Oh, my. Yes, absolutely.
Unless you simply need a catalogue site, your website absolutely should. And if it’s not, you need to do something about it.
A well-optimised website is extremely valuable to a business.
It’s quite impressive, quite incredible how much value a well-optimized website can bring to your business.
I know of many instances where the website is now 25, 30, 40 percent of the business, where only a few years ago, it was just a contact form.
And now not only is it 30-40 percent of the business, but now it does a lot of the work by itself. It asks questions of people. It collates information.
How can a website impact your business?
As an example:
We built an insurance underwriting platform that brokers use, and that broker’s clients can now use. People can bind the insurance entirely online.
So, that’s the equivalent websites now – the equivalent of a salesperson and an administrator. It’s faster. It’s more efficient.
It’s not going to replace humans. But for some of those companies, that website is the equivalent of you know 5 or 10 staff and at a fraction of the cost.
So, if I was coming in and looking at your business to buy and I saw that you’ve got 10 staff members who produce 100 sales a month and you’ve got a website that produces 50 sales a month, then that website is equal value to half your workforce and at probably a fraction of the cost.
You might be spending a million dollars a year on your staff, but you might be spending 50 or 100 thousand dollars a year on your website.
So, do not underestimate the power of the internet. It is achievable. You’re not up against, you know, insurmountable odds.
There’s plenty of room for lots of companies in similar industries to differentiate themselves.
Important Things to Consider
The important caveats that I would make when people are looking at trying to compete in the digital space are:
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Are you offering a quality product or service?
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Are you committed to the long-haul month in, month out to building your digital presence in the way that you do when you deal with customers face to face?
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Can you differentiate yourself from your competitors in a way by location, by service that you offer, or unique products?
If you can do those things with the help of an agency, you can definitely transform the way your business makes sales, not overnight, but you should start to see strong results within about 6 to 12 months depending on how competitive your industry is. And then from then on, you just keep growing.
Building Digital Advantage
And the beauty of it is, once you’ve got that head start on your competitors, if you’re consistent with it, they can’t really catch you up. So, you can always stay ahead of them.
In fact, if they’re not as good at their digital presence, their digital marketing, as you are, if they’re not as committed or they’re simply not as good at it, or their product’s not as good, then you constantly increase that gap, and that’s an asset for you. Not only is it bringing in sales, but that tool becomes a very powerful asset for you and a very valuable asset for you.
