Why you need a website
WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE —
NO MATTER WHAT INDUSTRY YOU’RE IN
Here’s why:
Buyer behavior changed over the last 100-years and has adapted to 21st
century technology. In other words, your customers are now in the digital age. I
am sure older people still remember how the telephone book was the way to go
before the turn of the century. The
Yellow Pages was the place to promote your business then, but it wasn’t always. Before phone books there were other books to order life's necessities.
Here are three examples of business media:
- Sears Roebuck Catalog - divided by product type
- The Yellow Pages – section by products and alphabetical
- The Internet Website – over 1,000 criteria for display, plus product type, location, popularity, etc.
Even before these examples there was the town crier,
the newspaper, and the traveling salesman.
But let’s just look at the last 100-years for now. The telephone book was the technology in the 19th
century. It absolutely changed how customers
conducted business and was just as ground-breaking as today's Internet.
As households began to use the telephone
directory to find local products and services, business owners realized
advertising in it was a smart bet. By the 1930's, advertising in the Yellow
Pages was standard operating procedure for most businesses. Most people used
the Yellow Pages daily basis.
Then, in the 1990’s came the world wide web. A new
disruption to the commercial status quo: the digital transformation with live
information. As more and more consumers realized they could find what they
needed online faster and more effectively than a phone book, behavior shifted from
using the printed directory to using a computer or cell phone. By 2011, 70
percent of all Americans rarely or never used printed phone directories and more
than 59% of consumers were going online to find local businesses.
Fast-forward to now and the number of consumers that go
online to find a local business has jumped to 97%. If you want them to
choose your company, you need to be found online—meaning you need a website.
YES YOU NEED A
WEBSITE — NO MATTER WHAT SIZE COMPANY YOU HAVE
You need a website. You needed one the day you started your
business. Thankfully better late than never works too, but putting it off is
costing you money.
Research by Deloitte’s discovered that digitally advanced
small businesses:
·
Earned two times as much revenue per employee
meaning double the profit per labor hour
·
Experienced revenue growth over the previous
year that was nearly four times as high
·
Were almost three times as likely to be creating
jobs over the previous year
·
Had an average employment growth rate that was
more than six times as high
Digital advancement starts with a website. If that’s not enough to convince you, here are eight reasons you need a website, an optimized, accessible website.
30 PERCENT OF CONSUMERS WON’T CONSIDER A
BUSINESS WITHOUT A WEBSITE
Your website is your number one marketing asset because we
live in a digital age. Americans spend on average 23.6 hours online per week
and are on their mobile devices for up to five hours per day. By now, consumers
expect companies to have an online presence (including a website) and will
consider a company that DOESN’T have one as less professional.
PEOPLE
ARE SEARCHING FOR YOU ONLINE
93% of consumers go online to find a local business—you need
an online marketing company and a website.
One of the benefits of having a website for small businesses
is to be where your consumers are. 97% of consumers go online to find a local
business, and 93 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine.
Believe it or not, there are 3.5 billion searches on Google per day, and at
this very moment, there is someone in your area online and searching for your
exact service. Guess who’s getting their business? Not you.
THE MAJORITY OF CONSUMERS USE WEBSITES TO FIND AND ENGAGE
WITH BUSINESSES
According to LSA’s (Local Search Association) April 2017
report, “The Digital Consumer Study,” 63 percent of consumers primarily use a
company’s website to find and engage with businesses. That’s a pretty big chunk
of consumers. Combine that with the fact that 93 percent of online experiences
begin with a search engine—you do the math. Another compelling reason your
business needs a website?
Research by Yellow Pages and LSA found that, on average,
consumers use approximately three sources before making an individual purchase
decision, and 30 percent automatically strike a business from consideration if
they don’t have a website.
COMMERCIAL
TRANSACTIONS IN EVERY INDUSTRY—INCLUDING B2B, INDUSTRIAL, AND MANUFACTURING—ARE
INFLUENCED BY DIGITAL WEBSITE CONTENT
The majority of companies that don’t have a website say it’s
because their industry isn’t online.We hear this mostly from business owners in
the B2B, industrial, and manufacturing industries. If that’s you, I’m gonna have to call you out on that.
You need a b2b website for industrial and manufacturing
because B2B buyers use digital content
A full 75 percent of B2B buyers say digital website content
significantly impacts their buying decision, and 62 percent say they can
finalize their purchase selection criteria based on a website’s digital content
alone.
The average B2B buyer now makes an average of 12 online
searches before interacting with a vendor’s website, and they are already 57
percent of the way through the buying process before they want to speak with a
sales representative. Even for industrial and manufacturing companies—67
percent of purchases are influenced by digital. Not only that, but half of all
B2B customers today also expect a supplier’s website to be a helpful channel
and more than a third expect the site to be their most helpful channel.
75 PERCENT OF
CONSUMERS ADMIT TO MAKING JUDGMENTS ON A COMPANY’S CREDIBILITY BASED ON THE
COMPANY’S WEBSITE DESIGN
You need a website for your business because 75% of people
have judged a company's credibility based on its website design. Not having a website makes consumers trust you less. In
fact, in 2018, 75 percent of people admit to making judgments on a company’s
credibility based on website design. People are more likely to do business with
a company they trust, and a website is the first place they go to check for
credentials, reviews, and awards.
YOU NEED TO ANSWER
BASIC QUESTIONS QUICKLY
This is especially true for B2B companies, restaurants, and small personal services businesses. People visit your
website when they want to know something or do something. They also expect immediate gratification, which means
visitors should be able to answer three questions within three seconds of
landing on your website:
- Who are you?
- What do you do/offer?
- How do I contact you?
IT WILL HELP YOU BEAT
THE GIANTS IN YOUR INDUSTRY
Did you know that having a website can help you get the
better of the giants in your industry? It can if it’s optimized for search.
Take Villa Lagoon Tile. They compete heavily with big-box tile stores but have
no trouble holding their own thanks to their website and their prominent
position in the search results page.
SOCIAL MEDIA REACH IS
DIMINISHING
So, you think you don’t need a website because you’re on
Facebook?
Great, so is every other business in America. You need a
website even if you have a Facebook page.
And guess what? It’s getting harder for businesses to
connect with users on the platform. Within a week of the last Facebook
algorithm update, organic reach plummeted lower than it was already. Another
bummer? In 2018, people spent 50 million fewer hours on the platform than they
did in 2017. That number is only
decreasing because of boredom.
While social media can help your business grow, don’t bank
on using it as your sole marketing channel, especially in the future. When is the last time you searched Google and
then went to Facebook? If it happens at
all, it isn’t very often.
our company makes it more likely for people
to revisit your website
Common Objections Business Owners Make Against Having a
Website
We work with small businesses every day, and when it comes
to not having a website, we’ve heard just about every excuse on the planet—and
they’re all incredibly misguided. I’ve listed the most common objections below,
and our typical responses.
“MY BUSINESS IS TOO SMALL, AND I DON’T HAVE
THE BUDGET FOR A WEBSITE.”
This is the most common objection we hear from small
business owners.
Look—your website is your number one marketing asset. Saying
you don’t have the budget for it is like saying you don’t have the budget for
an LLC license—you’re going to get in big trouble later if you don’t fork over
that initial investment.
Get a website—it doesn’t have to be fancy and expensive, but
it needs to exist, and it needs to be able to be found by search engines.
“I ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH BUSINESS. I DON’T NEED
A WEBSITE.”
Even if you have more business than you can handle, you need
a website, no ifs ands or buts. I recently read an article on website ownership
that argued against this. Here’s an excerpt:
“Recently I went to a popular restaurant in a tiny Virginia
town to try and sell the owners a website. The restaurant was located right on
the waterfront overlooking Chincoteague Bay. I went just before lunchtime in
the dead of winter on a weekday. I figured business would be slow and I could
chat briefly with the owner.
The owner was gracious and allowed me to run through the
basic benefits giving me her full attention — even taking a few notes. I
figured I had a good chance of closing this deal. I finally said, ‘Do you think
a website is something you’d be interested in hearing more about?’
This was her reply: ‘We opened this place as a bait and
tackle shop. Then people wanted coffee so we provided that. Then some asked for
sandwiches, so we provided that. Later they wanted a few tables where they
could sit and chat while they ate their sandwiches, so we got tables and chairs
and began doing lunches. That led to dinners. Then we didn’t have enough room
so we added the screened in porch for the summer. People loved the porch so
much that we winterized for the colder months. Now that it’s January, we
thought we might be able to close one day a week and get some time off. But we
can’t. We’re too busy. We’ve never advertised and we’re tired. If a website is
going to bring more people in here — no thanks!'”
Oh, how wrong that business owner is. If that were my
client, here’s what I would have said:
“A website doesn’t need to be built for the purpose of
adding new customers. According to the National Restaurant Association, 83
percent of Americans look up dining locations, directions and hours of
operation on their smartphones or tablets. Did you ever think that your
customers—now and future—may like to see specials and menu items while they’re
on the go? What if they’re in a hurry and want to order quickly and leave? What
if they want to know your hours and can’t make a phone call? A good website
will answer basic questions right away—which could free up time if you’re
spending a lot of it answering questions on the phone.
You can add a reservation widget, which again can save your
hosts time and make operations more efficient. You can build an online
community with recipes, blogs, and places to get local produce. You can become not only a local favorite, you
can gain popularity nationwide and turn your brand into a product all its own.
There is SO MUCH a website can do to boost your bottom line without adding more
customers, and while you may have enough customers now, you never know what the
next decade will bring. It’s best to get your foot in the door with digital now
in the event that it’s necessary in the future.”
“I HAVE A GUY THAT SAID HE COULD MAKE ME A
WEBSITE FOR FREE.”
This is a bad idea unless that guy’s career is in web design
for your industry. Having a friend or
family member make your website is like trusting a handyman to lay the
foundation of a skyscraper. A LOT goes into having an optimized website—SEO
optimization, file compression, responsive design, schema markup, etc.—and if
it isn’t built on the right foundation, it will likely topple over.
Even if you DO have a professional web designer as a friend,
be careful—different industries have different website design standards. For ,
a website for health services will have completely different components and
markup than a website for the HVAC industry.
“OUR CUSTOMERS AREN’T BIG COMPUTER USERS.”
Your customers aren’t “computer users”? That’s baloney. What
this business owner is forgetting is that “computer users” aren’t just people
using desktop computers. It also includes people browsing websites, social
media, and apps on mobile devices.
Not only do 89 percent of US adults use the Internet, but 77 percent of them own a smartphone, and in 2016, mobile web traffic outpaced desktop web traffic for the first time.
Smartphone = computer user.
I DON’T NEED A
WEBSITE BECAUSE MY INDUSTRY DOESN’T NEED ONE/I’M NOT AN ECOMMERCE OR AN ONLINE
BUSINESS.
This is a HUGE misconception a lot of people have. Just
because you’re not ecommerce does not mean you don’t need a website.
Consumers—even B2B buyers—still need to find you, learn about you, and trust
you because they buy from you. The large majority of our clients aren’t
ecommerce, and each one of them has seen considerable revenue growth from
having a website.
How Much Does a Website Cost?
A website can cost anywhere from free to upwards of 100
grand.
For , if you choose to DIY with a platform like SquareSpace,
you’ll pay a low monthly fee to lease a spot on their platform. On the other
end of the spectrum is a completely custom website from a professional website
design company tailored for your business needs. With these, you’re looking at
an investment of a few thousand dollars.
Do not let a price tag deter you from creating a website. If
you’re a one-man operation with zero budget, at least get a basic website that
you can jazz up later when you have a better cash flow.
Here’s what goes into
the cost of a website:
- Hosting – This is the service or company providing space on the internet for your website. Hosting providers include GoDaddy, InMotion, and others. Hosting is charged monthly and typically costs $7 and up.
- Domain name – This is shown as www.yourcompany.com and is usually a yearly payment. WordPress, as an , charges $14.99 per year for your domain name.
- Design – Some designs are free, other cost money.
- Plugins and extensions – Typically, the more plugins you want, the more expensive a website gets.
- Complexity of design – The more customized your website is, the more expensive it is
How to Make a Website for Your Small Business
When starting out with web design, the first concept you need
to understand is website ownership. A lot of small businesses dig themselves in
a hole because they don’t know the jargon of web contracts.
Final Takeaway: The Price of Having a Website Is Much Lower
than the Price of Getting Left Behind
A recent Capital One study found that only 56 percent of
small businesses say they have a company website.
That should tell you two things:
- 56% of businesses are doing better than yours
- You still have a chance to beat 44% of them if you get a website now
Look, anyone who tells you your business doesn’t need a
website is just plain wrong. Anyone else who thinks you don't need a website is also wrong.
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