Top 10 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business
Below is a look at the top 10 benefits of a website for a small business, including their features and how they work within your marketing mix:
-
Enhanced Online Presence
- Benefit: With a website, you centralise your online presence, making it easier to funnel leads from other platforms like social media, ensuring that no interaction is lost. This gives you an edge over competitors without a website or those who rely solely on physical storefronts or social media profiles.
- Feature: A website ensures your business is accessible 24/7, providing customers with information anytime, anywhere.
- Marketing Mix Integration: A website complements your social media by driving traffic from platforms like Facebook or Instagram back to a centralised hub where visitors can explore your products and services in greater detail.
-
Credibility and Professionalism
- Benefit: Trust is critical in today’s competitive market. A well-maintained website gives potential customers confidence that your business is established and reputable. A professional website can make your business appear more reliable than competitors who lack a digital presence or have poorly designed sites.
- Feature: A well-designed, user-friendly website signals professionalism and builds trust with your audience.
- Marketing Mix: Your website can integrate customer testimonials, certifications, and professional imagery, which can also be promoted via social media to build even greater trust and authority.
-
Cost-Effective Marketing
- Benefit: Unlike traditional advertising, your website allows you to reach a broader audience at a fraction of the cost. It can host targeted landing pages for your social media or email campaigns, maximising the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. This can help small businesses with tight marketing budgets stand out from competitors using more expensive, less flexible traditional marketing methods.
- Feature: A website is a cost-effective, long-term marketing tool that complements social media, SEO, and email marketing.
- Marketing Mix: Your website acts as the destination for digital marketing campaigns. By linking it with tools like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, you can direct specific audiences to optimised landing pages, increasing conversions.
-
Better Customer Service
- Benefit: Offering immediate solutions to customer queries through your website can set you apart from competitors with slower or limited customer service options. Automated chatbots or easy-to-navigate support pages reduce customer frustration and enhance user experience.
- Feature: Integrated customer service features like FAQs, live chat, and contact forms provide instant support.
- Marketing Mix: Responding to customer inquiries quickly via your website and promoting that efficiency on social media or email newsletters builds trust and encourages more engagement.
-
Increased Sales and Revenue
- Benefit: A website can create an additional revenue stream by enabling customers to purchase products or services directly. Even if your business isn’t e-commerce-focused, a lead generation form or booking feature can turn visitors into paying customers. This can differentiate you from competitors relying only on foot traffic or offline sales.
- Feature: E-commerce features allow for direct online sales, while lead generation tools drive inquiries for service-based businesses.
- Marketing Mix: Your website can help you target specific segments of your audience by creating dedicated landing pages for promotions and linking them to your email campaigns or social media ads, increasing your chances of conversion.
-
Insights into Customer Behaviour
- Benefit: Knowing how users interact with your site—what they click on, how long they stay, and where they come from—helps you refine your business strategies. These insights enable you to optimise your website for better performance and gain an edge over competitors who may not fully understand their audience.
- Feature: Web analytics tools, like Google Analytics, track visitor behaviour and provide data-driven insights.
- Marketing Mix: Analytics data can inform which products or services to highlight in your next email campaign or social media ad, allowing for highly targeted, data-driven marketing.
-
Competitive Advantage
- Benefit: A well-optimised website sets your business apart by effectively communicating your unique offerings. Whether through visually engaging product displays, compelling customer testimonials, or detailed service explanations, a website enables you to highlight why your business is the best choice.
- Feature: A website allows you to showcase unique selling points (USPs), testimonials, and high-quality visuals.
- Marketing Mix: A website allows you to run A/B testing on different marketing messages, helping you identify the most effective ways to engage your audience. These can then be scaled across other platforms like social media or Google Ads.
-
Global Reach
- Benefit: With a website, small businesses are no longer confined to their local area. By offering unique products or services that others don’t, you can attract customers from across the globe. This global reach is a significant advantage over competitors who rely solely on a local customer base.
- Feature: A website allows you to expand beyond local customers, reaching audiences worldwide.
- Marketing Mix: Using SEO and targeted ads, your website can reach specific geographic areas or demographics, amplifying your global marketing efforts. Integrating this strategy with global social media campaigns can further increase your reach.
-
24/7 Availability
- Benefit: A website means customers can access your products, services, or information whenever they want, regardless of time zones or business hours. This always-available feature can help you stand out from competitors with more limited availability.
- Feature: A website ensures your business is always open to visitors and potential customers.
- Marketing Mix: Promote your website’s 24/7 availability in your marketing campaigns, especially on social media, where users might browse at odd hours. Let them know your business is always ready to serve.
-
Showcase Your Work
- Benefit: For businesses that rely on showing past work—such as designers, contractors, or consultants—a website provides a professional space to display their expertise. This can be a decisive factor for potential clients comparing you with competitors who may not be able to show their work as effectively.
- Feature: Portfolio galleries, case studies, and customer testimonials can be featured on your website.
- Marketing Mix: Share your success stories and portfolio through social media and email newsletters, always linking to your website where potential customers can explore more detailed case studies or testimonials.
Websites by Bubble
At Bubble, we have a wealth of experience designing and building websites for businesses of all sizes in various industries.
We know that a website is more than just an online presence; it is the foundation of your small business’s digital marketing strategy. When we work with our clients, we can also help with other aspects of digital marketing to complement your website. By integrating social media, email marketing, and analytics tools, your website ensures that all your marketing efforts are aligned and effective, helping you reach, engage, and ultimately convert your audience.
Understanding and leveraging the ten benefits of a website for a small business is essential for staying competitive and achieving long-term success in today’s digital marketplace.
Contact the team at Bubble today to discuss how a website can unlock your brand’s full potential.
Work with Bubble Creative Solutions
Other
Blogs
From design trends, to top tips, to web wizardry… we’re on it. Click here to browse our other blogs…
How to optimise your Google My Business profile
Have you ever noticed the box on the right hand side of Google when you type a company name into the search engine?
We are Bubble Creative Solutions; a Creative Agency Specialising in Graphic Design for digital and print
We have grown and adapted as technology has taken over the market, therefore we know what still works in this decade and how to make your graphic design successful.
Black Hat SEO Techniques You Should Avoid
Short term wins = long term mess!