It’s hard to believe that it’s 2017 and nearly 50% of small businesses still don’t have a website. According to a recent INC magazine survey, 25% of those lacking a website are planning to develop one in the near future, but shockingly, the remaining 25% cite no relevance for a business website.
According to the Small Business Administration, 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years. The most common reasons for failure were their lack of experience or volume of their competition. The statistics indicate these small business owners don’t know they are missing sales since it’s impossible to see the benefit from something that is not in place and is not being measured. “They don’t know what they don’t know”.
Let’s view some research statistics that show the clear benefits for virtually every business category.
– 94% of B2B buyers perform online research during the purchase process.
– 84.3% check for a business website
– 77% use Google to search for online information about the product and company.
– 41% use reviews or testimonials to form an opinion on company quality.
* Statistics from an Acquity Group procurement study
Customer Expectations
According to Inc Magazine, prospects will expect to find specific information on a company website. The research overwhelmingly indicates a vast majority of customers expect to see a product website with value added content to support their product research.
The big question from businesses that only sell in offline markets is, “So how do we know that adding a new website will contribute to new sales for our type of business?”
A website provides the following immediate sales benefits:
– Serves customer inquiries with many forms of media from a single cohesive web page.
– Offers greater value with persuasive selling copy, detailed photos, downloadable brochures, product specification sheets, video commercials, case studies and much more.
– Landing pages provide a targeted hub of product engagement that no other medium can achieve on its own.
– Social media posts are very short lived in a prospect’s timeline where your website could be a constant beacon for product and brand value.
– A website provides an opportunity to control the narrative over negative external social media posts by using on-site testimonials and customer reviews.
What is the cost of not having a website?
Here’s a great real-world scenario:
A local company has paid for a Facebook boost to promote an expensive product line they are trying to sell. They have a substantial inventory they are needing to sell.
The problem is that there is no website hub for prospects to click into and see the specifications, warranty, demo videos, customer reviews, photos, competitive comparison, etc… – All of these items are expected by consumers and are found on competitor websites.
Without the ability to demonstrate comparable product performance or superior value, the business will have a difficult time selling these units.
The “social proof” demonstrated by the competition will win over “no proof” most of the time.
This scenario demonstrates that the cost of developing a website is very low compared to sales they are missing.
This was only for one product, so imagine the business impact for a whole catalog of products. Stay tuned for a future success story for this business.
Is a broken or missing website costing you sales?
Contact us today for a free business traffic analysis and find out.
Email: sales@ascentdigitalga.com
Phone: 417-501-9842