Should a small business have web presence? Perhaps some quick facts should convince you that your small business needs a website. The Internet has more than a billion surfers every day and the purchases and payments done over the Internet each year crosses the $200 billion mark worldwide. Not a small amount at stake, considering the overall cost of Internet Marketing. Need more answers? Please read on.
Top Reasons for Small Businesses to Have A Web Presence
Here are the top reasons why you must not ignore having a web presence for your small business:
1. Immediate Access To The Largest Customer Base: The Internet shows your
website to whoever requests it. With about a billion surfers online at any given time, having a web site clearly announces your business to all of them at the same cost that you would incur for a far less number offline. With high visitor turnout, you need not worry about conversion rates, at least initially.
2. Lower Marketing Costs: All you need to do to market your site is optimize it for the search engines before submitting it to them. Search engines are the biggest source of traffic to websites. Top rankings are sure to boost visitors to your site, thereby reducing your need for further expenditures.
3. No Need To Have Showrooms, Offices And Inventory, Etc: Save big on real estate, office purchases, and recurring costs due to them. You don’t need to keep inventory or merchandise. Purchase and sell as you receive orders. This conserves your crucial cash for better utilization.
4. No Sales Staff Required: Sales are automated; hence, no sales staff is required. Your web presentation and online payment solutions are enough to make sales, as long as your sales message gets across effectively. So you will save big on salaries and other employee-related expenses. You will also save yourself the headache of managing personnel.
5. You Enjoy The Same Opportunity As The Biggest Player: The Internet, like time, is a great field leveler. It treats all sellers the same. You can enjoy the same kind of opportunities as that of larger companies, as long as getting the right customers to your website. How you make sales is up to you.
6. Your Competitors Already Have Plans For A Website: Who is actually your competitor? If you thought it was a company in your city or town, you may want to rethink that belief. Your main competitor could be any company across the globe, until you start localizing and target marketing. If you don’t have a web presence, know that someone somewhere is walking away with your customers.
7. Generate Side Income To Compliment Your Main Revenue Stream: You can partner with global ad content providers for both content as well as additional income opportunities. There are a variety of such programs that pay very well. The most popular ones are text ads (Pay-Per-Click ads) and affiliate programs.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.