Do I need a Website for my Small Business? Yes, Yes, You do

Do I need a Website for my Small Business? Yes, Yes, You do

October 16th, 2018 by Lucky Jeremiah

Two business owners walk into a bar. They both order shots to celebrate the launch of their new companies.

Five years later, the same business owners walk into the same bar, and order the same shots. One turns to the other and says “I just hired my 25th employee!” The other downs his shot, orders another, and downs that one. Then he says “I just signed bankruptcy papers on my business.”

It’s not a joke. In fact, it’s a true story, one that recently happened to two friends of mine.  Want to know the main difference between their business strategies?

One built a website in course of running his business and kept it updated and optimized, while the other had relied on social media and directory listings to market his business. While the former had leads rolling in by the end of year one, the latter never generated any momentum. As reach on social media declined, his top source of customers dried up.

Don’t be that person.

Look, in 2018, you need a website. Really, you needed one the day you started your business, but better late than never.

At Blue Corona, small business success is our middle name. We WANT you to succeed. So, in this article, I’ll cover:

1. 7 non-negotiable reasons why you need a website

2. Common objections debunked

If you’re ready to unlock your company’s success and get started with a lead-driving website comeriver.com was made for you.

7 Non-Negotiable Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Website

REASON #1:  30% 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.

REASON #2: PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR YOU ONLINE

One of the benefits of having a website for small businesses is to be where your consumers are. There’s a reason so many companies invest in a website with search engine optimization (SEO): 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? That’s right, your competitor.

REASON #3: 63% OF CONSUMERS USE WEBSITES TO FIND AND ENGAGE WITH BUSINESSES

Yup. 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 YellowPages 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.

REASON #4: 48% OF CONSUMERS SAY A WEBSITE IS THE BIGGEST DETERMINANT OF WHETHER THEY THINK A BUSINESS IS CREDIBLE

Not having a website makes consumers trust you less. In fact, 48 percent of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business. 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.

REASON #5: YOU NEED TO ANSWER BASIC QUESTIONS QUICKLY

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?

We live in an age of NOW, where consumers want the information they seek immediately—meaning your company’s website should answer each of the questions above without the user needing to scroll down the page at all.

REASON #6: IT WILL HELP YOU BEAT THE GOLIATHS IN YOUR INDUSTRY

Did you know that having a website can help you beat the Goliaths 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.

REASON #7: 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 Nigeria. 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? People are already spending 50 million fewer hours on the platform than they did in 2017.

While social media can help your business grow, don’t bank on using it as your sole marketing channel, especially in the future.

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.

OBJECTION #1: “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.

Visit: https://www.comeriver.com/website to build a website today.

OBJECTION #2: “I HAVE A GUY THAT SAID HE CAN 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 example, a website for health services will have completely different componants and markup than a website for the HVAC industry.

OBJECTION #3: “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, 77 percent of them own a smartphone, and in 2016, mobile web traffic outpaced desktop web traffic for the first time.

Smartphone = computer user.

OBJECTION #4: I DON’T NEED A WEBSITE BECAUSE I’M NOT 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. People 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 have seen considerable revenue growth from having a website.