Filed under: Uncategorized
There comes a time when all businesses get to a point where they realise they need a website but many of them fall into the trap of having a website just because they think they need one. They don’t look at the most important aspect of a website for a business (in fact the most important aspect of any marketing for a business, after all, a website is another form of marketing a business isn’t it?).
Once you have decided you want a website don’t fall into the age‐old trap of going for a website that looks the nicest, with lots of moving images (and please never have music on your website) do not focus on the look of the site (although it needs to reflect your company’s brand) focus on the functionality of the site and how it will do the following 3 things for your business, these are the 3 things to focus on when planning for a website:
How will the website save my business time?
How will the website save my business money?
How will the website make my business money?
Believe it or not a website can potentially do all of the above for your business, what a fantastic tool for you, how did you ever cope without one!
Let us look at each of the 3 things above when planning for a website.
How will the website save my business time?
As anyone in business will tell you, TIME IS MONEY so we need to ensure that the website has the ability to save your business money.
Look at the four questions and answers below, we are pretty confident that several of the points made will be relevant to your business, make a note of these and ensure that whoever builds your website takes this into account.
Do you send out brochures to potential customers?
Many businesses send out a brochure to a potential customer, this takes time and also it can be a couple of days before the brochure arrives on the potential customer’s doorstep, imagine saying to them “You can view our brochure online at www.thenameofourwebsite.com”. This saves you the time of posting the brochure and the potential customer gets the information immediately and when they are keen to do business with you two days later may be too late, someone else may already have clinched the sale.
Do you regularly have to explain your business services and offerings on the telephone?
How many times does a potential customer ring you up and ask “Do you do this?” or “Do you do that?” and you spend 10‐15 minutes explaining what your business does and how it does it, how much quicker is it to say “Thanks for the call, you can find out everything about us on www.thenameofourwebsite.com. If you have any further questions please feel free to call me back”.
Do you visit potential clients to show them what you can offer them?
Many small businesses arrange appointments to visit potential customers; if your business falls into this category a great way to cut down on the number of appointments is to give the potential customer all the information they need before you visit them.
Customer: “Hi, we are interested in your xxx service, would it be possible you could come and see us next Wednesday evening?”
You: “Sure that’s fine; I will bring all my brochures and photos of work I have done to help assist you in making the decision to use our company”.
Obviously, some services need to be sold face to face, but by providing a lot more information before the potential customer requests a meeting means they are more aware of the products/services you offer and this will mean less wasted meetings, shorter meetings and hopefully more sales from the meetings you do attend.
How will the website save my business money?
Obviously to any business, time is money, so by utilising a website to save your business time it will in effect save your business money too; let’s look at an example of saving money with a website.
Do you send out brochures to potential customers?
A brochure to design, print and post costs anywhere from £2 upwards per brochure (with envelopes, stamps etc) to send out, so each time you post a brochure to a potential customer it has just cost another £2. Imagine if you had sent that customer to your website (your online brochure) it would have saved you £2.
The other problems with brochures are that you cannot order 1 or 2 at a time, you need to order in the hundreds to get the price right, so what happens when you have 500 brochures in your office and your address changes, or you change suppliers of your product, you cannot change your brochures, do you throw them away and print more or just muddle through with them.
With a website you can get it updated quickly and easily and at very little cost (if any).
How will the website make my business money?
Obviously, by saving your business time and money it will increase the profit of your business, but a website will also make you money for the following reasons:
A website gives a business credibility
A website opens your business up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
A website provides potential customers with IMMEDIATE INFORMATION, which in today’s busy world people want to find out what you offer NOW, not in 2‐3 days time!
A website, by being promoted on any advertising you do, opens up your advert to be a complete online brochure about your business.
With Activ Web Design offering websites that can do all of the above for your business for just £499 (or £999 for an online shop where you can actually sell your goods/services online) can your business afford to get left behind?
Let us now look at how to promote your website to get more business
The most cost‐effective way of promoting your website is to focus on your current advertising and marketing.
Here at Activ, we have helped many small businesses realise the power of the internet and what it can do for their business, below is some advice on how to successfully grow your business with a website.
So you are now at the next stage, you have got a website and you have ensured it has been designed with the 3 fundamental benefits of a website:
Save time
Save money
Make money
Now you need to ensure you promote it successfully and cost‐effectively.
The first thing to do when you have a new website built is ensure you put both your website address and your email address on all of your current marketing material:
Letterheads
Business cards
Leaflets
Till receipts
Invoices
Vans (delivery vehicles etc)
Shop window (if you have a shop front)
By ensuring you promote your website on all of the above you will ensure that new and existing customers start to use it.
The next thing to do is look at where you currently advertise, many businesses advertise in the Yellow Pages and local village booklets, by ensuring your website address is on all of your advertising means that if your advert is of interest to someone they are very likely to visit your website, which opens up any advert you run into a complete online brochure about your business.
So, we have increase awareness, raised the profile and improved our offline advertising to ensure that people are looking at your website as a source of information about your company.
This is everything you need to do once your website is live on the internet and by doing all of the above your website will work for your business.
Regards
