Every business needs a website. This is not the first time that this has been said (Visser, 2015; Burgoyne, 2007; “8 Reasons,” n.d.”) and it is unlikely to be the last time either. But business owners still resist with arguments on why their business doesn’t need an online presence (Okyle, 2016). A few of these arguments are that it costs too much, that their customers already know them, or that they don’t have room for the additional growth that an online presence would bring. This paper will work to counter those arguments.
One of the first discussions that business owners have about whether to establish an online presence is the cost to do so (“How Much”, 2014). While it is true that there are several costly avenues to creating, and maintaining a website (“Domain Name Pricing”, n.d.). However, there are many free options to creating an online presence as well. A common method is to set up a business page on Facebook.com or Twitter.com. Both these methods cost nothing to establish a quick and easily accessible online presence. Business owners do have the option to upgrade to include additional information or further advertise, but that is entirely at their discretion (“Buying Facebook Ads,” n.d.; “Twitter Ads Pricing,” n.d.). This can be a very lucrative option because a 152% return on investment is considered typical for Facebook advertising (Grabowski, 2015).
Some business owners may argue that their customer population already knows them (“Small Business Websites,” 2016). They may argue this because they’ve been a part of the community for several years, or because their traditional advertising seems to be successful. But, the reality is that over 3 billion people are active internet users today (“Year-On-Year,” 2016). While their billboard may draw a lot of attention on the local highway, adding an online presence that would be accessible to those 3 billion users would surely find a few potential customers that would not have known about the business otherwise. Twitter alone has reported over 300 million monthly users (“Twitter MAU,” n.d.) and Facebook carries more influence with over 1.8 billion monthly users (“Number of Facebook Users,” n.d.). Business owners looking at long-term success should not ignore the potential marketability that these two websites offer them through completely free accounts as mentioned previously.
Some businesses may look at this potential market and think that they have enough clientele already. They may feel that they are operating at capacity and can’t possibly take on more clients as it is. The thought of an additional potential 300 million clients could be overwhelming on its own. However, an online presence does not always need to be used for marketing purposes. A website has several other uses (“18 Benefits,” 2017). One example is customer service. Herschel Supply Co. used their website to address customer service needs and increased their customer satisfaction by 20% (Cisnero, 2014). Creating this avenue for customers to reach out can also improve brand loyalty because customers can see that the business is publicly acknowledging their complaints or positive reviews.
Every business needs a website. Even those businesses that feel that they can’t afford an online presence have avenues available to them to at least get their foot in the door at no cost. Businesses that feel like they’re already well-established are missing potential market share that could be accessed through a quickly built website. And those few businesses that don’t feel a need for additional growth can use a website as an additional tool to better serve their customers and maintain brand loyalty.
References
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