In this digital age, maintaining an online presence is crucial for any business. Whether your company conducts business online or offline, you reap significant benefits. Your customers and potential customers expect to see you online when searching for your services. If you are not online, you could be losing tremendous opportunities to increase your client base and promote your business worldwide. Here are just a few of the key benefits of having an online presence for a business.
Online businesses have a massive opportunity to reach many clients globally. And you don’t have to take my word. Just look at the statistics.
In 2016, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency that monitors internet use, estimated that about 53% of the world’s population use the internet. That percentage translates to 4.39 billion internet users worldwide.
In India, there were 451 million active Internet users by the beginning of 2019. The number has been growing in double digits for multiple years, and it’s expected to cross the half-billion population mark, making India second to China in terms of internet users worldwide.
So you might ask, what does all this mean to your business?
For starters, it means that if your business is online, you can reach more than four billion people in the world. By a few clicks on their computers or mobile devices, all these potential clients can become aware of your business, only if you give your business an online presence. Therefore you can sell your products or services to an entirely new set of clients. Some of them will be people who have never set foot or will never set foot in your retail outlet. But since they are avid online shoppers, they can be able to buy your goods or services through your website.
Secondly, few people use telephone directories nowadays. Instead, 66 percent of people will go online when looking for a product or service, so your online presence is crucial. Make sure that you display your up to date contact details clearly on your website so that your customers can reach you when they want.
Also, you can use your website to educate customers about your products and services or promote your brand. You can place pictures of your products or even your staff. Some businesses have promotional videos that cover various aspects of the company.
For instance, you can have videos showing how customers can use your products or services. You could also have videos with testimonials from previous customers who were satisfied with your services.
And if your company has a corporate social responsibility, make sure to capture those activities. It is an opportunity to capture shoppers like businesses that give something back to the community.
Savvy business owners are trooping to advertise their businesses through the web because of the following reasons.
The issue of advertising costs might not worry you much if you are running a multi-billion Rupee marketing budget. But if you are a small- or medium-sized enterprise or a business start-up, the market budget is a constant headache. You want to execute a digital marketing campaign that gives the highest return on investment.
Advertising through your website is cheap and gives a higher return on investment compared to advertising through traditional channels like newspapers or magazines. Plus, it’s easy to adapt your digital marketing campaign to fit the depth of your pocket.
Two main reasons make digital advertising superior.
One, as already mentioned, the internet has permeated every nook and cranny of the land, giving your adverts a global reach at a low cost. Once you create the advert and publish it on the web, your customers can access it without any additional cost to you. And you can leave the advertisement online for as long as you want.
On the other hand, an advertisement that you place in a daily newspaper expires at the end of the day. It’s highly unlikely that someone will read it three days later. Besides, subscription and readership of physical newspapers are dwindling. More people are going digital and tend to read online publications.
The second advantage of digital advertising is its mobility. The advertisement can reach your customers wherever they are. The customer can read your ad through the desktop at home or in the office. They can also access the information while on the go using their IP enabled devices such as smartphones, laptops, iPads, and so on.
Take, for instance, mass mailings. If your company’s mails say 20,000 fliers to your local neighborhoods, the chances are that only the individuals looking for your products will read the leaflet. Most will toss it away, and your marketing effort goes to waste.
On the other hand, internet marketing is more effective because you can target a particular segment of people.
Let’s take an example. Say your company offers lawn care service. You can focus your marketing efforts on people looking for landscapers or mowers. Through the internet, you can place your ads strategically on the sites that would attract the customers you desire. You can go further and focus on words that are related to your business, then index those keywords such that your ad will appear when someone Googles those phrases. This is known Search Engine Marketing.
Websites can facilitate easy tracking of adverts. You can easily track digital advertising results almost in real-time. After setting the digital campaign for your website, tools like Google Analytics (GA) can track your audience and help you better understand them.
GA tracks and reports the traffic visiting your website. You can know the demographics of the people, where they come from, what they are searching for, and what has a higher conversion rate. You could then adjust the campaign messages to suit the needs of your target clients.
Many people think that the internet is impersonal, but that’s not real. All you need is to do is to up a little effort, and you can give your customers an unforgettable personal experience.
Consider this.
A person visiting a physical store can directly engage the shop assistant to ask questions about the products, seek clarification, haggle about prices, and so on.
Fortunately, with the advanced technology, you can provide a similar experience on your website. One way is to install the Live chat software that enables you to communicate and give real-time answers to customers while on the site and before they leave.
Instant chatting on the site builds the customers’ confidence during their purchasing experience and improves your conversion rates.
A recent survey found that 68 percent of American online consumers use the live chat, and 63 percent preferred to get back to a website with live chat for a repeat purchase.
So, with proper use, the live chat can convert web traffic into leads.
Unlike the store that closes during the night, your website is open 24/7. Customers can communicate with you through alternative means like the contact forms. You can also have a place where they leave comments that you, your employees and other customers can exchange information.
In this internet age, your website will likely be the first point of interaction with your customer, who, in the first instance, will still be a potential customer. The experience one gets visiting your site will make the difference between clinching a deal and losing the client.
Not only your customers, but your employees can communicate with each other in a convenient way through using multiple web apps that can link with your website.
Populate your blog with quality content. First, to hold the attention of the customer, but more importantly, to educate your audience about the products and services your company offers.
Let your customers talk on your behalf. Buyers trust reviews and recommendations from their peers. You can use your website’s review system to engage and share the feedback from your customer. One study found that 62% of customers consider reviews in their purchase decisions. 88% of consumers also say that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So positive customer testimonials on your site can send in more customers to your business.
The idea of meeting consumers where they already are isn’t new. Increasingly, consumers are using the internet to look for solutions to their problems. If you want to push your business to the next level, you have to let your current and potential customers know that you exist and that you have what they want.
That’s why, regardless of your business, an online presence is crucial. Talk to us on +919720077800 or contact us online to help you design a professional website for your business.
