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"Connections and Why They Matter"
Most of what happens in our life will spark a connection. Life connects with what has been found in books. Books connect with what happens in life. Use the connections to help you see more clearly. A love of reading and writing is what motivated the creation of this blog. Thank you for coming to the blog.
Most businesses need a website in today’s world. The main reasons usually establish awareness, legitimacy, creditability, trust, sales, and information for prospective and current customers, the public, and suppliers. It becomes a marketing tool and presents and showcases products and services.
The website serves as a storefront. A report in February 2021 from PRNewswire mentioned that 28% of small businesses don’t have a website, and 44% of those don’t plan to create one in the coming year.
The need for a website is so strong that some small businesses ask themselves if they can even open their doors without first establishing a presence on the internet. The answer to this question is that you can open a business without a website and drive sales by gaining customers in the traditional ways: word of mouth, referrals, and mailing lists. Social media. Pamphlets, ads in local publications, and even handing out business cards. There is nothing wrong with these traditional ways of promoting a business but some essential benefits will be missed. All the conventional methods will be more effective if a path to the business’s website can be included.
The Business Website is Important Because:
It is the doorway to the business. It welcomes customers, suppliers, and the community. It shows that the company exists.
It will put your name on Google and have an internet address that can be included in your marketing materials. Directions to the business, product lists, business hours, phone numbers, and even prices can be found easily.
Potential customers will be using the internet to find where the products and services they want can be found. The website allows you to be seen by those who are shopping on the web and will be new customers.
It expands the reach of your business, making what you have available to the entire world if that is what you want.
Details about your products and service can fill pages and allow customers to dig deeper into their research for their needs. Links to sites that mention your products can be included.
Your website gives your social media posts a goal and a vital purpose. Those posts can stress products and benefits, but with a website, social media can and should direct traffic to the website. Social media posts are often just one-shot efforts, but getting clients to use your website will bring them back to it again and again.
The website can be set up to take orders, receive payments, and trigger shipping.
The website can build a relationship with your customers over time as they return. Added videos and resource information add to the relationship and buying experience.
Social media helps increase brand awareness and creates a way to get your message out to the marketplace and show what your company does and what it stands for. Reinforce with your suppliers, employees, and potential customers that you exist. Even if you have some sales and think you are on track, you need to build momentum. LinkedIn, a great social and professional network, has an excellent article on How to Find What Social Media Channel You Should Be On.
Entrepreneurs know that if they “listen to the marketplace, it will tell them what to do.” That is a crucial motivation to becoming an entrepreneur, and it is often the people on the front line of business working with customers who get the best ideas. If you are already in business, social media is a tool to ask the customers how you are doing. A fancy way to say this is that you find your best beta testers on social media.
Social media allows you to follow your competitors, suppliers, and customers. Each source will have different viewpoints on your business segment, but you can gain insight that would take months and years to achieve without this tool. LinkedIn clearly states that they want to have a community that collaborates. By interacting with your connections, you build resources for your collaboration needs.
Your entrepreneurial community can offer advice and support, and you will often find yourself more trusting and willing to open up to your entrepreneurial peers. Some will become mentors, and often, there are support groups.
