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Take Your Business Online: What You Need to Know About Taking Your Business Online.
The common question that new and existing business owners ask is, why should I take my business online?
Firstly, I will like to clarify things. In the sense of this article, a business does not necessarily need a physical location to sell. They may or may not have walk-in clients.
While in many cases, the steps for setting up an online presence for new or already existing businesses are very similar to starting an online business, there are some things that make an online presence for a new and existing business unique.
There is much said about doing business on the internet or putting your business online. To many, it may just sound too complicated or too risky. But there are many good reasons to begin selling and running your business online. Here are the top reasons you should establish a functional online presence for your business.
Why You Need To Take Your Business Online
You need to take your business online for the following reasons.
Improving Your Company Image
This alone should be enough reason to start a new website and begin selling online. It’s an extremely important factor considering that without a website, blog, or online presence, prospective clients could begin to wonder how serious you are about business. Today, companies of all sizes and industries are establishing a successful online presence.
If you don’t have an online presence and a professional one to startup, then you can’t expect your prospects to take you seriously and you will lose business to competitors that do have an effective online presence. You need to have an online presence because your prospects and customers expect you to have one.
24/7 Hour Availability
It is impossible for all businesses to be available to their customers 24 hours a day. That is, without the internet. The key benefit to having a website is that your clients and prospects can read about your products/services and place orders at any time, day or night. On regular business days or holidays. Imagine what being open 3-4 times longer could do for your business.
Many people will want to do their research at the end of the day when your office or business is closed, but your website can operate as your 2/47 salesperson to answer questions and generate leads or sales.
Better Customer Support
The internet allows you to answer questions, give sales webinars, and solve customer problems, all without taking any of your time. Not only does it save you time, but you’ll be providing better service.
With an online presence, you can give your customers just the information that they are looking for, and just when they are looking for it. This means fewer phone calls with technical questions and more sales. You can spend more time working on the revenue-generating activities in your business and spend less time handling common customer service issues.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to develop a relationship and increase sales.
Very Low Start-up Costs
Starting out online means very low startup costs. You have no buildings to construct, no vehicles to buy and few staff to hire. Simply build a site and start selling. If you are already selling offline then the transition can be very smooth.
Putting your business online simply gives you a new source of customers.
A good website can be designed to capture leads and generate sales.
The Internet Was Made for Business
The beauty of the internet is that your prospective clients can literally be just one click away from your online store. Through the internet, you can now educate, instruct and solve client’s problems. You can accept orders and payments and receive them directly to your inbox.
The more people who find you online the more leads and sales you’ll make. While in the past many people were hesitant to do business over the internet, today it is as common as swiping an ATM card at a physical location.
Target the Global Market
With your business offline, you are limited to the number of individuals who can visit you at any given time, let alone find you. With a good website, you can literally have thousands, even tens of thousands of people visiting your online store at once. Imagine the potential for your business, if you could expose your products and services to a potentially unlimited number of interested people.
Being able to have thousands of visitors and actually having them are two different things.
The success of an online business depends on the same thing as any off-line business: marketing. Writing a blog post is a great way to increase traffic to your site / online store, and also social media can be a powerful and inexpensive way to drive qualified prospects to your site.
Increase Company Responsiveness
The internet allows you to deliver your proposal, purchase order, order confirmation quickly in many cases instantly to your clients. With a competent online store application, you can automatically track inventory, sales numbers, outstanding orders, everything. Faster response time means happier clients and less administrative work for you.
Conclusion
These are some of the most powerful reasons you should take your offline business online. With all the benefits of having an online business many people are launching online businesses for the time, location, and financial freedom it offers.
Whether you are a service provider who has to be in a certain location or have the ability to turn your business into an online website; the internet is a powerful tool to reach more prospects and turn them into qualified leads and customers; with many of the processes being completely automated.