Building your online presence to grow your business
The Vodacom Fast Forward Series is open to all business owners who want to re-strategise, refocus and re-envision their future business goals and make them a reality.
In our previous Fast Forward episode, Ines Rosef-Ingram (CEO and founder of Pine3 Marketing) and Mike Anderson (NSBC Founder & CEO), shared with us some expert lessons on how your website can be a marketing machine to help grow your business.
Ines also joined Mike for another great Fast Forward episode (https://youtu.be/lJG8wILez0w), where they discussed ‘online marketing and why you should consider it for your business.
In this video, you’ll:
Discover why websites are important for any small business
Identify key elements to include and consider when creating a website
Learn practical and cost efficient ways to build your website
Find key elements to tweak and improve on your current website
The first point addresses the building of a business website, specifically, should you do it yourself, or hire someone to build it for you? While it’s true that building a website yourself has never been easier, you should first ask yourself a few questions:
How complex does your website need to be?
If all you need is a basic one-page website with an email address, phone number and maybe your business address, you can absolutely do that yourself. There are many website builders and one-page templates you can use to get up and running quickly.
How much time do you have?
This is a critical factor that can actually work both ways. On one hand, if you're in a rush and only need a basic one-page site, your best bet is probably just to do it yourself. On the other hand, if you need your website up quickly and it needs a lot of features you should probably pay someone.
How much do you want to spend?
The fact is, it has never been cheaper or easier to get online with a website. That said, even if you plan to hire a developer to build your website, most now use templates as a base to get started which significantly reduces the cost compared to building something from scratch. As well as reaching your customers, many of whom will be spending many hours online, there are numerous benefits to building an online presence.
1. Gain credibility
Having a website gives your business instant credibility, customers are more likely to trust your business when they land on your professional website. Being online also opens your business to a world of opportunities to further build on this trust, such as through online reviews and testimonials.
2. Reach your customers
Your business needs to be where your customers are – and that’s online for at least some of their customer journey. Not only will it be easier for your customers to find you, you’ll be able to reach more of them and communicate more effectively when you create an online presence for your business.
3. Beat the competition
It’s highly likely that at least some, if not all, of your competitors have an online presence. Potential customers searching for your products or services could very well end up on your competitor’s website.
4. Receive online reviews
Showcasing reviews of your business is an effective way to demonstrate your credibility and gain customers. Although you can receive great feedback on social media, having a page of your website dedicated to showcasing what your customers are saying about you – and on your products if you opt for an e-commerce shop – is a fantastic way to encourage sales and build trust.
5. Be open 24/7
Whether you like to check what time the shops open early in the morning, or prefer to search for the perfect gift for your brother in the evening, the internet allows us to shop outside normal opening hours. Having a website allows customers to visit your business 24/7.
6. Get found
With customers heading to search engines to find local stores or search for products and services, you could be missing out on valuable customers by not being online. Whether it’s working on some SEO to get your business higher up the search results or making sure you appear on Google Maps, having an online presence is the first step to making sure customers can find your business.
