While it would seem convenient for some business owners to claim their businesses don’t need an online presence, it is also convenient to say such people don’t know what their businesses are missing out on by not being online.
Certain quote credited to billionaire businessman Bill Gates reads: “If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”
In this post, we set out 10 compelling reasons why you should ensure you get your business online.
- Brand Visibility to a Global Audience
Retail giants like Amazon, eBay, AliBaba, Etsy, etc. all have a global audience thanks to the internet.
With your business on the internet, you can draw patronage from people around every part of the world, which in itself is a plus for expansion strategies.
- Ease of Marketing
You could market with handbills, on billboards, radio stations, TV adverts, amongst others. But none beats digital marketing for your business.
To embark on a digital marketing campaign and turn your leads into profits, you need a website where potential customers would be directed to.
Upon being satisfied with the services your site offered them, your one-off patrons could become very loyal customers that end up bringing you more customers.
With the traffic growing, you can easily personalize customer purchase experience by using what they previously checked out on google, thereby making more sales.
- Earn Customers Organically
Earning customers organically simply entails that potential customers can visit your site just by searching for products that you offer on any search engine. So, they don’t need any marketing adds to land on your website.
In truth, having an online presence is one key way to attract people who want to buy what you offer, which you can leverage for them to keep coming.
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Provided your site and its content are optimized for SEO, your mere presence alone would land you leads, and the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) would then determine whether they buy from you or not.
This means that your site has to be really user-friendly.
- Good Customer-company Relationship
I’m certain you have probably received one or two email alerts celebrating you on your birthday or even purporting to check up on you.
If you have, I’m pretty sure it came from a company that has a site, from where they got your email in the first place.
That’s exactly what you can do for your customers and even more only if you have a site/page that they visit.
Having a site for your business is a good platform for you to create a smooth relationship with your customers – beyond the business that binds you and them.
We might also add; the best customers are the ones who have a good relationship with a company.
- Your Sales Records and Product Inventory in One System
Having an online store/site reduces the need to do manual or traditional tracking of your inventory.
This is because you would have to create a system that documents available stocks, product sales, product delivery stages, and so much more.
Also, daily activities are available in your systems, making the whole running of your business highly transparent, and reducing risk of unscrupulous activities in your establishment.
- Reduces need for Physical Present at Workplace
Since the pandemic changed world order, the world has been forced to accept remote work.
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While the importance of virtual work is gradually dawning on many establishments, having an online presence underscores this importance.
With your business online, you and your colleagues do not need to see every day. As a matter of fact, some offices in your establishment can go fully remote and work from any part of the world.
As long as they meet their individual-assigned targets and goals for your company, their virtual role would help your company maximize workflow.
- Tailor-made Customer Support
Having an online presence for your business creates an intrinsic passion to provide services that serve your customer needs.
Now, with a site/page on the web it is relatively easy to learn what your customers what and streamline your services accordingly.
Most importantly, customers can reach your business promptly with their enquiries, complaints, queries, suggestions, observations, and they would be served with distinct urgency.
Generally, when customers’ reservations are addressed right, your business adds a step further towards growth.
- Professional Branding/Image
Businesses that are on the web are mostly more coordinated than their counterparts who aren’t.
The reason for this is that having an online presence comes with the understanding that you have to get things right.
From your company logo, management team, marketing, customers service, user interface and experience, product offerings, product display, to product delivery you need absolute professional branding.
Your online presence is one way you can make policies that not only grow your business, but also promote corporate governance and corporate social responsibility, all of which improve your professional branding.
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- Healthy Competition
Once you are settled on the niche to venture into, you automatically have competitors.
When you eventually have a presence online, to be on top of your game, you need to know your top competitors.
The knowledge of such competitors comes with a tacit pressure to compete with them, and that can only happen if and only if your business is online.
In effect, this healthy competition would make you try as much as possible to keep serving your customers better, hence also growing your business.
- Low Establishment and Operational Costs
Contrary to what people think, setting your business online isn’t costly when compared to what you lose by not being online.
Being online even makes for a cost-effective running of your business from handling sales/service requests to delivery. You just have to set up a strong process for this to happen.
Considering that you can go the remote route, it all becomes less expensive running your business.
