand why some business owners would believe that a small business website is a luxury that they can do without.
They might even think that having a Facebook profile is sufficient for their internet presence, that having a sign with their phone number will bring in calls, or that using direct mail to sell their goods.
Every business needs a good website; it’s not an extravagant luxury or a pointless activity. Instead, it’s a cost-effective, essential tool.
Note from the editor: If you’re prepared to launch your website, see what Websites + Marketing has to offer.
Use your website as a marketing anchor
Your website is where all of your marketing efforts start and end.
It serves as the hub for all of your marketing and commercial communications. It serves as a resource for potential customers to learn more about your company. Additionally, all of your other marketing initiatives should direct potential clients there.
Here are a few strategies for making your website the focal point of all of your marketing initiatives.
Control your online reputation
You have a lot more power after you have your own website. It not only gives you a place to live online, it also gives you a stage to explain to potential customers who you are, what you do, and why.
This is vitally important for developing and promoting your brand.
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Put all of your crucial company information in one location.
Make your local business website a useful tool so that clients may visit it and find all the information they require about your company. Include details like:
- Your postal code
- Contact information
- either a contact form or an email address
- or service listing
- Prices
- special discounts
- Events
Establish a goal for your marketing campaigns.
When you create a website for your small business, you have an outlet for all of your other marketing communications.
Create a radio advertisement? It should be concluded with a request for more information on your website. Make flyers to distribute at an event? Include the URL of your website so that people can go there to learn more about the goods and services you offer.
All of your other marketing initiatives can be aided by it because you own, manage, and control it.
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Encourages the sale of your goods or services
Your local business website can serve as both a direct sales tool and a digital brochure, disseminating current information about your offerings.
Additionally, you can instantly update information without having to wait or pay for fresh print materials.
Add more to your website to assist you generate sales, in addition to a straightforward product list or menu. Add the following components to your local business website to use it as a sales support system.
Internet shop
When your website includes an ecommerce component, you can conduct transactions directly from it. Customers can go to your website and buy straight from your company. It serves as a tool for both marketing and sales.
Create an online store with the following components so that buyers may buy your things directly from it.
- transaction processing
- inventory control
- shipping remedy
- Site safety (SSL certificate)
- search function
- Including CRM in the mix
- discount tools
- Features for cross-selling and upselling
- Analytics and reporting
- customer feedback
- Contact page FAQs
These components can be easily and affordably added to a website to receive the advantages of an online ecommerce platform.
Online booking calendar
The ability to book an appointment, a table, etc. on your website can assist customers in taking the next step in doing business with you if you run a service-based company without any products to sell.
For instance, a spa could develop a website for massages that lets customers book appointments.
Customers enjoy convenience, but they detest waiting on hold while attempting to make an appointment.
For both you and your customers, the scheduling procedure is made simple with the correct small business website.
Generating leads is a function
A website can assist you in both making sales and introductions that result in sales.
Your website visitors can subscribe to your list by building an opt-in for you, which will allow you to build a database of interested prospects. (In a few minutes, we’ll continue our discussion on how to use your website to generate leads.)
Portfolios
Many clients want to learn as much as they can about a company before deciding to do business with them (especially for expensive or detailed projects).
A construction company, for instance, might utilize a website to post some video walkthroughs of before-and-after images of one of their big or complex projects. The movies can be quickly and easily published to their website using a point-and-shoot digital camera, giving customers a terrific method to see what the company is capable of.
Home page
Many clients try to discover more about what your company stands for and who is behind it in their hunt for information before deciding to do business with you.
By incorporating a about page that describes your company, brand values, unique selling propositions, and mission statement, your local business website can aid with this.
On a teacher’s website, for instance, prospective students might learn about their motivations and the goals they share with their students. In order to help curious students understand even more, it may go into their background, including where they attended school, any specialized certificates, their interests, etc. and add high-quality photographs or a video.
Lively blog
Another approach to let potential clients and customers get to know you is through a blog (and your products and services).
You have access to a wide range of content that you can provide to demonstrate your subject-matter expertise, best practices for using your goods, and/or the concepts behind your goods and services.
Additionally, maintaining a blog with new information every day can improve your search engine rankings.
Make contact with new clients (and keep existing customers)
People most frequently use the internet to solve their problems. If your small business has a website, clients can find you when they look for a solution to their issue.
Use your small company website to attract new clients
People virtually always search for things on Google when they need to find them. The term “search engine” is no longer sufficient to describe Google in today’s jargon; rather, they have evolved into the gatekeepers of knowledge. Ten parts of everything else, one part encyclopedia, one part mapping service, and one part directory.
Making ensuring your company appears in Google’s search results is an excellent (read: essential) idea given its influence over how consumers find things.
Unfortunately, you have very little influence over that happening if your company doesn’t have a website.
You never know when someone will need your services urgently, and without a website, you lose the chance to get future clients from individuals who already know (and support) you.
Think of yourself as a neighborhood jeweler who specializes in recycled precious metals. Michael and Liz, two of your excellent customers, recently bought wedding bands from you. Even though Michael adores his lovely new wife, he has a tendency to be forgetful. On Friday night at 10 p.m., he realized that his wife’s birthday is in two weeks.
He’ll have to wait for you to come in on Monday morning to place an order without a website, and he might end up taking his business somewhere else to calm his nerves. However, with a website, Michael might easily sign up and purchase the rose gold band Liz has been eyeing from your store. Michael’s situation was saved, and you gained his loyalty.
Utilize the website of your small business to create leads
Your local company website may assist you with the clients who fall somewhere in between, in addition to helping you draw in new customers and keep your current ones.
Add an opt-in offer to your website, such as a coupon, free eBook, entrance into a contest, etc., to attract leads.
Make the offer available just to audience members who provide their content information.
With this strategy, you can utilize your website to create a relationship with website users who aren’t quite ready to buy and eventually persuade them to make a purchase.
Compete with household names
One misperception regarding websites is that they are only for multinational enterprises or national businesses with global audiences. Actually, websites are just as useful for small businesses as they are, if not more so.
They give local companies fantastic chances to interact with their community’s residents.
Google won’t provide you with a name-brand result for “shoe retailers near me” if you use local search in New York (unless of course, you live in New York). You will be shown a list of nearby shoe stores using local search.
Describe local search
Local search refers to components of Google’s search algorithm that are intended to present users with results that are close by. When delivering results, it takes into account prominence, proximity, and relevancy.
Instead of displaying the most influential websites (such as those of major brands), it displays pertinent, nearby companies that are related to the search.
- Make your website visible in local searches
- You can take the following actions to help your small company appear in local search results:
- Add your website to the Google My Business page you create
- Add your website and business to online directories
- Ensure that your NAP (name, address, and phone number) are the same online
- In the footer of your website, include your company address
It’s very obvious that having an internet presence is really beneficial, especially for small companies that only operate locally. No matter where you are, you can launch a successful website that attracts clients.
