Why is a Good Website so Important for Business?
We know it’s nice to have a website, but what added value does having a good website bring to your business? Your website should allow customers to find you easily, attract new sales leads, help increase returning customers, and contribute to the pre-sales process to better qualify the customers that find you online.
Getting Found
Having a good website means people can easily find you, whether they need to buy your products online or just check your address and opening hours. When people search online, they generally fall into the following 3 categories:
- Transactional – I want to buy something
- Informational – I want to know about something
- Navigational – I want to go somewhere
For your business, this means your website should be coming up for important keywords that apply to you in each category above. Search Engine Optimisation, SEM and Local SEO help ensure your website has visibility across these searches and the correct information can be found and displayed to your potential customers at different stages of the sales cycle.
Research & Pre-Sales
In the digital mobile era, it’s becoming more common to see users researching products and services online before making contact with a company or completing a transaction. They are Googling reviews, comparing prices, asking on social media and looking for promotions. To meet this demand, your website should allow potential customers to easily research your offering without the need to visit a competitors site.
Your website plays an important role in helping to qualify sales leads, working as a funnel to convert engaged users and reduce customer support costs down the line. Depending on your customer acquisition cycle, your website should support marketing efforts by allowing you to segment your site visitors and advertise to them based on rules that align with your goals. For example, did they look at a product more than 3 times but didn’t buy? Have they visited on separate occasions without buying? What about people who are near the end of their free trial of your product and need an up-sell? Use your website to show these people specific ads and information to personalise their experience and increase the chances of them becoming customers (or repeat customers).
Engage, Educate & Differentiate
Your website is your chance to engage with customers, educate them on your offering and clearly differentiate yourself from competitors. Building trust and rapport with users is key to helping them convert down the line. Intelligent websites can work to personalise the experience a person has on your site by changing or enhancing content based on their behaviour, and additional tools like HubSpot can offer marketers and business owners great insight to their visitor’s needs and thus opportunity to improve your website.
Return on Investment
While websites require investment for development and digital marketing, you will know precisely how much it’s going to cost and any ongoing costs, unlike a physical store which is at risk of extra unforeseen costs and expenses. A carefully developed website and digital marketing strategy can however offer huge benefits and costing outlines to ensure an effective return on investment. Importance measures taken on your site (such as enquiries, sales, bookings) can be precisely measured through conversion tracking and analysed to effectively decide what budget and resources should be spent where.
Strategus are experienced in creating effective websites that are user centric and ROI oriented. Read more about our Web Design & Development services or get in touch with us to see how we can help.
The Strategus Team
strategus.co.nz
