MediaLabs

While starting a business has its own hindrances, but running and sustaining it is quite a challenge in itself. In this digital age, your business needs an effective online presence to thrive and succeed. With the growing number of users accessing the net everyday for various purposes, it is very important for businesses to leverage this for customer reach and engagement.

A website is the front-end of your business, which gives the first impression. And as we know, the long-term impact of the first impression, it is very important to present your Corporate website with a branding potential for your business.

According to the 2015 Digital Marketing Survey, around 74% of small businesses already have a website, while a quarter of them still don’t have a website. Among the people, who do not have a website, around 9% plan to start a website in the near future, while 10% still have no plans to start a website. Experts feel that small businesses still lack the adaptation to the Web and adopt digital marketing as their strategy.

But, gradually they are shifting to a store front online and making their presence mobile friendly as well. A website is the first interaction of the consumer with the Company. It introduces the business, its stakeholders, its products and services, its goodwill and its brand identity. Some of the key factors that influence the type of website suitable for a business are as follows:

Nature of your business:

This is an important factor. If you are looking at sales, then it is advisable to go for an e-commerce site. If your business requires brand building, then you need to invest in a different type of site.

Geographic implication:

Your location or point-of-sales is also one important factor. You need to invest accordingly for web hosting and availability, including accessibility.

Technological aspect:

You need to invest carefully on the technological aspects like levels of security and authorization, based on the business requirement.

Future roadmap:

You need to keep a focussed outlook of your future business plans or expansion, while designing your website today.

The above survey also indicated that around a quarter of small businesses with a website intend to increase their spending on web development, web design and hosting in 2016 as they feel it will be helpful for their business. In addition to this, around 56% of companies have a responsive website to cater to the market penetration via mobile devices, and other platforms, while 17% want to make their website responsive for the same reasons.

Some of the main reasons for creating a website for business purposes, have been discussed below:

Potential online business:

If you are not creating a website for your online presence, you are probably losing out on potential customers. The purchase mechanism and customers have evolved over time and online sales is the growing trend. So, to tap more prospects, sustain growth and goodwill in this competitive market, you need a good website to enhance brand value.

Providing better support to customers:

A website is a platform to engage with your customers. This helps a business to support its customers with information, online assistance, updates, and much more in one place.

Gathering feedback and suggestions:

Having a website comes easy for customers to reach you. They will be eager to send feedback or suggestions online. A website can facilitate online surveys or ratings. These are quite helpful for business’ for improvement and market analysis.

Gearing up for the future:

With more number of people moving into the digital world for their needs and requirements, the online marketplace is virtually real. So, the future of global business is online and if you need to stay in business, you need to adapt and adopt.

Different business needs different types of websites based on their requirements, business focus, marketing strategies and future roadmap. One of the main thing to keep in mind while designing a website is – what is the purpose of the website? Some of the major types of websites for different businesses are:

Sale of product and services through an e-commerce site:

E-commerce websites cater to businesses with an online store. This helps them to reach more customers and also interact and engage with existing one in a better way. They create direct revenues and measurable profits.

Generation of leads through a lead generation site:

They mostly are required for sales lead generation, but they still require heavy funds as it involves a lot of analytics and tracking mechanism.

Increasing goodwill and brand value through a credential site:

These are the least expensive ones and are more information-based. They can be used to increase brand awareness and tell customers about you and your brand.

A Company website is the face of their brand and should be attractive and appealing. Proper content, strong images, useful information, ease of navigation, SEO, promotions, and several other factors needs to be incorporated to set up a user-friendly and effective website.

Your customers will reach you through your website, so make the first impression a good one to ensure a long-lasting relationship.

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