10 Reasons Your Business NEEDS Web Design. Reasons 4 & 8 may surprise you!

There are three sorts of people in the business world as we know it today. The first people are the ones who have an active, dynamically designed, mobile ready website. The second are those who have a website that is grossly outdated and has not been touched in several years. The third are people who still do not have nor want a website.

If you are reading this, it is a hope you are looking actively for a website or to have yours updated and brought to 2020 standards of the Internet. There is an adage in business, found on one of those old motivational posters. It goes like this:

Each day, the prey wakes up and must run faster than the fastest predator to survive. Each day, the predator wakes up and must run faster than the slowest prey to survive.

Either way you look at it, you must wake up running.

What this means to you in the business world is simple. If you are not hustling daily to bring in customers, raise profits and keep the doors open, your business is doomed to fail. Period.

This may sound harsh. This may hurt feelings. It may make you want to curl up into a ball and weep.

That is exactly what your competition wants you to do.

If you have made it this far in your career as a small business owner and have not needed web design, wonderful. This is a great thing, indeed. It is, then, my understanding that you do not need one more customer, one more sale or one more dollar. Everything is great.

Consider this: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (The guys who own Microsoft and Apple) never stopped trying to get the next dollar. The only reason Jobs has stopped is because of his passing. Otherwise, he would be trying to earn one more dollar than he did yesterday.

This should be reason enough why you and your small business should have a website and have web design as your single most important asset. If you are still in denial, (and I do not mean a river flowing through Egypt)...

Here are my 10 reasons why web design for your small business is an asset for you. 

1. The Yellow Pages are extinct – Yes; people still get a phone book. Yes; there are a handful of people who still use it. The vast majority of people today if they want or need something do not immediately dig through the drawer (you know which one in the house) for the Yellow Pages any longer. They grab their phone, open a search engine and start typing. Results appear. They click on the link, go to the page and find the phone number. Total time spent: less time than it would take to dig out the Yellow Pages book, open it, find the appropriate listing and call.

The Internet has changed 100 percent of how people find information, services and especially niche products they may need. After all, if you are looking for sushi grade tuna or salmon, digging through the Yellow Pages will take a good bit of time, and quite frankly, is tough to do when you’re driving around hungry. A website, however, appears in less than a second on a mobile phone, tablet or computer.

2. People need you out there – People come and go to cities and neighborhoods. As long as people are going to be around, there is going to be a need for a service or product. Someone who is going to be looking for an HVAC repair person, plumber, specialty shop or pretty much anything you can think of will be looking online for a business to meet their needs.

Your business could be the one they need and want. If there is no website for them to visit and see what you have to offer, you are dead in the water. It will not matter if your service or product is priced the most reasonably or considered the best in the area. A customer who cannot find you online will not be your customer.

3. Show what you have – Potential customers don’t know you exist, so show them. Here is a perfect situation to consider: You are moving from Miami, Fl to Spokane, WA. This is about as far across the country as you can realistically go. You will need to find a place to live when you arrive. What steps will you take to find a house or an apartment?

The Internet is loaded with pictures of properties across the nation. Real Estate agencies today cannot realistically survive without properties on line. Pictures sell. This is why so much money is spent on advertising budgets. A picture moves services and products much more quickly than a simple blurb of text. After all, do you really want to take a chance on a home in Spokane without looking at it first?

Another thing to consider: If you are a restaurant owner, you may have special dietary items you offer before customers come to visit. This way, certain dining lifestylers and those with allergies can know beforehand if your restaurant is suitable for them and their specific needs.

4. Word of mouth that lasts – It is no secret that word of mouth advertising is one of the most powerful types of advertising that exists. Most people who need a specific product or service typically start with friends and family, asking “What/who is a good mechanic, hairdresser, physician, judo instructor, massage therapist etc. in the area?” 

What happens then? 

As per the statistics, people still visit the referred business online before making a final decision. You should probably be there to solidify the sale.

Testimonials and reviews posted from real customers on a website drives traffic to businesses. The website (See how effective a website can be?) Yelp, for example, has plenty of reviews from customers. Businesses with enough bad reviews can certainly feel the fiscal pinch-- up to and including closing for good.

5. Websites work when you don’t – The days of living above the office or business are long gone. You have set working hours and times for your customers. You will not be at the office 24/7 to take phone calls, answer questions or give any prices or quotes. A website, on the other hand, is always there for you.

The chances of a website not working is very, very slim with today’s technology. This means your website is working, providing customer information, allowing them to contact you and more when you are not at work all of the time. Websites do not take weekends, holidays, personal days, bereavement or anything else. They are there 24/7 and 365 (366 in leap years) without fail.

6. Websites find you customers – Marketing is expensive. Buying ads on television and radio is great provided there is a budget for such. If you are a small business, every penny is accounted for as closely as possible. This is why you turn the lights off at the end of the day after all.

Think back to my analogy of Miami to Spokane. Those new people arriving in the city are going to be looking for various services from grocery stores to barbers. If they are in Oklahoma on the way to Spokane, how are they going to find you unless you have a website? Hint: They won’t find you unless you have a website.

7. Learn what your customers need – Here is something many people may not know: When you shop, the reason so many stores and businesses ask for your phone number or if you have a membership card is so they can find out what your spending habits are and use that information to provide more of the things you want.

There is no reason you cannot do the same with YOUR website. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn that your customer base prefers one particular product over another? It would make sense to know this so you can provide more of what the customer wants and less of what they do not want. Remember: pennies add up, unsold products get taxed at the end of the year and inventory is a pain.

8. A website pits you against the big boys – Small businesses will always have competition from large corporations. Do you sell grills and outdoor equipment? So does the big box store down the road, along with a host of other things.

A website, however, can even the battleground because you can leverage your specific offerings that a big box cannot offer its customers. Big box stores cannot/will not go to a customer’s home to set up a grill, computer. Nor do they have in-depth knowledge of each and every ceiling fan they have in stock. Often times, employees at these big box stores are not vested in the business. They are there to sell products and little else. You, the small business owner, know what you sell, how it works, how to install it, what to look for when things go wrong and much more. This is reflected on your site.

9. Facebook is not what it once was – People still use Facebook, certainly. Businesses still have pages on Facebook as well. Those businesses are using Facebook to mention products, sales, deals and the like and recommending people go to the website from the Facebook page.

There is very little available on Facebook in terms of a deep listing of services and products. You can list some, but the real depth and range of your offerings are on, or should be on, your webpage.

10. Websites are inexpensive passive advertising vehicles– Posting a website on the back of your personal vehicle or work vehicle is excellent advertising. You are sitting in traffic with everyone else at the same time. This is an outstanding time to mention your business to people around you without ever saying a word or spending much money to do it.

A quick and easy to read URL (website address, like webdesigninthecity.com) that your potential customers may remember is a powerful tool. Again, people may not need you, your service or products immediately, but your website is on their mind in case they do.

There you go. 10 solid reasons it makes sense for you to have a website. Naturally, there are going to be a group of nay-sayers who will disagree and argue against it. This is normal, so I have decided to look at the objections people have and give an explanation as to why these objections could be unfounded.

Here are 10 Frequently Asked Web Design Questions (FAQs) -- What my clients have said…

When you think of new web design, have you uttered any of the following?

“A website is just too expensive for my business”

– Before I go any further, there is something I need to remind you of:

I understand you are a small business.

This means you account for every dollar and cent flowing in and out (especially out) of your business. I salute you for this. It makes perfect sense. After all, I, too, am a small business. There is accounting practices we follow like all businesses. We account for everything as well.

Here is the thing about a website – they are not cheap at the outset. In other words, yes; the website is a bit pricey if you have it built from scratch like I can do for you. Consider the following about building a website:

• Once built, maintenance is negligible for your overall expenses;
• It is a healthy tax cut on your business taxes at the end of the year;
• Go back and read the ten reasons why, especially on how a website works when you are not.

One thing I did not cover previously is we will work with you and your budget. There are some businesses that spend $10,000.00 and up on a website. I certainly know most cannot afford this. There’s a way to invest much less, depending on the degree of design and functionality you need. Most budgets have wiggle room…you just have to know how to find it.

“I see all of these free website-building sites. I can just do it myself.”

Yes; you certainly can. You will also have a stale, boring website that is likely going to have advertising on it to support the website company. Worse yet, Google tracks customer interests for advertising. This means your competition may advertise on your website while a customer is viewing it.

The adage, “Garbage in; garbage out” reigns true in website design. You pay cheap, or in this case, free, you will get that out of it. Besides, customers base their opinions on businesses based on how well their website looks. 

Do you really want customers associating your sub-par website with your above-par business?

“I simply don’t have time to run a website.”

Who said you have to do anything with running your website? That is my job. I am a website design and development company. This is what I do to earn a living. You can be assured that if you have us behind your website that it will be professional, modern, updated and edited as needed, regularly maintained and secure. If you want me to add fresh incoming information on a regular basis, that can also be arranged. The last bit keeps the search engine people, like Google, happy when indexing websites.

“Don’t need it--I have a solid customer base as it is”

Translation: I do not need to make any more profit, grow my business, improve the unemployment rate by hiring additional employees or find it necessary to do any long term fiscal planning.

Remember: There are people coming into and out of your business area on a daily basis. You need to be able to reach everyone, all the time. If your business is in South Carolina and someone in Texas wants to know about your area, they can find out what they need at 3:30 a.m. when you are, or should be, asleep.

Bottom line is people need you….even if you don’t need them.

“My customers don’t really use computers”

I am quite sure some of your customers may not have a computer at home. What they do have, however, is a smart phone that can browse the Internet and look for services and products. Even grandma’s have phones, if for no other reason than to chat with their out-of-state grandkids.

There are very few people left in the world who have a land line (outside of brick and mortar). Most small businesses have a cellular number for customers, employees and other people to get in content with them when necessary. Google has officially stated that more people are now using cell phones for searching than desktop computers. As far as I’m concerned….

Smartphone = Computer.

“I’m taken care of because I got a sister/buddy/in-law. that can do it for a fraction of what you can”

Before you do that, recognize they may have fundamental understandings of HTML. Do they know PHP, Nodejs, Java, Swift, front end development, back end development, Wordpress, SSL, layout and design and a handful of other bits and pieces of jargon that go with today’s website construction?

Just like you would not hire a handyman to build a skyscraper, do you really want your business in the hands of someone who may not know 100 percent of what is going on within the Internet? I always suggest to my clients to “Have respect for your business”.

"I don’t do e-commerce. I only work face to face”

Good for you. Most of my clients don’t do e-commerce either. They are construction professionals, healthcare facility owners, salons, attorneys and anyone that has direct contact with the public.

If a customer wants to know about your business at 1 a.m., are you going to be by the phone, ready with the best possible customer service voice and be cheery and happy talking to your potential customers?

Now, imagine if that same customer only had to do a few clicks on a smartphone to find your business, learn what they need to know, fill in some basic information and get it to you within a few seconds. This will happen if you have a freshly designed and built website on your side.

“We have a website now, and it has done nothing for the business”

This one is a common one. I ask my clients, “When was the last time the website was updated with fresh content? Did you have an SEO specialist look at it? Do you use CSS; Do you have a place for customers to submit contact information? Is it optimized for mobile application including Apple and Android?”

If you 1. look confused at this jargon; 2. answer “No.” to any of the questions, chances are your website is grossly outdated, buried in pages and pages of search engine results and has turned more than one customer away from your business.

This is what I do. I take what you may have for a website, fix it or provide you with a brand new, well optimized and dynamic website, built for generating leads.

“What if something changes with my business? How can I be sure you will be around to fix it”

Good questions, both of them. I remind you: This is what we do. We build and maintain websites. If there is something you need to change or adjust as part of your business, let us know. We can update your website without issue quickly and easily.

There is no need to take down a website to make updates any longer. Most of the updates to a site are done automatically and without any stopping or pausing of your website’s functionality.

To ease my clients’ concerns in case I’m hit by a truck (what a horrific thought), I always provide them with the login info to where your website is hosted.

“I am in Arizona and you are in Florida. How can you run my website from where you are?”

Therein is the beauty of the World Wide Web. We do not have to be next door neighbors for you to have a website. Most website hosting is done on the cloud and no longer in a localized place.

Just like you can access a website from Asia or Europe, we can handle everything to do with your website at a distance. Email us when you have a question, issue or problem. We will respond to you as quickly as possible and help fix whatever issue you may have.

There you have it! 10 and 10 about why your website is your most important business asset. 

I would love to hear from you about a website for your company. I can work with you on your specific budget and design something that will fulfill your needs and those of your customers.

Need a new website?

I design websites for small businesses. If you're wondering about the cost, your lack of vision, or how much work it takes, drop me a line and let's chat for 15 minutes: [email protected]

This article first appeared on the Web Design In The City blog at: https://webdesigninthecity.com/10-reasons-your-business-needs-web-design