10 Reasons Why Your Brand/Talents/Company Needs A Website
(and a clean, professional one that grabs 'em right away)
(and a clean, professional one that grabs 'em right away)
1. Your Business is Open to the World 24/7, 365 Days a Year
Unlike your company's office that may be open from 8-5, Monday thru Friday, your company 's website is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are many different time zones that may affect your business, which is why being on the web makes it time convenient for everyone. Brand your products and services on the largest stage in the world. Make it easy for new prospects and existing clients to find your contact information; now that search engines have surpassed the yellow pages as the world's #1 search medium, not having your information online means most people are going directly to your competitors. Your company needs to be on the first page of Google and Yahoo! Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Websites make it very easy for your new prospects or existing clients to contact you via a wide variety of methods (Contact Forms, e-mail, telephone, fax, etc.)
2. It's Your Online Brochure / Catalog That Can Be Changed at Anytime
Educate your clients and prospects on products and services! A website is easier, cheaper and quicker to update than print material. Its' capacities are almost limitless which allow you to provide users with more comprehensive information. This will save you money on printing and distribution costs as well.
3. Reach New Markets with a Global Audience
On the Internet, you aren't that local little business anymore. You have the potential to be seen by millions across the globe. Did you ever think your company would have the possibility of doing business around the world? Well, now you can. Without a doubt, the Internet is the most cost effective way to trade nationally and internationally.
4. Improved Customer Service
By providing answers to questions on your website, sales and information requests can be processed automatically and immediately, whether someone is in the office or not. Online forms can be used to allow customers to request quotations or ask further information. Save costs by allowing users to download invoices, proposals and important documents.
5. Present a Professional Image
For a small business, a well-designed web site is a great way of instilling confidence and looking bigger than you actually are. In this day in age, customers assume that you already have a website. By now, your primary competitors probably already have a presence on the Internet. If they do, keep up with them and find ways to make yours better.
6. Sell Your Products
By having an online store, your products gain massive visibility not only through your website, but also through some of the largest online marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, etc.) and Search Engine giants such as Google and Yahoo!. Unlike most brick and mortar stores, Online Store products sell internationally 24 hours a day, seven days a week and don't require employees to accept payment or handle customer service. Why pay expensive rent, overhead, electric bills, and all the other costs that go along with owning a bricks-n-mortar business? Selling in cyberspace is much cheaper and a good way to supplement your offline business. Providing secure online ordering is very affordable for even the smallest businesses.
7. Promote Your Services
Lawyers, doctors, financial consultants, entertainers, realtors and all service oriented businesses should let customers know that they have a choice. Millions of users are referring to the web and are using company's websites to make major decisions when they need a specialized service.
8. Gather Information and Generate Valuable Leads
You can gather information about your customers and potential customers by using forms and surveys. Rather than going out and getting leads, let them come to you. This is a great tool for prospecting targeted customers looking to use your products and services.
9. Provides Instant Gratification
Time = Money and a Website will save you and your employees a lot of time by freeing you from answering repetitive questions, educating your clients before they speak to you, making it easy for them to find the right contact for their project and giving them access to downloadable documentation from anywhere, any time. People are busy and don't like to wait for information. Give them what they want, when they want it. If your product is suitable, offer them free samples or trials to download. This includes pictures, brochures, software, videos, Power Point slides, music and more.
10. Great Recruiting Tool
Whether you are looking for talent or posting job opportunities with your company, your website is a great recruiting tool for building your business.
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If you build it they will come, right? Well, if you don't build it they will go to your competitor. Investing in the development of a Web site is the best, most cost-effective way to "keep up with the Jones' these days" and not having a Web site is the best way to count yourself out of the running before the race has even begun.
You probably hear it every now and again, once per month, a few times a week or maybe even every day? Somebody you know tells you that you need a Web site. Your reply is either a gentle reminder that you already have a Web site, an inquiry into why this person thinks you do or a firm command that a Web site is not in your immediate future.
More often than not, your request for additional information leads to a generalized statement that "everybody has a Web site," or that you need to "sell stuff" online. While those are of course valid arguments have you ever really stopped and seriously thought about why you might actually need a Web site, what you might potentially be missing out on (According to NRF/Forrester Online Retail Index, consumers spent $6.1 billion online in December 2000) and how having a poor Web site actually hurts more than it helps?
What I have discovered in my career so far is that to answer the question of why you need a Web site is really to narrow the reply down to a few key concepts that form the core of any Internet project and strategy. Once you grasp and understand the fundamental reasons behind investing in a Web site you might realize that those people who tell you that you need a Web site are actually, more often than not, right. Here are those five essential reasons and a list of others:
1. To Inform
The old adage that nobody knows your business better than you is true, but wouldn't it be great if other people at the very least were able to know what you do? Having a presence on the Web helps others to learn more about who you are, what you do and how your products or services may ultimately benefit themselves. Your business may be the best kept secret in town but ask yourself this; how many secret businesses actually turn a profit? Let people in, enable people to get to know you and open your business to the world of unlimited opportunity. According to Strategy Analytics by 2005 it is predicted that 91 percent of US households will have access to the internet via PCs and other Internet appliances.
2. To Say
Nothing of course compares to a personal visit to your store, office or headquarters but your Web site is the next best thing. Your Web site is your opportunity to make a lasting impression and can serve as your virtual environment and 24-hour salesperson. Consider what your Web site might say about your organization. It may portray that same professional quality that you normally invoke with your pamphlets, brochures and face-to-face meetings or just as poor customer service or a disorganized storefront can undermine the image of a company in the eyes of consumers, so too can a poorly designed, managed and coded website. Also consider what not having a Web site will say about your company.
3. To Do
Nobody develops a business Web site without expecting some sort of a return on investment, so how does investing in a Web site lead to ROI? There are many answers to that question, some are creative and some are straightforward. Is the goal to simply generate an order or is it to collect information such as names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the development of a qualified lead database? Do you want somebody to fill out an online questionnaire or just to click around and drive advertising rates? Put simply, if you don't have a Web site that does something, you are putting your business at a disadvantage.
4. To Transform
Think of a Web site as a virtual extension of your traditional business and use the Web to help transform your company to meet and anticipate new industry demands. It has the potential to be your top salesperson and your most helpful customer service associate, it is also a reusable, easily changeable brochure and your top advertisement. Use the Web to interact with customers and clients who are asking for better, more efficient ways of doing business with you because chances are, that your competition has already begun to take those steps to steal your customers and clients.
5. To Compete
If you build it they will come, right? Well, if you don't build it they will go to your competitor. Investing in the development of a Web site is the best, most cost-effective way to "keep up with the Jones' these days" and not having a Web site is the best way to count yourself out of the running before the race has even begun. If you don't have a Web site you won't be found by the millions of people (39.8 million online business searches per day according to Overture) that use the Internet daily to look for different types of goods and services online. Your competitor will be the one that is found instead.
45 Additional Reasons you Need a Web Site
1. You have some information that is helpful or interesting
2. You have a product you would like to sell
3. You want to let people know about your business or organization
4. You have customers who need your support
5. You want feedback from your customers
6. You want to make contact with others
7. You want to expand your business, domestically or internationally
8. You need to transfer information to other branches and salespeople
9. Your message can be seen by millions of people
10. Improve your image
11. You're always open
12. You can increase your productivity
13. Your business gets the competitive edge
14. Your message is always current
15. Your Web site is cost-effective
16. It's never been easier or more affordable
17. A Web site cannot be sent to the wrong address or thrown out
18. A Web site gives your customers instant access to your products
19. A Web site may be changed on the spur of the moment
20.Increases the chances of impulse buying
21. Businesses without an Internet strategy are finding it hard to survive
22. Technology know-how is a key difference in the marketplace
23. Inexpensive, fast and effective customer-service
24. There are no reproduction costs with the web
25. Customers can be referred to your web site for further information
26. Reduce staff time
27. Find more customers online (and take some of your competitors)
28. Save time communicating electronically
29. Work can be processed faster and more efficiently
30. Demonstrate a progressive and expanding business
31. Keep archives of old information at no extra production costs
32. Your competitors have Web sites and your prospects have seen them
33. Deliver your message without spending money on printing or postage
34. You are on equal footing with the world's largest companies
35. You can reach a potential 50+ million people worldwide
36. You have free demographics gathering capability
37. Provide qualified leads for new clients or contacts
38. You can gather information about your competitors
39. Generate immediate orders from new and existing clients
40. Enable customers to contact you or request more information
41. Used as an inexpensive form of marketing research
42. Builds credibility for your organization
43. Will increase your competitive advantage
44. Because everybody else has one
45. Generate an online list of e-mail addresses for direct marketing
I CAN MAKE ANY and or ALL Happen for YOU to Be 'Released to the World' to Make 2012 the BE$T YEAR OF YOUR LIFE!!
NEVER LIFE WITH A 'WHAT IF?
-SW
