The Importance of Website as a Marketing Tool

Having a business without a website is almost as good as not having a business at all. However ridiculous that sounds, the internet age has made websites a primary requirement for companies changing buyer behaviour forever.

Please note that this is not just for companies who can sell online. It applies to the normal brick-and-cement business as well. Customers don’t just buy over instinct anymore or walk in ignorantly; they Google, read reviews, connect with previous customers and come into your office/store fully armed with information good enough to make their choice.

Big or small, product or service, profit or non-profit, every organization undoubtedly needs a website to make their presence felt in today’s market. Your website should embody your persona, style and story to make the first impression on customers even before you engage with them. This is where businesses identify their website as a core marketing tool.

·      One of the major functions of marketing is branding. Your company’s brand is the image and personality you convey to your customers. It’s a way to tell potential customers all about your company, your culture, and how you go about accomplishing your goals at every point of contact. To meet the company’s strategic goals, brands need to work on content, promotion and identity-building. Given that most or all of your customers are on the internet, websites bring alive branding to the online markets. It integrates the overall brand strategy with effective user experience thereby becoming a critical communication asset for all marketers.

·     Websites never sleep. Your website serves as a source of information and engagement for customers 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It’s not bound by the traditional business hours and helps you be at the customer’s fingertips even at an odd hour.

·         In this age of cut-throat competition, visibility is as valuable as sales. By putting together a website, you improve your overall visibility by simply being available at a web space shared by most of your potential customers. In fact, you are allowing your competitors to beat you to a sale just because your business doesn't have a website. A well designed business website is a vital marketing tool to both attract new customers and keep the existing ones informed of promotional activities or news.

·         A business website is also crucial to establish credibility to your company. Your potential customers will assume that you are a small time business just because you don’t have a website and since the vast majority of other businesses do. If you don't have a website to put on your business card or memorandums, potential customers are least likely to take you seriously.

·         Bringing marketing to the online world using websites creates a level playing field for small and big businesses alike. Websites help small companies build an impression that they are greater than they actually might be. One of the awesome things about marketing through your website is that the number of employees you house, size of your office building or annual turnover doesn’t really matter at all. With power-packed web tools and engaging content, there is every chance that your website ranks better than a larger competitor and channels off some of their traffic.

·         Hosting a website, gives companies a greater reach than any other form of advertising at a very feasible cost. There are remarkable examples of companies that have created their entire marketing campaigns around a website. Websites enable companies to employ an easy form of advertising through pay-per-click programs and social media activities.

Having a website is not good enough. Marketers need to create excellent content that drives them up Google’s SERP ladder. It is almost like a reality contest. You need to have masses liking your content and sharing it through inbound links so that Google identifies you as a top result for a related keyword. Much like you need audiences to like your performance vote for you in a reality event.

To wrap it up, it is critical for all businesses to have a website and it is the need of the hour for marketers to make it their core asset.