Does Your
Business Need A Website?
By Michael Wilford
 The question
is relevant to those of you with new businesses or those whose
businesses have been doing just fine since before there even
existed an internet. Since I’m a web designer, you probably
would guess my answer is yes, your business needs a website.
Well, actually my answer is usually, but not always. There
are some businesses which, in the current state of the business
environment, may not need a web site. Any business can certainly
benefit from a web presence, which means they are listed in
some sort of web directory, such as an online phone book listing.
But a full-blown website might be more than some businesses
require. Here are the reasons a business might have a website:
- Promotion and marketing
- Credibility (Instill confidence with potential clients)
- Communication with current and potential clients (Email,
web contact forms)
- Information (Directions to office, about the company)
- Online sales
- Customer service (Frequently asked questions,
documentation)
- Sales leads
If your business relies mostly
on foot traffic, from tourists or from the neighborhood locals,
then a website might not
be much of a benefit. Let’s take a used bookstore for example.
Unless they want to keep an updated online database listing
all their current books, a full website might not be worth
the trouble. Getting some of their used books listed on a used
book portal, such as Alibris.com or even Amazon.com, would
make more sense for utilizing the internet to augment their
business. An email newsletter could be another way to utilize
the internet for marketing the bookstore.
Having said that, I want to
emphasize how valuable a website can be to a business. A survey
of small and mid-sized businesses
with websites done by Interland (a large hosting company)
and completed in Sept. 2003 showed that 78 percent of small
businesses
think their company benefits from having a website. More
than half of those surveyed said having a website lends
credibility to their small business. One-third of small
businesses said
their website is their most powerful marketing tool in
their arsenal. If you want to market to anyone who might
be researching
your type of business, then you should have a website.
Even if your competitors don’t
typically have websites, sometimes being different can give
you an advantage. I’ll
give you the case study of a business I developed a website
for which doesn’t fit the typical example of businesses
with a website. It is a small Thai restaurant in the Freighthouse
Square in Tacoma, 32 Silvers Thai
Cuisine.
The owner had just opened his restaurant and I was just
starting out as a web designer. Back in ’99 the internet
was the big new thing, but it was still fairly uncommon
for any but
the largest restaurants to have a website. This is still
somewhat true today, but less so all the time. I’m
sure very few of the merchants in the Freighthouse Square
have a website.
However, the restaurant owner was an aggressive marketer
and he had the vision to allow me to create a beautiful
website
for his business. We weren’t sure if it would make
a difference for his success, but we gave it a shot. From
a combination
of using the website address in every marketing piece he
put out and getting the website listed everywhere we could
on the
internet we have built the traffic on his site to about
700 visitors a month! Some days the site has over 40 visitors.
Certainly, not everyone visiting the site is in the area
and
will be eating at his restaurant, but by offering the entire
menu (which is quite large) on the site, we allowed previous
customers to check it out when considering where to eat,
and to easily recommend it to their friends. He has been
very successful
in his location, despite lengthy street construction, mainly
because of his excellent food, but also because of his
aggressive marketing, including his website which markets
to all his present
and potential customers, locally and nationally, 24 hours
a day.
Think boldly about how you
can utilize the internet to your business’s advantage. There are a lot of possibilities.
Whatever happens, don’t let your competition out-market
you. Thanks for reading, I wish you all great success in your
business endeavors. This article ©2004 Wilford Design and may
not be reprinted without permission.
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