Back in the old days, businesses had to rely on offline marketing methods. Those methods most often including the use of flyers, TV & radio advertisements, ads in the newspaper, and more. While those were extremely effective back in the day, those methods are no longer the best ways to reach your target audience today.
The reason is that most people go online to look for answers, companies, products and services. Consider the fact that about 60% of all online searches are done via smartphones. If you’re solely relying on offline campaign efforts to get the word out about your business, your efforts are completely missing the mark. Think about how much you do online, then you’ll have a good idea of what we’re talking about.
Let’s take a look at why having a website can be more helpful to your business than only relying on an offline campaign. A website offers many advantages over offline methods.
The Benefits of a Business Website
1). Flexibility
Getting 24/7 exposure for your business is much easier through the use of a business website. In fact, it’s often cheaper than a traditional offline campaign. This is because of all the new technology and advancements that have come along. These have made it much easier to manage the site and make it extremely user-friendly for site visitors.
In fact, you can create an excellent interactive experience that site visitors will love. This is also a benefit for the business because it cuts down on the time you and others need to interact with customers, which also saves money.
Not only that, but a business website can also be used to gather information and data about your current customers. For instance, using site analytics, it’s possible to gather demographic data about site visitors and customers. You can also offer signups for newsletters to obtain email addresses from site visitors. This is extremely helpful in creating a valuable email list, which can be used to announce new products and services to those who have signed up.
If you sell products online, then you’ll be able to create a shopping cart and checkout. Why are these benefits? Because customers will then be able to make purchases online 24/7. You make it more convenient for people to buy any time, even on weekends and holidays.
None of this can be carried out through the use of only offline campaign methods. With a business website, you’ll have more flexibility to reach out to current and potential customers, while providing them with the flexibility they need and want, too.
2). Cost Effective Investment
As noted above, a business website can provide you with a more cost-effective method to reach out to current and potential customers. The website costs less than the offline campaign but offers so many more benefits.
And it’s easier to maintain sites that it was in the past. However, if you’re not comfortable working with the site yourself, it’s possible to hire a professional website maintenance company provide these services. There will be a cost involved, but this is usually reasonable, and still more inexpensive than traditional offline campaign methods.
3). Build Credibility
Sure, an offline campaign can give your company creditability. But remember that most people are looking for answers online. This means you need to be where your customers are—online. When you have a business website, your company immediately gains credibility if the site has been well designed.
Site visitors will judge a site on how it looks, if it’s easy to navigate, and easy to use. If done well, your business website will show that you are a professional company that cares about impressions. It also shows that you care about your customers and site visitors.
4). Provide Customer Support
With a website, your business will be able to provide customer support 24/7. This is can be done with the addition of a FAQs page, online AI assistant, and more. Not only that, but customers will be able to find answers to some of their questions through articles and other content included on the site.
In addition, through the use of online forms and autoresponders, customers will be able to make information requests, request assistance and more 24/7.
Improved customer service goes a long way in building credibility and making it easier and faster for customers to receive the help they need right away.
5). Promote and Sell Products & Services
With an online presence, your business will be able to promote and sell 24/7, all year long. With the effective use of photos and detailed descriptions of products and services customers will be able to make informed purchasing decisions.
This make customers’ lives easier, and it make conducting business more cost-effective and requires less time from staff.
6). Own Your Business Name
The creation of a business website and buying a domain name makes it easy to claim your business name, which works to improve brand identity. It’s also a great way to create a custom business email address, which also improves branding.
You won’t have to worry that another company will come along and snap up your business name online. This creates a lot of confusion for everyone, but especially for site visitors, as well as current and potential customers. So, avoid the confusion and own your business name online.
7). Include Testimonials & Reviews
Customer testimonials and review not only add content to your site, but they also add credibility and trustworthiness to your business. Honest reviews and testimonials work to draw people into your site because the business looks to be reliable and credible.
One way to get testimonials and reviews is to ask current customers if they would be willing to write a review or share a few words about their experience with your business.
Offline marketing campaigns still work and bring in customers. However, having a business website brings many benefits to your business. Not only is it a cost-effective solution, but it makes your business available to site visitors and customers 24/7. You’ll have a broader reach to potential customers, too. A business website will provide you and site visitors with many benefits that can’t be achieved with an offline campaign.
