Blonde Ambition – Web Design Portfolio by Leanne Norris

If you’re wondering what a website can do for your business, I have listed below 16 reasons why you should have one:

1. Your competitors already have their own website

2. Your customers and potential customers already search the web

3. Your web site will promote your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

4. Your customers can buy your products online

5. Your web site can advertise your products and/or services in much more detail

You can have many pages of information about your company and your products and/or services in much more detail than you would ever be able to pay for in more traditional media, such as a printed advert.

6. You can change the information on your website instantly

7. Your website can reach potential customers locally, nationally or worldwide – at no extra cost

8. Your website can save you money

Lower printing costs because you need much less printed letters and brochures.

Lower postage costs for the same reason – email becomes a major (and much cheaper) distribution method.

Lower advertising costs because your web site lasts longer and produces greater results than adverts.

9. Your website can work like a robot

Sending information to customers, replying to emails and even making sales – day and night.

You can reply to your customers or potential customers automatically without you having to get involved at all. With simple automatic-emails you are able to set up specific targeted replies to different people at any time of day or night.

10. Your web site can convey a professional and-up-to date image

Your customers won’t be able to tell whether you employ 100 staff or none.

As a business person you have the opportunity to present yourself to the marketplace just as effectively and professionally as a multi-million pound company. You can establish credibility in a variety of ways, such as putting useful information on your website, or making files available to download.

11. Your web site can help you give improved customer service

There could be a list of ‘frequently asked questions’ about your service or product. This is an area that is often overlooked by web site owners. The simplest example of this is putting up a FAQ page (frequently asked questions) on your web site. Not only is this very helpful to customers because it provides instant answers to their “frequently asked” questions, but it also saves you and your employees considerable management time in not having to answer a string of e-mails/phone calls/faxes. What this usually means is when you do receive that e-mail/phone call/fax it is an actual order rather than an inquiry!

You can make information readily available to your customers. For example, new information has suddenly become available concerning your products. Put it on your website and communicate via e-mail to your customers.

12. You can test out new services or products instantly

This is made less expensive by sending emails to your list of current customers and contacts. They can then visit your web site for more detailed information. Simply put up a new web page setting out the relevant information, and send an e-mail to your database of existing (and relevant) customers, and ask for their views.

Market research – You can acquire very quick customer feedback from a large audience with an online form that could be filled out in seconds – providing valuable information to you, with minimal inconvenience to your customer.

13. You can send details of new offers by email to your current customers and contacts

Again referring readers to your web site!

You have some stock that is running out of date and you wish to sell it at a reduced price. Or you have received limited stock of a particular product that is of high appeal to a relatively small number of people. It really doesn’t matter what sort of “deal” you have, provided it is presented professionally you can e-mail your database of customers and past enquirers.

14. You can combine email marketing with your web site

With e-mail you can advertise your website. There is no quicker way of getting your sales messages in front of a prospective customer who can be looking at your web site within 2 seconds of opening your mail!

You can collect e-mail addresses of people who visit your site and have expressed an interest in your products. You can then use this list to send information on ‘deals’ you are running or to pass on any other useful information.

15. You can use your web site to provide information on a regular basis to your company employees

You can keep the information secret if you wish by making it accessible only to people who know the password.

16. Your website can keep a track of how many people visit

With most adverts you will never know how many people read your offers. But your website can have tracking code inserted in to the pages so that you are able to tell exactly how many people have visited your web site, where those people came from, which search term they used in which search engine, which pages they visited on your web site, how long they spent on your web site. What other advertising medium issues this sort of valuable feedback on your selling and marketing material?