Branding is an intangible asset that plays a pivotal role in reflecting your company’s image, character, and products. It helps customers in identifying your business and products amongst the competitors.
But the question is: How to Create a Strong Brand Image?
And the answer is: By Creating a website.
Research indicates that only 64% of small businesses have a website.
81% of the customers research online before making any purchases.
This makes website creation a critical factor for enhancing business branding.
For small businesses, a website is like a marketing tool for enhancing brand popularity and gaining customers. For customers, a website is like a pool of information for researching and purchasing their desired products.
Many other factors make website creation a vital process, and that’s precisely what this article is all about.
Importance of Website for Business Branding:
Let’s check out some reasons why websites play a crucial role in business branding.
1. Websites enhance Digital Marketing:
Since the world is already going digital, the best way to publicize your brand is through digital marketing, and the same is possible only if you have a website.
This best digital marketing channel (website) can help you in getting more network traffic and sales. Your wish for online brand promotion for connecting with your customers or brand advertisement on multiple social media accounts to gain customers is possible only if you have a website.
You need to provide your customers a destination for making a purchase, and a website is the sole solution for the same.
Email marketing and PPC ads are other digital marketing strategies that are possible only with the presence of a website.
2. Websites Enhance Local SEO
I heard someone saying, “I sell burgers. Hence there’s no need for a website?” and I told them, Google needs to know that you sell burgers.
Research indicates that:
- 50% of “near me” searches result in an offline visit.
- 86% of the customers use Google Maps for local searches.
Users use search engines to know the nearby destinations of their desired products or services. With a website of your own, users can have updates on your products and services, thus increasing sales and revenues.
A good website with appropriate keywords helps in enhancing local SEO too. Ample users resort to Google to check out their best restaurants or nearby parks, which makes an online presence in the form of a website a must for your business.
3. Websites Enhance Sales:
January 2021 records 4.66 billion (59.5% of the global population) active internet users.
When you own a website, you have a chance to reach out to more than 50% of the world’s population for displaying your brand and products.
Users spend hours on the internet searching for you, and the lack of this online presence may affect your business. A website is the most significant marketing platform for your brand because it helps reach out to potential clients and helps increase sales and generate revenues.
Benefits of Increase in Sales:
- Increase in Profits
- Increase in Word-of-Mouth Publicity
- Increases Trust, Referrals & Loyal Customers
4. Websites are Pivotal for Credibility & Trust:
Credibility and trust are not easy to gain, and in many businesses, it takes more than a decade to make your brand credible and gain customer trust.
Weebly’s survey indicates that 56% of the customers don’t trust a business without a website.
These factors cannot be bought but need to be gained. As far as credibility is concerned, the same can be attained by having a website since it weighs more than the loss of operational base of business.
When it comes to trust, customers check out the security infrastructure of the website.
- Does the website start with HTTPS (hyper-text transfer protocol secure) in the address bar and have a padlock in the URL?
- Does the website have trust seals visible on the web pages?
- Will our sensitive details be encrypted for security?
To get positive answers to all the above questions, installing SSL certificate security on the website is a must. This will ensure the confidentiality of the in-transit communication by encrypting it.
There are types of SSL Certificates available in the market. For Single domain security, you can choose a cheap price Thawte SSL123 Certificate. In contrast, if you need subdomain security, opt for Wildcard certificates. Wildcard SSL certificate secures your root domain and multiple first-level sub-domains present on varied servers.
5. Websites Simplify the Content Marketing Process:
In this digital era, content marketing is also one of the methods for making customers trust your brand. Though social media channels persist in advertising your brand via content, having a website to share your content and products would be more effective.
Content marketing via website helps in:
- Attracting Customers
- Engaging Customers
- Retaining Customers
- Sharing Articles & Podcasts
- Sharing Product Videos
- Sharing Customer Feedbacks
6. A Website helps Connect with Customers:
Never halt your business at the sales junction. Go a bit ahead and offer after-sales services to your customers. Research indicates that businesses that don’t offer after-sales services miss out on customers and competitors.
Having a website helps engage customers and connect with them, be it for after-sales services, gaining product information, displaying product visuals, taking customer feedback, or fulfilling customer expectations.
This connection ultimately helps in creating loyal customers, increasing referrals, conversions, sales, and ROI.
7. Websites help in Sharing Vision and Goals of Business:
Website is the sole platform to share your company’s vision and goals, apart from the company history.
By sharing your long-term goals and your company’s plan, you are already making it clear that you are here to stay for a long time. This helps in enhancing customer trust and confidence, thus increasing the conversion bar.
You can also pen down your company achievements, product benefits, and details on new launches on your website to gain more incoming traffic and garner more customers.
Few More Factors Include:
- Best Advertising Platform
- 24/7 Online Presence
- Source of Product Information
- Helps in Visibility
- Helps in keeping track of Competitors
- Attracts Good Talent
Wrapping Up
The importance of a website can’t be denied. As stated above, your business brand needs a website for marketing and connecting with customers.
A social media platform can be sufficient in portraying your brand, but it’s not wise to display everything on it. You can advertise your brand on social media and connect with customers but create a website to mark your presence around the globe.
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