If you’re a new brand then raising awareness should be top of your list of business goals, or perhaps you want to showcase expertise in your specific field of business? Having a website that drives quality leads or generates ‘X’ number of sales per month are also popular goals amongst our clients. Whatever your commercial goals a good website can help you achieve them, below are 10 key benefits of a website for small businesses:
1. Establish your business’s credibility: having a well-designed website that looks great on every device gives the impression that you are professional and ready to do business with your target customers. If you don’t have a website, digital-savvy customers are likely to go elsewhere in just a few clicks!
2. Create a bold brand identity: a custom website can be as unique as your brand and provides a platform for you to bring your brand story to life in a visually compelling and intuitive way. From stylish animations and beautiful photography to buttons and headlines that POP – every element of your website content should align to and elevate your brand’s look and feel.
3. Showcase your products or services: your website is your online shop window whether you’re a service-based or ecommerce business, utilise it to guide potential customers to browse your portfolio and ensure they can purchase or enquire easily.
4. Build your reputation with reviews and testimonials: including customer testimonials on your website is a great way to impress potential customers, build trust and boost conversions. According to Trustpilot, 88% of consumers factor in online reviews to their purchase journey so always factor in social proof content within your website design.
5. Help prospective customers seeking your products or services to find you: search engine marketing and SEO is what makes your website discoverable online amongst users who are actively searching (or Googling) online your brand, products, services etc. It’s essential to optimise your website with on-site SEO so that each page on your website can capture traffic and rank on search engines for a specific target keyword or two.
6. Drive incremental enquiries or sales: the main purpose of a business website is either to drive sales, enquiries, or both. To ensure it can deliver these goals, every piece of content on your website should be fit-for-purpose to guide users into action and drive them further down your sales funnel.
7. Become an information resource: if your business operates in a niche industry or is a service provider, a website is a great place to demonstrate your expertise and build authority in your field. For example, add a blog to your website and update it regularly with well-written informative content which discusses common problems and topics that your potential clients are searching for on Google. An effective content marketing and blog strategy can improve your websites SEO value and your brand’s online discoverability.
8. Build a mailing list: email marketing is an effective tool for generating leads or orders from prospective customers and driving repeat business from existing customers. You can build your email list (database) by adding a form to your website to collect information from users who want to subscribe at various points in their user journey on your website, for example, at the checkout before or after the purchase. Consider a small business friendly platform such as MailChimp for your email marketing needs.
9. Collect data to drive growth: every website should be set up to accurate track every piece of activity that happens on it, this data will provide you with valuable insights to help you drive your business into its next phase of growth. Google Analytics is free and can track plenty of useful information for small businesses. For example:
do you get more leads on Sundays? Consider increasing your digital marketing spend on Sundays to maximise this opportunity for more leads.
does your homepage have a high bounce rate? It’s time to test new, engaging content.
are you getting traffic from Australia? Perhaps you should introduce international delivery.
10. Get quicker referrals: should your brand or business name come up in a conversation between a current client and a friend of theirs, the first thing that friend is likely to do is Google your business or search for it online. If you have a fit-for-purpose website they are highly likely to find you instantly, take a look at what you do and either get in touch to discuss their needs or place an order with you.
Your website is the most important digital destination for your small business. Your customers will likely discover your brand for the first time on your website so it must create a ‘wow’ first impression and guide users into action such as learn more, send an enquiry or make a purchase. As a small business owner one of the best cost-effective investments, you can make is in a custom website that it unique to your brand and fit-for-purpose to deliver your commercial goals.
