Top Ten Reasons Your Company Needs A Web Presence:

Today’s small business markets are rapidly changing. Whether you’re a small business trying to compete with the big guys, or a big guy trying to keep the one on one small time feel, a professional web presence will help you achieve your goals. Today’s small business owners have to be more forward thinking to keep up with their competition. A professional designed website is not as expensive as you think and when done properly can give you more return on your investment than almost any other form of advertising and promotion you can find. Below are the Top Ten Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit from a Web Presence.

1. A Domain Name and Professional Website Can Help You Generate a Professional Appearance:
Potential customers and clients expect a web presence. A well thought out domain name and a professionally designed website is one of the best ways to instill confidence in those who are not familiar with your company or even show your existing customers that you are a business who is keeping up with the times. It gives the customer the impression that they are dealing with a legitimate successful firm that they can trust. A Hotmail e-mail address, geocities web page, or a Myspace page is considered amateurish and probably doing you more harm than good in your advertising. Your website is your digital business card.

2. Potential Customers Search for Businesses Online:
When was the last time you started a search for any company or service by opening a phone book? If you even have a phonebook in your home, you are probably in the minority A recent study showed that nearly 80% of employee’s in the United States that make more than thirty thousand dollars year have a computer at their desk and a over eighty five percent of college students have their own personal computer, while few have a copy of the phone book nearby. More often than not, it is a Google search that locates a listing of local landscape companies or hair salons, not the old yellow pages. Phone book advertising is expensive, limited to very specific geographic areas, and is only effective to those who still actually use it. A web presence gives your directory listing out to anyone anywhere that is searching. Don’t go searching for new customers, let them search for you.

3. A Good Domain Name is easy to Recall and is Searchable:
A well planned domain name is easy to recall. A potential customer can see it on a sign or vehicle in passing and remember it where as recalling a phone number would be almost impossible. With today’s search engines, entering any part of the business name or geographic area will direct potential customers to your contact information.

4. Allows Customers to Access Your Information on Their Time:
Society operates twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. People cant always call during your normal business hours. With a simple web presence, you can communicate any amount of information to potential customers and clients when it is convenient for them. In this digital age, people don’t want to wait for their information. If it is not available from you, they will go to your competitor.

5. Provide Customer with more Information than with any other type of advertising.
How much information can you cram into a flyer, newspaper ad, or radio commercial? If you want it be at all visually appealing or effective, the answer is not much. With a website, once the customer is there, the possibilities are endless. Customers today are educated. They spend hours online researching their potential purchases, be them goods or services, well in advance of contacting you personally. In addition, sections answering commonly asked questions or addressing issues with products show customers that you are on top of things. An information packed website will give you the advantage over the competition.

6. Reach The Most Desirable Demographic Markets
The Internet is arguably the highest mass-market demographic available. Consisting of all economic classes , and education and salary levels, the World Wide Web is available and used by a wider range of potential customers than any other medium. No other form of advertising is as readily available to as many people as the Internet.

7. Customer Feedback
Your website will provide contact information so your customers can comfortably provide feedback on your products, services, or employees, in a non-confrontational way and receive information instantly without extra cost to you. A simple feedback e-mail address with a comforting automated response can show a customer that you are interested and concerned with their opinions.

8. Existence is Everything
Without a website, you simply do not exist to the average consumer. Help buyers choose your business over your competitors. By providing information on your products, services, pricing and specifications almost instantly, your website can attract new business for you without you doing any of the leg work. You’re competitors have a web presence. Don't let them leave you behind. It takes time to climb up search engine rankings. The earlier your site is up, the better off you are in the long run.

9. Keep Customers Updates and Informed at Minimal Cost:
How do you communicate with your existing customers and potential customers today? Printed media and postage can eat through a small businesses advertising budget in no time. Your web presence will give you a cost effective way to keep your customers up to date with what is going on in your company. You can create e-mail lists to notify customers when you have made changes or have announcements for them.

10. A Web Presence is Inexpensive and Almost Risk Free
A decade ago, the though of a web presence was out of reach for most small business owners. However, while every other advertising medium has increased in price over the past decade, the cost to have a professional website developed and hosted has decreased significantly. What would have cost thousands of dollars ten years ago is available for a few hundred dollars a year today. There is very little capital investment in establishing a basic web presence. You can easily customize and modify your website as your company changes or grows. When you break it down, your cost is pennies a day, and a website is around when all the printed flyers have long since been throw away. A website truly is the most cost effective advertising tool available to your company.