HOW SMEs CAN INCREASE SALES VIA INTERNET: 20 REASONS WHY SMES NEEDS WEBSITE AND BENEFIT OF GOOGLE RANK TO THEIR BUSINESS
What comes to mind of many small business owners is online is too expensive and I am not big enough for ecommerce. My customers and clients are not tech savvy and they are not on the internet. Wrong notion!
Virtually everything today is being accessible online and shows what you can do or offer to people. Let me shock you, most of your clients and customers (if you carry out the survey) are online and are trying to find more about your business. Currently, the e-Commerce market in Nigeria is worth around $13 billion; according to a report by London based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Experts in the Nigerian financial service sector have also estimated that Nigeria’s e-commerce market value could rise to $50 billion (N15.45trillion) over the next 10 years.
Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) predicted that the e-commerce sector is expected to contribute about 10 per cent, of a projected N10trillion, to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2018.With the increasing penetration of internet in Nigeria and across Africa; this is a huge market and the sales volume is bound to continue progressing in the coming years.
You can now see reason why you need to have virtual office to increase your visibility and increase sales;
Your Business Needs an Online Presence
Having online presence is having a website, social media account where your customers and potential customers can go to get firsthand information about your business. You should interact with your audience on social media and bring them to your website. You should have a marketing strategy set up that will help you convert visitors to your leads and new clients.
To do that you need a website with a blog, social media marketing, and promotion and to have this all do its job it’s an important to know who your perfect customer or client is.
Reasons You Need a Website
No matter how big or small your Business is, you should have a website and bellow are 25 reasons why small businesses need a website.
- Your Business is Never Closed
With your business online you never closed? Most businesses close officially around 5pm of course your staffs need to rest so as to get best of them every. But website is there 24/7. It sells and promotes your services and products all the time.
While you don’t want to spend all day in your office and work until 3 or 4 AM. Many people are doing research about their next buy at that time. Why wouldn’t you want to be one of the options?
- A website is a Tool That Sells Your Products and Services
A website can act as a catalog or a brochure for your services and products. If something changes, like prices or packages for your services, you just change it. You don’t need to wait for your printed materials to arrive, which you have then sent out to your potential clients (print is still a good addition).
This is your billboard. You can instantly put your business in front of millions of potential clients. Of course, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything else. You need to promote your website and business.
There should be an SEO strategy, content marketing, and social media exposure. Everything is connected and works the best together. All this combined can also be called Growth Driven Design. This means your site should be ever evolving and be flexible for changes in the market
- You Can Target A Bigger Market
Your local market will be wider, you will be in front of potential clients that weren’t in touch with your brand before. No matter if you sell products or services.
If you decide to have an eCommerce store that you can sell right on the spot and the store is up at any time.
- Your Business Can Now Do Business Globally
It’s not just as said above, that you can now reach a bigger market. It also means that your Business can now offer products and services globally. In today’s World, there are almost no limits. You can reach markets and clients that you wouldn’t imagine before. This is the reason you and your Company needs a website. It is your ticket to a whole new level.
Sky’s the limit if you put the right strategies behind your business website. You offer home delivery both locally and internationally through courier agents like DHL, CourierPlus, Konga KOS, or you establish your courier services
- Your Potential Clients Are Online
That’s right. People are online, and that doesn’t mean that only younger generation is using the internet. Almost ¾ of the Earth’s population has access to the internet. It doesn’t matter if your Business is big or you run a small family business. You should be online, presenting yourself as one of the providers of products or services.
People are more and more looking to do the research on what to buy and more importantly from whom to buy online. If you are not there they’ll simply skip you. You will be left outside.
- Your Clients Expect You to Be Online
There was an interesting research done in 2016 by Brightlocal, which shows, that clients do expect Businesses to have a website. 80% of participants in the within 18 – 54 say, that they are more likely to contact a business if the business has a website.
You could be missing a chunk of clients that are looking for your product or services and they can’t find you.
- Get New Clients for Your Business
As you can see by now. People are searching for new information online. They tend to search for solutions to their problem more and more.With a well-designed website, you can position your company as someone who can provide them with a solution.
This can mean a lot when your potential clients and customer are deciding where they want to buy their next product or service.Show them that you can solve their problem and that you understand their pain.
There is also an option to implement a “call back button”. This means they can book a call from you in a few minutes. You get a notification and you call them back.This way you can present yourself on 1 to 1 basis.
- Blogging: You Can Educate Your Clients About Your Brand, Products, and Services
This means that you control what you are saying. You are in charge of your publishing. And what better place can you write about your brand, products, and services than on your own website.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that you should brag in your posts. Your articles should reflect your business mission, your personality and be valuable to your visitors.
If you can provide value through your website and educate them about your niche they will be more engaged and more likely to become your clients.
A great addition to your blog posts are share buttons for social media. This way your visitors can share your posts and get you even more exposure.
With a blog, you will also improve your communication with your potential and existing clients. Also, you have more influence on visitors and potential clients buying decision, by providing value on your website.
- Your Website Can Provide Social Proof
Of course, you probably have some type of social proof, like the Facebook page or Twitter account, Google Reviews (Search Engine Optimisation). All this is great, but if people are already looking for you on the internet, it would be great if they can find your website. This is where you can include your happy client’s testimonials. Don’t forget that you could do some case studies and provide even bigger value. Because you will show them the process and a happy client.
Believe it or not majority of people love to look for reviews and what other people are saying about you. The results of a survey done by Brightlocal say that 88 % people trust online reviews. A good reason to have your own business website and include testimonials and if applicable ever star reviews. Reviews also matter for your website rankings so it’s a great value for you and your potential clients.
- Your Business Website is The Center of Your Marketing
Whatever you want to do in business today, the first place where it should go live is your website. The first marketing step is having a business website. This means before you have your brochures, business cards, and flyers printed. All the information, that can be useful and helpful to your clients should be live on your website. Then you can go and do the rest.
Every marketing campaign should first be live on your website landing page so that what is written on your flyers, or in videos or in brochures can lead them to your website. Print materials and video materials should be done in a way that your clients are motivated to visit your site for more information. The website should be designed to convert those visitors into your new clients.
- A Website Builds Your Business Credibility and Legitimacy
Your business can gain instant credibility. Also, if you connect this to the above reason. You are providing your clients with extra information available on your site. This isn’t only the information on your Company business info, but also other marketing related information. As well as proving yourself as a trustworthy business.
Put all above written in a good structured and a professionally designed website and you will close sales deals more easily. Your website will show your clients that you mean real business. If you don’t have it, your potential clients could think you don’t follow the technological progress (even if in reality you are) or worse they’ll think you are in such tough situation that you can’t afford it.
These are things that you don’t want your potential clients to think about your Business. Years ago it was important that your business had a real physical address. Today it’s important, that you have a website. It can look suspicious to your potential customers if your business doesn’t have a website.
- You Will Save Time
Whatever your business is selling, services or products. Your website can answer many questions from your customers. This can take much time in your busy schedule. Answering questions on your phone or email (of course there will still be emails) this takes time. But your website is usually the first contact with your potential clients. You can create FAQ page (Frequently Asked Questions).
The best part as mentioned above it’s always available to provide value to your customers.The time that you save here, can now be a time that you invest in your business growth and development.
- It Can Save You Money
Your website can save you money on printing marketing material. Everything that you would print can now be provided on your website. And I mean everything.
Do you want to offer discount coupons? No problem, you can offer a discount on your website as a pdf. Do a small banner and post it on all your social handles to link them back to the offer page on your site and get a new subscriber in the process. If you are wondering how, you can now send your subscribers an offer, flyer or any other material directly to their email. But, please no shady stuff. Only if they have given you the permission to do so.
- Compete With the Big Guys
With your website you can now compete with big companies online.Well, they may have big resources. But people don’t always look at that, and with a well-designed website right and quality contents with good packaging, that has the right strategy behind it, you can and will mix with the big guys online guarantee.
- Business Email (info@website.com)
I know, that this can be done with other methods, but it’s usually related to having a website. You usually buy a domain when you plan to have a website. This is an important aspect of the business, that many people neglect. The reason is they don’t believe this playing any role when doing business.
But, I can assure you, that it is important. Why? It looks unprofessional if you use Gmail account. This is a reason that you might not close the deal of maybe your store isn’t selling as much it could because people think you are not the real deal. And customers will remember your email easier
- A Website Gives You another Way to Collect Data about Visitors and Generate New Leads
Okay, now you may think to yourself, why would I do that. It sounds scary. I assure you, that you don’t need to worry. It’s usually about, what pages are your visitors visiting. What country are they from. Nothing personal should be collected with analytics. Of course, you can and should also collect emails. This will help you get new subscribers and potential clients.
But you shouldn’t use shady tactics. If you want your visitors to subscribe, you should offer them a value. Maybe you can offer discount on bulk purchase or one time offer for a week or month, a free consultation. This way you can see what performs better, and where you need to improve. Collected data can offer you a better insight into your audience. This way you can make better decisions about your marketing and sales.
This means more leads and clients to your business. It also means your website creates measurable results.
- Online Store Sales Are Growing
A report from eMarketer is revealing that the expenditure in eCommerce is growing and it will continue to grow. The percentage of eCommerce retail sales in the overall retail sales is increasing yearly. More and more people are buying online because is cheaper and more convenient. Of course, you shouldn’t be fooled and think that physical stores are going away, they are not.But you can increase your revenue if you have a physical store and add an online store.
Not only because you will sell more online, but because you will increase sales in your physical store with the help of your eCommerce store (remember webrooming).
Conclusion
If you are still wondering why small businesses need a website, I hope you have gotten enough reasons to get your business online. But it’s not enough to have a website if that website is not professionally done or it doesn’t have a good design.
Your website should reflect your brand. It should be a reflection of your values. You should tell your story and give the visitors a journey to form the start until the end of the buying process. The website should be designed for the needs of your ideal customer (or customers). But that said, it’s not just about your pages, you should also care about your posts. They should bring your brand closer to your potential customers.
Hopefully, you can see from the article, that it’s important to have a website designed with strategy in mind, so it can support your marketing efforts.
Though the cost of designing a professional website is huge considering the fact that you will need domain name, hosting space, design and layout. For more information about establishing your online presence you can contact me.
NIFST O! Food O!!
Ikotun Oluwasegun; Web Designer, Blogger, Entrepreneur, Manager of Webiz.com.ng, mygospelbox.com, herbalstore.com.ng. (+2347015368854)
Reference: https://abbakin.com/nigeria-online-ecommerce-market-size/, https://www.export.gov/article?id=Nigeria-E-CommerceV