Nearly 50% of all small businesses in the UK don’t have a website. Many claim websites are either not relevant to their business or they are too expensive for their budget. Also many say they lack the technical know how to develop a site by themselves. There is a general lack of understanding about the impact that having an online presence can have on your business.
Here’s a quick look at some of the benefits of having a site for your trade business.
Creates A Professional Image:
With a site potential customers can find out about the services you offer in an instant, and they can get an idea of what your business is like. By having a site that ranks in the search engines, customers get the impression that your business is a serious one that can be trusted.
They can see photo’s or videos of your prior work, as well as any reviews from past customers about their experiences using your business. This all goes a long way in helping them decide if you are right for them. Your website also improves your brands credibility, by demonstrating that you have the resources and the competence to keep your business up to date with the times.
Generates Business Leads:
A website can be another great source of new business leads, in addition to what you are currently doing. It increases your visibility, allowing you to reach potential clients in a wider geographical area than your own local region.
Also, by employing simple digital marketing strategies such as search engine optimisation, you can increase your website rankings in search engines. This can lead to increased traffic to your site, which can translate into new opportunities.
Gives Constant Exposure To Potential Customers:
No 9-5 office hours. You have a presence online, 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week, as long as your website is up. This means potential clients can visit your site at any-time of the day to see what your brand is about, and contact you there and then. In effect your business is always open, and it is always easy to get into contact with.
Good Investment:
Having a website gives you great bang for the buck. For a relatively small sum, or in some cases for free, you can set up some form of a website to advertise your trade business. Getting just one customer from your site can often payback the cost of setting it up.
Compared to other forms of advertising, a site can offer a high return on your advertising investment. Added to this is the fact that you can get a lot of targeted exposure to your potential audience for little or no money.
A Useful Tool For Market Research:
Having a website is a great way to get lots of market research about your target market. When people come to your site and are interested, they ask questions or leave comments, and so over time you get to know what potential customers want. Also there is plenty of useful information that you can get from analysing the data that is generated from visitors coming to your site. This can lead to discovering profitable new services you can offer.
In order to be found in the current digital age, tradesmen need to have a website, even if they only intend to operate locally. Nowadays when people are looking for trade services they go online to a search engine such as Google, and simply type in the service they are looking for.
Gone are the days of looking through your local papers or the yellow pages, with smart phone usage at an all time high, it is now all about the net. If your trade business is not on there, then you could be loosing potential customers to your competition.
