Globally, about 36% of small businesses have no online presence. These businesses miss the opportunity to interact with about 80% of consumers who start their purchases by doing simple online research. What’s more, a business without a website may not offer an exemplary customer experience to its buyers because the average consumer wants to leave a review of your business after completing a purchase.
These are sobering trends for any small business owner who wants to engage more customers and stimulate sales. It’s obvious that having a website helps you achieve that overarching goal. But why else should you have a strong online presence? How does it make you different from your competitors who choose to handle things the traditional way?
Here are six reasons why building an online presence should be your top priority in 2021 and beyond.
1. Make Your Startup Reachable to as Many People as Possible
Unlike a physical retail business, an online store will be up and running 24 hours, seven days a week. It doesn’t matter whether you’re open or off during weekends—consumers will still visit the site and see what your business has to offer.
It’s also easier to link a business website to other online platforms such as social media forums. For instance, you can link it to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These forums have billions of active monthly users. Your target audience is probably among these forums waiting for you to make the first move and engage them.
2. Market Your Product and Services in a Better Way
As a business owner, it’s critical to invest heavily in marketing and advertising. However, it’s more prudent to track these marketing campaigns and evaluate whether they yield a positive ROI. Having an online presence allows you to measure different performance indicators and KPIs. You can then decide where to add more investment or where to automate processes.
Also, engaging your customers through social media allows you to personalize ads and marketing campaigns. Remember, 43% of average consumers believe you should tailor digital ads. Another 29% will likely complete purchases if you target them with personalized ads.
3. Adapt to Changes Easily
Technology is moving at a fast pace. Unless you have a website, your business won’t reap the benefits of integrating technology solutions into its internal operations. For instance, small businesses with a website can integrate ERP software into their system to track and streamline inventory.
You can also add other cloud-based software solutions to mitigate security risks associated with online business practices. Most importantly, software solutions enable the automation of processes to save you time and labor costs.
4. Build a Strong Brand Reputation
The average consumer believes a business with a website is more legitimate than one without. Moreover, having a website means you’ve been around for a while. It also helps your satisfied customers leave positive reviews. All these build confidence among new prospects in your ability to deliver top-notch services.
If you’re running a service business, you can learn how to build a Wikipedia page for your personal brand. Having two sites for reference will boost your credibility and reputation—this puts you ahead of the competition.
5. Generate Traffic and Leads
Having an online presence means your business can generate traffic and leads daily. Today, we have about 4.80 billion active internet users globally. In the past 12 months, this number grew by about 257 million. Experts project it will continue growing in the next years, thanks to the changing consumer trends who now prefer online shopping to in-store purchases.
A user-friendly site exposes your business to all this audience without geographical limitations. As more people see what your startup has to offer, they’ll give you leads when ready to make a purchase. This is way better as opposed to waiting for passers-by in a physical retail store.
6. Engage Customers Directly
When customers visit your physical retail store, do you inquire about their personal details? That is highly unlikely unless they are making big purchases. Also, you can’t follow up on customers to see how they find your products and services. Even if you give physical questionnaires, a majority of the consumers won’t mail them back.
That is not the case with having a website or social media presence for your small business. You can get in touch with customers even before they make their first purchase. How? Include a personal detail form on the landing page. If your site is secure, customers will fill in their phone number, email address, and even physical location. You can also introduce this form at the check-out stage.
Having access to this information allows you to personalize offers and services. You’ll likely get repeat customers and direct references by word of mouth.
Build an Online Presence and Match Your Competition
Every business out there that wants to succeed understands the benefits of having a strong online presence, including your customers. It only makes sense if you jump on the train and compete favorably with other players in your industry. If you’re not reaping these benefits, your competitors are likely redirecting some of your potential leads to their sites