Many people I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the years just don’t believe that having an online presence (website) for their business is such a good idea. Well, I can tell you that having an online presence is essential for every business. Why would you need to have an online presence for your business? The shorter and less difficult answer would be why not? But I can’t stand it when people answer a question with a question, so I’ll go ahead and elaborate.
The common misconception is that business owners believe that having a website means you are competing with EVERY website in the same category as your business. For example, a small store in a local mall selling cologne and perfume believes that they will be competing against other websites selling cologne and perfume at a large discount. This is not true – not all websites have to sell a product or service nor does it even have to list a price for its products. Nowadays, the majority of consumers use the internet to collect information on certain products they are interested in. This means that they can be on your website to see if your store carries a certain brand or size of a product.
An online presence can also help place your brand name in the consumers’ minds as they pass by your business. This helps even if they do not come into your store front (they may have not needed your product at that time) but when the time comes that they need what you are selling, then the first place they will look for information is your website. Even if you don’t have your pricing on your website, you can still have relevant information for them to look at: store hours, list of products, store phone number, and most importantly, store location(s). An online presence is not aimed to compete with other online presences but more towards attracting your target niche, for most of you small businesses out there, this would be your local market.
A website is in many cases is a companies most indispensable marketing tool. A website design can cost anywhere from $100 to a few thousand dollars, all depending on what you are looking for. After the design is finished, ongoing costs will only be your web hosting fees (Right Servers has plans that cost less than $10 per month for cloud web hosting) and domain registration fees (in most cases less than $15 per year). There are also many cost-effective ways of promoting your brand and your website – including Facebook pages, Google Adwords and more.
As your business evolves, so does your online strategy. At this point you will need to re-evaluate your business model and determine what you need to change to meet the needs of your customers. With the wide range of service providers and web developers that will be begging for your business, you are able to meet your requirements without blowing your budget. Stay tuned to updated and more in-depth online strategies.
Thank you for taking your time to read this blog post and I hope you will visit this blog on a daily basis to check out what tips we have in store for you.
CEO – RIGHTSERVERS.COM