It’s always good to know why you should be investing your money in something and a website is no different.

1. People search online

People naturally turn to Google to look up products or services that they’re interested in.

If someone performs a search then they’re already a ‘hot’ lead.

If you don’t have a website, you can’t be found.

2. Social media is good, but not good enough

Social media is extremely powerful, absolutely no question.

However it’s not enough.

People expect your business to have a website.

If you choose to have a social media presence, then the whole logic behind that should be to push traffic to your website.

Anyone can easily set up a Facebook page for a business, but there in lies part of the problem.

It’s impersonal and it doesn’t readily build trust.

3. Trust

Speaking of trust, people buy products or services from businesses and people they trust.

We need information before we buy because information builds trust.

A website builds trust because it:

• Shows you have invested time and money in your business.
• Reaffirms that you provide the products or service that the customer is looking for.
• Tells your potential client a little about you and your business.
• Provides some evidence e.g case studies of previous work and testimonials

As an example, one of my friends was recently looking to have a wet room installed in their house.  He wanted to see the following on a website when looking for someone to do the work:

• A professional looking website.
• Confirmation that the service he was looking for was provided.
• Some information about the business and the business owner.  Images and video would be great.
• Some case studies with pictures and testimonials.

When he saw all of those things, which he did, he got that warm fuzzing feeling that we call trust.

4. It can be a point of difference

I hear lots of people say that small businesses must have a website because their competitors do.

Whilst that is true, one of the main reasons I started Flexible Web was due to the amount of small businesses that either don’t have a website full stop or have a poor quality website.

A poor quality website reflects badly on your business.

Having no website doesn’t even put you in the game.

Therefore a website with me can offer your company a point of difference.

Your business can stand out of the crowd.

5. Collect Visitor Information

Here lies the ultimate power of a website.

You can collect information from a visitor in the form of an email address.

Let’s say you provide someone with a price list in exchange for an email address, just as I do on this website.

Once you have that email address, you can keep in touch with those people.

You keep your brand / product / service fresh in that persons mind.

They might not be ready to make a purchase today, but when they are, you should spring to mind.