Even if most of your business is still driven by referrals…
you’re greatly underestimating the value of your Website.
[source: Snappy Geek] After a person recommends you to their friend, that friend immediately goes to a computer and Google’s you. That happens so often in fact, Google is actually a verb in the dictionary.
A platform to actively seek out new business
Websites are no longer simple digital business cards used to passively catch drifting traffic. With Search Engine Optimization, email marketing (the non-spammy kind), forums and portals, and social media, Websites have become the face of almost all successful companies and are actively attracting all of the business that others are passively watching click away.
A design that’s both functional and easy on the eyes
Web design has grown in leaps and bounds. No longer are you stuck with those 10 font families or safe-yet-ugly Web safe colors. Google (because they’re awesome) has a font library with hundreds of fonts that can all be used for free! With the improvement in monitor display technology, gone are the days of Web safe colors in favor of just about any color scheme you could imagine.
Really want to know how far Web design has come? Websites are now designed to be responsive, meaning the content on the page will adjust itself to different screen sizes (everything from 22 inch desktop monitors down to your little iPhone screen and everything in between) so it’s displayed to the viewer in the optimal layout.
Anyone can run their own WordPress Website
CMS (Content Management Systems) no longer resemble digital booby-traps that should be avoided. A diamond called WordPress has appeared from the rough and it’s taking the Website world by storm, currently powering 55% – 60% of all Websites that use a CMS. Originally built as a simple software for bloggers and everyday users (aka non-techies), WordPress has taken the concept of a CMS to a whole new level while still maintaining the same accessibility that helped it gain popularity 10 years ago.
An ultra-user-friendly dashboard, drag and drop navigation menus and sidebars, theme skins and page templates, all-in-one media uploader – if you can click a mouse and type on a keyboard, you can use WordPress. At this point, anyone trying to make a case for Joomla or Drupal is wasting both time and money.
Convert loyal followers into trusting customers
Social media has made doing business online infinitely easier greatly increases conversion rates. People buy products and services from other people and businesses they trust, and if you use social media correctly, that trust is practically automatic.
Select a few different social networks that are relevant to your clients and customers; post useful content about your business and industry or about day to day happenings in your company; develop a relationship with your followers and convert them to customers; drive them back to your user-friendly, well-designed Website where they can opt-in to subscriptions or newsletters, or even purchase actual products in your eCommerce store.
Everyone shops online these days
And eCommerce – also one of the exponentially rising stars in the digital world these past 6 years. The growth of eCommerce sales has increased by a minimum of 10% every year since 2007, and that includes during the “great recession”. With sales obviously projected to continue rising, you could be missing out on a huge chunk of both the U.S. online retail market, and possibly more importantly, the international online retail market.
With complete WordPress eCommerce plugins like Wootheme’s WooCommerce, and the availability and compatibility of payment gateways and online shopping carts, your very own online eStore isn’t as far away as you thought. And guess what…they aren’t very hard to manage either.
Cost is down, quality is up
Finally, even though technology has grown more in the past 10 years than it did in the previous 1,000, prices for Web design have actually gone down while the quality of work is still high. Here at SnappyGeek, our standard design package is only $499 – nothing close to the $5,000 you use to pay, and now you’ll actually be able to use and update your Website.
That comes with the WordPress CMS; a premium theme with interchangeable colors and fonts; logos, banners, and other branding; a number of standard pages, e.g. and about and contact page; social media integration; and when we hand your new site over to you, it will have been optimized for security, speed, and search engines.
The truth is, the digital age is here, it’s been here for a while, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s no longer being called the beginning of the digital era, not because digital is dying, but because digital media and an online presence is standard for just about every business (even brick-and-mortar businesses) at this point.
Stop asking yourself, “What’s the point in investing in my company’s Website when it doesn’t do much for business?” and start telling yourself, “If I invest in a quality Website now, there’s no telling how much it can increase my business in the future.”
Too many people with a great business concept get left in the dust because they didn’t understand or didn’t value the importance of a solid, digital presence – yes, your small business Website does need an update.