Introduction
A sleek stylish website with useful content can help with many aspects of your business, including saving you time, increased trust and credibility & marketing to mention just a few. In this article, I will cover the benefits and effects a site can have on your business.
Trust and Credibility
A well-designed website helps to build trust with your clients and potential customers and enhances your credibility.
Specific pages on your website allow you to tell your story, why you started the business, highlight your expertise and explain the benefits of your products/services.
Use social proof to show other people/customers buying your products and services, this also helps to create trust. Testimonials and reviews help too.
Marketing
Anyone anywhere can view your site anytime. Depending on your business type this increased visibility can open the world as your potential market. If your business doesn’t have a website, your potential clients are likely to find your competitors instead.
Think of the ways that your customers will find your site, from your business cards, links in your emails, word of mouth, social media as well as through the search engines.
Your site can allow visitors to quickly post messages to their favourite social media channel. It’s never been easier for people to spread the word about your business. Those who post are also more likely to have friends and associates who will also need your services, praise from them can be extremely powerful.
Email is an effective marketing tool if you build your mailing list from your website. For example, you can offer a periodic newsletter to inform your customers of useful information, new developments, offers and generally keep them aware of your products and services. A mailing list built in this way isn’t some random list, it contains people who were prepared to part with their email address to receive your information, they are much more likely to purchase from you in the future.
Education
The content of your site (descriptions, images, video etc.) all help to educate your audience about the products or services you offer.
You can provide examples of your work complete with images and videos if applicable.
You can also use the site to educate your customers or potential customers on given problems/issues and explain what needs to be done to correct them. Depending on your business type, your customers then realise that you not only understand their issues but know how to solve them which increases the chances of a positive outcome.
Authority
Writing about your subject, creating valuable content for your customers is a great way to establish yourself as an respected authority with your audience in your given niche.
Branding
Your website is an important part of your brand. Your site not just should look great but provide valuable information to your clients about your service/products to help enable them to make buying decisions.
Customer Service
Websites can also provide an easier means to handle customer service. A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page provides answers to standard questions reducing your costs and saving you valuable time. The client can also gain the information instantly and is more likely to lead to further questions which you can handle more directly.
A form on your contact us page allow customers to get in touch anytime with their queries. Customers can check up on your products, services, opening hours, location and so on without you needing to do anything other than provide the information in the first place. This all helps improve your productivity.
Answering your clients questions on your website is a great way to determine what to write about. Think of all the questions you’ve ever been asked and write your answers to inform or solve the problem. Repeat for all questions you’ve ever been asked and you’ll have a great set of content for your website’s visitors.
Business Insights
Through analytics it’s possible to see how many visitors your site has, when people are visiting, how they found you and most importantly which pages/products they are looking at the most. This allows you to better understand your customers wants and wishes and adapt your business to suit. It may also highlight opportunities for new products and services or which ones to prioritise.
Visibility
Customers can find you online 24 x 7.
Employees and Investors
Creating great content about your products and services and areas of expertise can also help impress and attract potential employees and investors.