These days if you are in business and don't have a website you are missing out on an abundance of customers. Everyone that has a computer in their house will be using one of the search engines (google, Yahoo, Msn etc.) to look for your business. There are over 20 million searches done every hour on the internet in the UK alone. If your business is not appearing on these search engines then you are losing out to your competitors that are looking for what you do.
You will be asking yourself I have done without a website till now so why would I need one? It is a good question If you are currently doing well with your business then that is great but can anyone turn round and say that they don't want anymore business? If you do say that then what happens if your business starts to lose some customers then you will start to try and get new business elsewhere. A website is THE way to generate extra enquiries and more business than any other means of advertising.
More and more people these days are turning to local searches and with broadband the internet is connected in their house 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In all honesty do you even know where you keep your yellow pages anymore? There is really no need as with the internet if you need a plumber in your area goto yahoo and type in plumber ( your area ) and a list of sites will come up with plumbers in your area. If you are a plumber how much would you pay to have your site appearing on those searches above your competitors? How much would that be worth to you in business terms?
The answer is easy... A lot. 5 or 10 years ago that listing in the yellow pages would mean as much to you as the listings you get on the search engines today.
A website for your business could be for several different reasons. You could use your website as a brochure to advertise the products you offer how much more could you show on your website compared to an advert in the paper? Instead of having a few lines in the paper explaining your business you could have 10 or 20 pages outlining what you do and the products you offer and give a more in depth description of all your products. For an ad in your local paper for say 3 lines of text would cost you say £50 for 1 week if you had your own website it would cost say £250 per year and the website would be online and available to view 24/7 365 days a year.
You could also use your website to keep your existing customers in the know on exactly what you are offering. If your existing customers go onto your website and sign up for your newsletter everymonth you could email them any product updates you have. If you don't have the time to email you could also have a news section on your website that can be updated on a monthly basis and that would allow your customers to log into your website and view any updates since their last visit. New business is good to develop but your existing customers are already doing business with you so why not use your website to maximise the sales you get from your existing customers.
All in all a website for your business is an essential to to maximise profits for your business. To generate new business and also to keep your existing customers up-to-date with any changes or product ranges that they could be interested in. More business or not the choice is yours.
About the Author: Peter Hartley has been designing websites successfully for 3 years. For more information on prices and packages please visit http://www.lastminutevillaholiday.co.uk/web_design.htm
Source: www.isnare.com
