Competition doubles from time to time, and so every business owner has to try harder to find more ways to get more customers, and hence make more sales. For many years now, the Internet has given huge benefits to many smart business owners who invested their time and money into making the Internet work for their businesses. One mostly well known way is to have a website. Why Have A Website?
The Internet has become more and more well known to every individual in any part of this world. These days, a lot of things can be done easily through the Internet with a few clicks of your computer buttons. The industrial and commercial worlds have been using the Internet and its powerful technologies to make jobs much easier. Big companies such as information technology enterprises have made and been making big bucks out of the so called, the Internet.
Then suddenly one question comes to our mind, what can the Internet do for small and medium businesses which we believe most of us are today. Narrowing our vision towards the Internet, then comes a very most asked question by every business owner:
“Why have a website?”
We believe, the answer to that one simple 4 words question is that:
“THERE ARE MANY MANY BENEFITS YOU CAN GET OUT OF HAVING A WEBSITE, WHETHER YOU ARE IN BUSINESS OR NOT”.
Infact, as new Internet technologies are being invented and improved, these benefits are becoming more and more. Now, the question every business owner should ask him/herself is:
“HAVE I MADE THE MOST USE OF THE INTERNET TODAY?”
Let’s explore together what possible real benefits we can get out of the Internet by having a website for our business, in our case, small and medium businesses.
If you have already developed a website for your business, you will find that this article provides a useful reality check for the work you have done to date. If you have yet to develop a website for your business, you will find this chapter provides you with a valuable framework for planning a website from the ground up.
Investing in a website requires the same discipline as investing in any new business venture. The first and most important rule is to know why you want to do it and what you hope to achieve. Any enterprise that invests in a website should have the ultimate aim of increasing the business’s profitability.
Basically, there are 3 core benefits in establishing a website:
1. Expand the customers base
The Internet operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By establishing a website, a business can serve its customers non-stop! Your business can also be found by anyone in this world, in other words, your business is global. Put things simple, your business serves your customers not just anytime! But also anywhere!
Sample case study: An artist not only can sell his artwork in the local art gallery, but he can also sell his artwork direct to the anyone living in any part of this world through his online web shop. The art guy may be away having a holiday in Gold coast, while someone is shopping at this guy’s art web shop without disturbing his holiday at all.
2. Reduce the cost of servicing customers and running your business Business can generate significant cost savings for instance, by delivering information via the website. Newsletters, reports, product specifications, customer brochures, employee databases and other important company information can all be delivered via the web at a much lower cost than by post or fax.
Sample case study: Let’s get back to that artist with his online web shop case. Say, there is another customer wanting to contact the art guy requesting a customized artwork. The customer can easily submit the customization details to the artist through the online form on the website (in most cases on the contact page), and the artist can receive that customer’s request via his laptop on the other end and reply accordingly. Imagine if the artist didn’t have a website, he would have to go to the nearest post office to post his sample artwork to that customer, not yet considering the cost of delivering his artwork to his customer.
3. Improve the customer relationship and hence build a more profitable customer base.
A good functional website enables a business to capture large amounts of information about customer needs, buying habits and preferences. This information enables a business to provide better products and services to its customers in terms of quality, pricing and target segmentation. Some online features that are available today can even provide a live chat with the website visitors who are currently browsing the website.
Sample case study: The artist who own the online web shop can easily identify his target market, potential customers, and so on by doing research using all web statistics and similar data collected from the website. That art guy can then provide artwork which really suit his customers and even more potential customers by providing more attractive artwork. By having a live chat feature on his website, he can also directly survey his customers asking for their more specific/particular needs.
As conclusion, having a website is more like adding more values to your business, which apparently increase your competitive advantages.
There is no limit of what a website can do for your business these days. We encourage every business owner to put some thoughts on having a website for their business.