You know that you should probably organise a website for your business. Everybody seems to be doing it these days. But why exactly?

Because it’s where your potential customers are – and will find you.

Renowned USA marketing service, Hubspot, publishes a whole range of statistics about online business. You can find more stats than you can shake a stick at in their 2021 marketing statistics report here.

We have extracted a small sample from those stats just to underline how having a website can dramatically increase your turnover:

• 49% of people who use Google search say they do it to find an item or product
• When deciding who to buy from, 59% of shoppers surveyed say that being able to shop on their tablet or smartphone is a critical factor
• 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly on their phones using Google search results like the “click to call” option

The main point to take away from this is that your prospective clients EXPECT to find you online.

They also expect your website to work well on their mobile phones because a huge amount of online searches these days are done on mobiles. Far more than are done on laptops or computers.

We think you will agree that having a good website is a really important factor for growing a business. Not having a website means losing out on a significant revenue stream.

What even a basic website can do for your business

In its simplest form, a website is a brochure for your business and many small businesses just want to publish their information online so that people can find them. That is called a static website.

These brochure sites display contact information such as business address, phone number & email as well as details about the products or services your business offers. They are popular with local services, such as tree surgeons, gardening services, laundromats, doctors, care homes, restaurants, merchants, and all manner of enterprises.

And not just local services. Big household name nationwide companies use them too.

Normally, potential customers cannot actually buy anything on these websites but that is not their purpose. What they do is provide enough tempting details about the services or products on offer to prompt a customer to lift the phone, send an email, or fill in a ‘contact us’ form.

In that sense they are ‘lead generators’ and the best ones do a marvellous job of bringing in business.

E-commerce websites, where shoppers can order and pay for products, are the next level and we will cover those in a future article.

The essentials of a website that promotes your business profitably

While most anybody can throw up a simple website these days using WordPress, that’s like saying that anybody who can wield a shovel can build a house. Your business needs a professional image online. Here are some critical factors that separate really good websites from mediocre ones that visitors quickly abandon:

• Understanding what colours work together well, and which simply do not
• Choosing good quality images and resizing them for fast loading
• Ensuring your website works just as well on mobiles as it does on computers – a technical challenge
• Writing very good copy that highlights benefits, using persuasive but professional language

Finally – where to begin?

You may already have a website that you are not very happy with, or perhaps you don’t but are thinking about obtaining one. Either way, engaging professionals is by far the best way to go.

Your website is your 24/7/365 sales person, working non-stop to promote your business. Make sure that the image it portrays is positive, captures attention and delivers results.

That is exactly what you get when you engage Off the Peg Web Design.

Call us today and set the ball rolling to building your business.