Is a Website Right for Your Business?

As a member of my local chamber of commerce and a marketing committee, I was attending a colleague’s seminar about various ways you can market your business.  After covering everything from direct mail to email marketing, this question came up:

Do I need a website?

Let me put is as simply as I can. YES.

Why Do You Need a website?

Let’s explore the various reasons for different businesses:

1. 1. You own an architectural, landscape design, or commercial design firm and don’t feel you need a website because you get enough business from word of mouth.
      1. You are losing business because you don’t have a website.
      2. Your potential customers can’t take an easy look at the various projects you have completed, read through the articles you have written, or learn more about your team.
      3. Sure you could send them a nice expensive glossy portfolio, but in today’s age of I-want-it-now mentality, I guarantee you are missing out on business because you are not making it as easy and straightforward as possible for people to get to know you.
   2. You are a real estate agent, sales consultant, multi-level sales agent and have a subdomain under your parent company’s name.
      1. Did you know that all your blog posts aren’t yours?
      2. That all that hard work to get people to connect with you also puts them on the same page as your competitors?
      3. All the work you put in to get people to your website is doing a great job of promoting your parent company’s website and relatively nothing for you.
      4. What if you leave that agency? You lose that following because it never was yours.
   3. You own a company that manufactures widgets. Other companies buy your widgets not consumers.
      1. BUT you don’t sell widgets to Company XYZ. You sell widgets to Joe at company XYZ, and Joe wants to know are your widgets any good?
      2. What goes into making the widget?
      3. How is the widget made?
      4. Where is the widget made?
      5. You sell to Joe because he can see that you care about high-quality widgets and fantastic customer service.

 

I could go on but long story short, no matter what your business does, your business needs a website. A website can be as dynamic as you wish from e-commerce to regular updates to a simple “business card” site.

A website validates your business. It is similar to when 10-15 years ago you’d have ad space in a phonebook. If you don’t have a website that is yours — you are missing business.

Click Building a Website Yourself to get started.