As a business owner, you will have witnessed first-hand how the Internet has had a huge impact on customers buying habits.
In fact by now, unless your business is based in a cave in the outer reaches of Siberia you should have either set up a website or at the very least had somebody seriously suggest that you should.
Having a website and online presence is no longer an option for businesses any more. Without being online your business is going to miss out on huge opportunities. Despite all of the evidence, it is surprising to discover that there are still some business owners who remain sceptical, not fully convinced that having a website really is necessary.
One of the most common reasons given to us for not going online is the business owner feels a website would take too much time and energy to set up or that they are a luxury not a necessity. Others claim it would be a waste of time. They get enough business from passing trade so they don’t need to bother going online at all.
Even if a business is doing well from passing trade at the moment, it is still good sense to go online. If you don’t, not only will your current customers who use the internet as part of everyday life be surprised that you are not online but you will lose thousands of potential new customers.
Here are some reasons why having a website is worth far more than the small cost of setting it up and running it.
1) Sell to a wider audience
Your bricks and mortar business is restricted to passing trade and how many people are in town that day. If you want to reach out to a wider audience, traditional means of advertising in the local press, radio, TV and flyers are very expensive.
On the Internet however, you can easily expand your brand to a global audience for a fraction of the cost or even free using clever online marketing and search engine optimisation.
2) People look for local businesses online using their smartphones
Smartphones can literally put your business at your potential customer’s fingertips. Statistics show customers regularly use their smartphones to find local businesses close to where they are. If they are using the Internet to search online for local businesses, your business really needs to be there so that they can find you. If it isn’t, they will just buy from your competitor instead.
3) You can be open 24 hours a day
How much would it cost in staff wages and electric bills if you were to keep your bricks and mortar business open 24 hours per day? Would you not be excited if you could keep your business open 24 hours a day without losing any money in the process?
Not just that but you could be receiving orders from all over the world no matter what time it was.
That is exactly what the Internet and Infusionsoft allows you to do. Even if your business does not actually sell a physical product, people can always contact you via email or learn about your business without waiting for you to open during your normal business hours.
For more reasons why having a website is worth far more than the small cost of setting it up and running it look out next week for the second part of this blog on why your business needs to be online.
In the meantime, if you feel marketing your business is a scary prospect with a minefield of options, then we can hold you by the hand and take you through the process of achieving what you set out to. By working in partnership with Jumpworks we can help you accelerate the growth of your business and increase the return on the digital marketing you do. If you would like to get started then please feel free to give us a call or pop an email over to us – we don’t bite we promise and we will be happy to help you in any way we can.
