Being an entrepreneur you may have an endless list of tasks at hand but that is no excuse for not taking your business online. A website is a quite an efficient tool that can be used to support your marketing efforts and to help your business grow. When someone wants to know about a company, a product or a service, they usually turn search online and eventually end up on the business website. So it's vital to position yourself online and a website is the most imperative advertising instrument for your business.

1. Marketing instrument

Having a website gives an open platform to talk about your endeavours and proficiencies. By adding portfolio images and video clips about your work and your business, you can demonstrate what makes your company or you unique. We live in a place where one searches over the net about everything and anything. Online review sites are quite prominent these days where people get to know about a company, a product or a service. This makes having a website even more important as it is often the way people make a first impression people about your business. By having a website, a business will not have to suffer from compromised quality of graphics on social media. Moreover, on social media the audience reachable to the graphics, portfolios, testimonials and content is limited whereas if you have a website, your portfolio can be viewed by everyone anywhere and you are in control of what people see, the quality and size of your photos, and how people interact with those photos.

2. Keeping customers updated

A website is a powerful tool for informing clients about innovations, new services, new offerings, products, upcoming and promotions. One can also add value by keeping customers updated and well informed through a blog on the site. Unlike print media which rapidly winds up as obsolete, your website can give current data and news. And if you discover a mistake when you go live with your content on a web page or post, it can be conveniently fixed.

At its most basic level, a website is still a quick and efficient way of communication between buyers and sellers. A website now is much more than just an online pamphlet with the integration of various forms of media like videos, podcasts, social media enabling sharing of information across various platforms.

3. Building credibility

Nowadays, it is expected for any reputable business to be present online. Customers are said to believe that small businesses with websites are more credible than ones without an online presence. Prospective customers would likely be distrustful of any business that didn’t have a telephone number or a physical address, and the same can be said for not having a website and email address. As mentioned earlier, a website is an efficient tool for interacting with your clients and answering all their queries. Moreover, having a good quality, user-friendly website makes customers feel comfortable using your services, as they are likely to expect the same positive experience in all areas of your business. In a competitive world, one cannot afford to lose credibility by being absent over the internet.

4. Easy accessibility

A website gives you a 24x7 available platform, unlike a physical location of the business. Your clients can view your catalogue, evaluate your offerings, communicate with your business as per their convenience even when your store or office is closed. 

As your site is available to everybody everywhere throughout the world, the capacity to get through topographical hindrances has never been this simple. Anybody, from any nation, is in a position to get in touch with your organisation and accordingly, is a potential customer. The capacity to expand the market of a business is a standout amongst all the most lucrative advantages of having a company website.

5.  Enabling better customer service & engagement

Your website content can be the primary engagement tool with customers. Apart from having a website's main pages written in an engaging way, a business that blogs regularly generally receives more leads than those that don't. Websites can also prove to be a great way to provide value-added service to the customers. By offering answers to regularly asked questions in an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, you can reduce customer service costs and save yourself time and money, as well as providing much more information. This also saves customers' time and builds positive customer relationships.

6. Cost and time effective

If the cost associated with having a website is hindrance, let me be very clear that it is more cost effective than to lose the business to your competitors. Rather, having a website is a very economical way of marketing your business. The investment in a website is well worth it considering the potential market reach and life of marketing efforts, as compared to traditional means of marketing.

Time is a no less a crucial asset than money, so they are often linked together. By making the information available 24x7 saves a lot of time one would have to spend getting in touch with the prospects. Moreover, various online format such as graphics, videos, testimonials etc can be incorporated making the marketing efforts more engaging and available to customers as well.

7.  A website defines you  

It is pretty evident that by not having a website you are losing your business to the competitors who do have a website. It is becoming a habit for the customers to pay a visit to various search engines before making a buying decision. Having a place on a search result of a potential page is not an easy task and your website is the basic armory.

Having an unprofessional or sloppy website is not a good idea. It's even worse than not having a website. While no website means missed opportunities, a bad website can actually be worse since it literally makes your business look bad. It is your website that makes the first impression on a customer, it is neither affordable nor suggested to make a bad one. Ultimately it is a website which defines your business and customers base their buying decision on such factors..

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