Small businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE often think of a website as non-essential or even a luxury. Actually the small businesses have limited operations, they only spend on something whenever there is a need or requirement. When it comes to the marketing for a small businesses the owners or managers usually think online is irrelevant or in some cases they just build online social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. However, a website is very important and it greatly helps with brand credibility, it is an estimate that almost more than half of the customers tend to visit the website of the business before making a purchase. The online brand identity and online presence of business can play a huge role in its success. The online digital marketing have already surpassed the traditional marketing channels. Which is also another good indicator of the importance of the online presence. One of the biggest advantage of the small business website is that it provides credibility and build a professional impression of the business and help building trust for the customers and visitors.
Still not convinced? Well we have prepared some key points which will convince you to get a website for your small business:
Add Credibility to Business
Several online studies, customer surveys and market research have concluded that almost 80% of the customers thinks small businesses having websites are more credible and professional than the one who don’t have websites. Even the social media profiles and pages are not as credible as that of a website. Without a website customers and prospects might doubt on the credibility and professionalism of a small business. The website also provides a chance to communicate easily with your audience and build relationship by providing quality content and legit information about your brand and your products and services. There could be several businesses who are also working in the same industry and operating in your targeted region, your website could help you stand out among your competition too. It doesn’t matter if you are a large enterprise or a small business the credibility and positive brand reputation is must for growth and progress.
Generate Organic Leads
The website could be a great source of organic leads for a small business. The organic leads are generated through organic traffic, the organic traffic is the website visitors who land on your website from a reference, and usually this reference is a search engine, like Google. People tend look up for everything on the internet, Google is the most popular search engine in the world with more than 90% of the market share. People do spend a lot of time on internet and it is a great source of leads and sales. If a website is designed properly as per the search engine optimization (SEO) standards, the chances are high that it will be ranked higher in the search and will generate more online free web traffic. An average small business website which is optimized for search engine can generate more than 70% of its entire traffic from the search engines. And it is completely free. Moreover when a customer or prospect searches something online in Google or any other search engine and finds a website on top, it immediately build a positive impression for that brand. This also helps improving brand reputation.
Promote your Products and Services
A small business website is a great channel to showcase your products and services. It further improves the conversion rate when customers and prospects found sufficient information about the product or service online before making a purchase decision. The website should be designed in a way to promote your products and services. The homepage of the website is a great place to showcase your best selling products or premium services. It will give your customers and prospects and idea of what they could get doing business with you. Provide all the necessary details of the products and services, prepare captivating content, which can attract customers and increase their interest. The photos, videos and animations are a great way to present your products and services. You can also provide a facility to share your web pages online, which will further boost your website’s visibility and can produce more organic traffic. Highlighting features and benefits of your products and services always improve online leads and conversion.
Put your Portfolio and Client Testimonial
A small business shouldn’t use their website as only an online business card or profile. In fact a small business website could be used to promote the brand, build reputation and enhance customers’ trust. The small business websites with multiple trust signals improve the online conversion rates. The sample of your work, your portfolio and name of your business partners is very helpful in influencing the visitors to make a decision. Such things on the website build a professional and trust worthy impression on the customers and prospects. This also enhances the business reputation. Similarly the client testimonials and their feedback also plays an important role in convincing your prospects to convert. The website which have portfolio, sample of work, client testimonials and customer endorsements are tend to perform very well comparing to the website who don’t publish such details. When a website visitor reads a review or testimonial of an existing customer they get more confidence and it also act as a proof of quality. Because everyone knows that any business will put only good things about their products and services, however the customers who have already had an experience with the business will be more honest in their remarks. It is a great trust signal and it can easily boost your online conversions.
Small Business Website makes it Easier to Contact the Business
The contact details are very important. The market research data have shown that the websites who put clear contact details and contact number start receiving 30% to 60% more calls. That is why the contact details are very important. Modern day websites usually put contact details in the upper area of the web page which is called header. Sometimes the customer might not want to fill in the contact form or the enquiry form, instead they prefer to make a call. Similarly the small business website can also provide Google Map integration to let the customers and prospects to navigate through Google Maps to reach to the business. This can increase the number of daily footfall.
A Website can Help Small Business to Achieve Long Term Goals
A website is not a short term marketing strategy. It is a long term marking strategy, one should never expect to see a noticeable change the next day of publishing their website. For small businesses as the budget is limited and the owners and managers are usually having multiple tasks. The website can be improved gradually, rather than daily updates, weekly or even monthly updates could also do better. The important thing is the website provides all the important information in a very presentable way. Later on the small business can improve their website bit by bit and page by page. Slowly but surely the website will start getting traffic, which will improve its ranking. Similarly the content which will be posted on the website will start improving the organic traffic, then occasional digital marketing campaigns and other activities can also help building the traffic, this traffic building process could take several months or even a year to reach to an optimum level. That is why a small business website is considered as a long term marketing strategy. Once the website started generating enough traffic the business can invest more in it to improve its outcome and the process can be continued gradually and regularly.
A Website Helps Small Business to Compete with Big Companies
A professional looking website is a great competitive advantage for a small business. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE local business owner often think that the websites are for large corporations or nationwide businesses and are no use for a small or local business. That is not the case a website is equally effective and important for a small business too. The small businesses can easily compete with big brands and large enterprises using their websites. The search engine optimization or SEO help local businesses to establish a brand reputation in the region. For example if you are a small business selling shoes, and someone searches ‘shoe stores near me’, the chances are your website will appear instead of any multinational brand like Aldo or CAT. This provides a great advantage and help local businesses to get more daily footfall. Which can be eventually converted to sales.
Small Business Website Improve Customer Retention
The customer retention is a very crucial aspect of growing and progressing. If a business wants to grow it should have a strong foundation of loyal customers. The customer loyalty is a pretty vague terminology but there are certain things that can make a customer loyal. Of course the most important thing is the cost and the quality of your products and services, but in today’s modern era, customers expect a lot more from a business. For example, if a small business is providing sufficient information of their products and services on their website, then the customers and prospects will prefer to visit the website first, then shortlist the products/services they want and then either they can purchase from online or visit to the store to make a purchase. Such things prevent customers to do market research, and make the purchase easier. The chances are the customers and prospects will also share those web pages with others, which could also bring more online and in-store traffic to the business.
Small Businesses can benefit more from Digital Marketing with their Website
The digital marketing is a very effective lead generation strategy. These days as in UAE almost 92% of the residents are having access to internet and computers/laptops or smartphones. The global digital marketing industry have already surpassed the traditional marketing industry. Here in UAE people tend to spend hours on social media on daily bases. The smartphone searches have already surpassed the traditional computer/laptop searches. These all are indicators which suggest the digital marketing is growing rapidly. For digital marketing the website plays an important role, the adverts with a valid website link are tend to get more clicks. Moreover businesses can have dedicated landing page which are designed specifically for certain products and services to boost the conversion rate. The digital marketing campaigns with specially designed landing pages can boost the conversion rate up to 10 times. Which not only help small business to keep the digital marketing cost low but it also improve the ROI.
The Small Business Websites are Cost-Effective
As we have discussed all the important benefits and advantages of the website for a small business the question arises how much it could cost you? Well, there is no predefined costing plan. However there are certain things that can reduce the cost of the web designing and development process a lot. Usually the website cost is defined by the design type and the website programming and functionalities are the defining factors of the cost. For example, if you have a website in English language only and want to have another language too such as Arabic, the cost will be higher, if you want only a standard website the costing will be done differently but if you also want to have an online purchase process then the costing will be done differently. However, we are listing here some of the very basic features that could maximize the productivity of the website and also keep the cost low:
- Chose a CMS (content management system), such as WordPress, Joomla, or Custom PHP
- Chose Open Source/Free or Single Time Purchase (lifetime license) CMS
- Use only free plugins or plugins with one time purchase plan
- Chose only single language user interface
- Chose a responsive website theme or web design
- Purchase medium size domain name with .com extension
- Purchase basic/shared hosting plan with limited emails and databases
- Use Email Client App such as Outlook to prevent getting server out of space
- Purchase a basic SSL Certificate
- Ask web designer to provide you with the training of the CMS to update the website
These are some suggestion that will help you reducing the initial cost of the website as well as operational cost of the website. The CMS or Content Management System is a software tool that provides a user interface which enables an ordinary person to upload and update content on the website and its internal pages without any help from a technical person or website developer. This eliminates the cost of the updates as well as if the small business owner or the manger can learn to do regular updates, they don’t even need to acquire any AMC (annual maintenance contract) which also saves a lot of cost. The hosting and the emails are also not much costly, better to use an email client such as Outlook which will download your emails to your computer hence no need to buy expensive hosting plans with more server space. Such things can significantly reduce the initial cost as well as the operational cost of a small business website.
Read More: RealEstate Website Trends for 2021-22
Conclusion
A small business need to ensure that the impression they are building of their brand is positive. With the limited budget and other resources it is crucial to make strategies and use tools that are cost effective and ensure higher ROI. Small business means limited territory and higher competition, you must have to stand out to get the attentions from the prospects and audience. In this modern digital era a website is the most effective tool to compete with others and improve your brand reputation and brand image. Small business websites add credibility, improve customer trust, and generate more leads. The organic or search leads are absolutely free and it require very less efforts to optimize the website for search engines. The website provide a chance to present your products and services in a better way in front of your targeted audience. The testimonials and customer feedbacks are a great way to build trust and improve conversion rate. A small business website if designed smartly could save a lot of initial and operational cost. A website is a part of long term marketing strategy, when return over investment is calculated for long term a small business website has no match. It can do wonders for a business. RSI Concepts is a leading web design Dubai company, if you need any help with your small business website feel free to get in touch with us, you can reach to us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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