Why Do I Need a Website for My Business?
In order to effectively market and advertise a growing business in 2024, you need a professional website and a strong digital presence. Discover why that's the case and what you can do.
Word of mouth marketing is an extremely powerful and effective way to advertise a small business. Eventually, however, every successful business with growth goals must rely on more than just word of mouth. So, if you find yourself wondering "Do I need a website for my business?" The answer will depend on your goals... but assuming you do have some of those, the answer for 99.99% of businesses is an emphatic and unequivocal affirmative.
To advertise a small business, you need an audience. For virtually every business in 2024, that involves establishing a strong digital presence and shifting a portion of advertising efforts into business website marketing. That other 0.1% of businesses is pretty much reserved for, oh, I don't know... probably drug smugglers. Assuming that a company is above board (and we do hope yours is), that company's online profile will determine its level of succcess when it comes time to move beyond word of mouth and advertise a small business online.
How Important Is It To Cultivate a Digital Presence in 2024?
We're a digital product studio that builds websites and apps, so our company would have looked pretty ridiculous without a website. Wouldn't have been a very comforting message to prospective partners, right? So, have we always had a website? Yes. That said, word of mouth drove 100% of our advertising through referrals and reviews in the early days.
When we started, we didn't do any digital advertising, organic online marketing, or prioritization of our web presence. That worked for several years. In time, however, it became clear that we had to do more with our digital presence in order to grow our reach and impact.
Why Do I Need a Website for My Business to Thrive in 2024?
With a properly optimized website, you can begin harnessing simple tools and testing a variety of digital marketing ideas for small businesses. Here are just a few tools and areas you can invest effort into once you have your digital foundation (professional website) set up to receive visitors and grow business.
Organic Reach
From SEO-conscious blog posts to structured product pages, organic reach can provide a huge boost over time (or in no time at all, if you're very strategic and a little lucky) to any online business. With a well-maintained website, search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research lets business owners and content marketers drill down on audience demographic metrics, decipher search intent, and focus marketing efforts on the most effective areas. Powerful stuff!
Access to Analytics
With SEO and online visitors comes the topic of traffic data. Compared to offering goods or services to customers at a physical location, digital analytics software like Fathom and Google Analytics are far more comprehensive and data-driven then a customer service rep can hope to be. Through digital analytics, you get algorithms working to determine a more complete profile of customer motivations, preferences, etc. to help you present better information, products, and more.
Paid Reach
If organic reach is like posting a flyer on a busy street, paid ads are like hiring someone to identify the people most likely to snatch that flyer and then slipping it under their front doors for them. Business owners can definitely make a lot happen organically. But doing so takes time. Paid advertising can be a speedier route to better sales or engagement. Without a strong digital presence, however, your business will miss out on this option.
Email Lists
Email lists are still a massive deal for business marketing in 2024. In fact, email marketing revenue is projected to hit nearly $19 billion by 2028 (Statista). So, building these lists and running drip campaigns is a highly viable and relatively low cost marketing idea for small businesses to leverage for better reach and engagement.
Need a Powerful Website to Boost Your Digital Presence?
If your business is thriving but you need a better website, we can help. Don't sacrifice the time and energy you have to do what you do best! The team at Chek Creative is standing by to design, build, and/or monitor your new website at a transparent monthly rate. Check out our case studies or book a demo today!