If you own a brick and mortar business and have yet to add a company website to your list of assets, then chances are you feel like you’re doing fine without an online presence. If that’s the case, you’re lucky, because online transactions, or “E-commerce,” now account for 97% of all consumer transactions. The fact is that people are getting their needs met faster and more efficiently by shopping with companies they can visit online, companies who will deliver products and services to their homes- and who offer useful content to supplement their inventory. That means, if you own a business with a physical location with no web presence and you’re still making ends meet- you must really have something special!

Just imagine how much better you could be doing if you started drawing in customers with a website of your own.

Eight Reasons You Need a Company Website for Your Business

We understand that you might be skeptical. After all, having a quality website takes work and it’s not free. It takes time and investment. That’s why it’s so important to understand exactly why and how you’re losing tons of business by not being online.

Potential Customers are Searching for Your Business Right Now

As we have already established, the vast majority of your would-be customers are out there shopping at other businesses like yours that are online. How do we know this? We know it because you are making ends meet already. That means there is so much demand for your product or service that the 3% of local people who don’t do all of their shopping online have clamored over walls and fences to find you. 

Imagine what improving your sales margin by 97% would look like to the right of the dollar sign. 

You Stand to Gain Credibility With A Company Website

There are people walking around right now with credit cards who were born in the year 2000. These consumers have never known a time without the Internet. In their minds, if you don’t have a website- you don’t exist. Regardless of age, the average person’s first move when they think of a product or service they want to engage with it to Google it. If they don’t see you in those results, it doesn’t matter if you’re right next door- they will never know about you.

What’s more, strictly physical businesses without a company website are like the modern strip malls of the economy. They have the appearance of being antiquated- and that is not a good look for you.

You Can Save Huge Amounts of Resources

Many online retailers do not even store their own inventory. They use services like Alibaba or Amazon fulfillment services. That means you might not even need a storefront. More than likely, you don’t want to lose your current customer base. But you could build an entirely new set of target audiences all around the world.

Think of how much further your advertising dollars will go when you’re reaching an international audience and shipping online. 

An E-commerce Company Website Can Do Business 24/7

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and wish you could be making money right at that very moment? With an E-commerce website, you can. In fact, middle of the night, impulse shoppers are an important online buying demographic. You don’t want to miss out on their inquiries. If you’re only open during standard business hours at the moment, you could multiply your effective “open” hours by 3.

Earnings Per Employee Double

Research has shown, successful businesses that develop an effective online presence are served by their employees twice as well as those who don’t. This means putting your crew to work doing online outreach and serving customers online, instead of standing around waiting for people to walk in the door- and pretending to dust the counters the rest of the time. The simple reason for this is that being available to an Internet-based audience removes all of the physical bottlenecks that limit conventional businesses. 

More importantly, this means you’ll probably be able to hire more people and become an even more valuable asset to your community. That’s what it’s all about!

Establish Brand Authority Through Content

People aren’t just looking for products and services online. They are also looking for information- especially on the products and services they are considering buying. They want to know how to get the most value out of their purchase, or how to use it in a particular way that only the experts could verify for them. 

There is no greater authority on what you do than you. That’s why you need to be delivering blog articles, descriptive videos- anything that helps your customers get more out of what your brand does best. Even if you have the highest quality product, if you don’t have informative content about it, they will give their attention to someone who does.

By developing brand content, not only do you attract those who want to learn more about your business, but you can even build a community that shares information for you. That means, not only will they return to your site to make purchases, but also to consume content, and to exchange ideas with other people who are interested in the same things. Some online marketing experts believe that the future of social media is site-based communities- and you don’t want to miss out on that!

Think David VS Goliath

It used to be that the big brands could stand head and shoulders over everyone else simply by having ads on network television. Those days are long gone. Today, it’s all about rising above the noise- and being online is the only way to do that.

Information technology has leveled the playing field. Today, a little advertising money goes a long way- while the big players are seen as background noise. In today’s marketing world, it’s the little guy that gets noticed. If they buy Coke or Pepsi, it’s because it was right in front of them. But if they buy from you, it’s because you caught their attention. Frankly, with no web presence- you aren’t even in the race.

Social Media is Losing Steam

Now for the big news. For years, all we would hear in the online marketing world was that you have to get on social media. Well, those days are nearly over. We all saw it coming- and there’s no going back now. People are simply tired of having their serotonin levels constantly manipulated by little red notifications and buzzing devices.

That means getting by on a social media profile without your own company website isn’t going to work much longer. People are going back to their browsers for their online shopping needs. That’s bad news for Facebook, but good news for you. Why? Because advertising services that work with websites are far more transparent than social media sites. It also means your core audience will be far more likely to spend time on your site now that social media is finally losing its novelty.

With that said, social media is still vital to the success of your website. Lead generation from social media might be slowing down, but your social media profiles remain vital in growing your back links and improving your organic search engine ranking.

Get in touch today to learn more about this exciting new trend, and find out how you can get out ahead of the crowd. If you’re still not convinced, check out this interesting read on Forbes.com.