1. It puts you in the driver’s seat on the customer journey
When you’re creating a path from discovery to first purchase for your customers, you need to tell them what you expect them to do along the way. Maybe you create an ad campaign to drive awareness, have some introductory promotions to guide them through the sales funnel, and are hoping this all leads to an eventual purchase once the consumer is able to try your product. But if you don’t make that path clear, they won’t know to follow it!
When you drive traffic to your website, you have the power to greet them with calls to action that initiate conversions and start visitors down the sales funnel towards making a purchase.
Without a proper website in place, you don’t have the power to guide the customer journey and instead are left hoping that they find a path to conversion on their own.
2. It’s the hub for your business
Your small business website is the one place on the internet that’s truly all about you. Sure, you can (and should!) create profiles on social media or manage your business on local listings sites, but none of these sites paint a complete picture of your business.
Most importantly, creating your own small business website gives you ownership over your online presence, your content, your images, and your branding. You’re not at the whim of the social media platform–you’re in control!
Social media profiles and listings are informative, but you can’t fully brand your content on these sites, nor do you have control over how — or sometimes what — information is displayed. Your website, however, contains all of the colors and images that fully express your brand, and you can display your information in the most impactful way possible.
With full control over how you tell your story, you can distinguish your business from competitors.
3. It’s the foundation for all your marketing
Because having your own small business website allows you total control over how you tell your story, it becomes the basis for all your other marketing efforts online. The ads you create, the social media profiles you establish, and the local listings you manage should all drive users back to your website. And what you have on your website will shape the way you share information through each of these other marketing channels.
For example, let’s say you want to start a local PPC campaign to draw attention to your new product launch. Without a website, there’s nowhere for you to send people who click on your ad!
With a comprehensive site, however, you can build a customized and high-converting landing page specifically for searchers who click on that ad. The page can highlight all the features of the new product and allow your audience to get on the waitlist.
Second, your other marketing strategies depend on your website. For example, let’s say you want to run a local PPC ad for a new service. Without a website, there’s nowhere for you to send people who click on your ad! Or maybe you want to generate leads with a promotion code.
You’ll need to provide your audience with a form where they can give their contact information in exchange for the promo code. But without a website, where will that form live?
With a proper local marketing strategy, everything should lead customers back to your website — whether that’s your ads, social media posts, emails, or local listings.
Here’s why: Driving traffic to a centralized location allows you to create a sales funnel where prospects can become customers. This is the most important aspect of your website, but we won’t get into it here because we’ve devoted the entire next reason to it.
4. It can help you stand out from the competition
While a website is a must in today’s digital world, the fact is that not all small businesses have invested in one. Your small business website can help you stand out from other growing businesses that either don’t have a website or don’t have a website that’s user-friendly or enticing.
A well-designed website that clearly showcases your products or services, your unique brand story, and works to establish your business as an authority in your industry can help you win over customers and stand out from your local competitors.
Get Website Pro today! Includes hosting, SSL, unlimited plugins, best speed on hosting with Google Cloud Platform. This is your best solution to get your website started today.
