There are only four good reasons to have a business website

Added by Jacob, 7 months ago.

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There are only four good reasons to have a website. So why do so many businesses choose reason number five?

A recent web-based survey by AllBusiness.com indicated that only 55% of SMEs had a website. That means almost half do not have a website, and while I'm sure the statistic decreases for larger businesses it still surprises me - and I wonder what the result would have been if the survey hadn't been done online! For the majority of business that do have a website, I wonder how many were rushed together, and how much thought actually went into the decision?

Each aspect of your business has a purpose and your website is clearly no exception. But your reason for having a website might be different to the business next door's, even if they're in the same industry as you. Fall for a web designer sales pitch or rush into a website because all the other kids have one, and your website might be doing your business a disservice.

So have you ever asked yourself what your website purpose is? In other words, for your investment every month what do you expect your website to deliver to you?

There are only four good reasons for having a business website:

Sales Leads (both clients and staff)
Positioning
Community Interaction
Business functionality

(There's a fifth reason - EGO - which will probably cost you more in set-up costs than the others, but remember I was listing good reasons.)

1) Sales Leads (eg Pheedo Marketing.)

Seemingly the most obvious, and the reason why most business websites fail to achieve their purpose. If your website exists to drive sales, does it include all the necessary elements: A way to track traffic and relevancy? An easy process to capture prospect information? A clear call to action?

Most common websites are so-called ‘brochureware'; that is to say, the website merely reflects a marketing brochure placed online. Even the most info-laden brochures won't do much to drive sales on its own - are you putting your website out there unsupported, and still calling it a ‘Sales Tool'?

2) Positioning (eg Dawson Constructions)

Many business executives I've talked with think the only legitimate reason for a website is to drive sales. Sometimes, they discuss the vague notion of ‘brand'.

Somewhere in between is the realisation that your business stands for something, and that the focus of the website is indicative of a focus required in the business generally. Rather than use your website to create leads, you can use to further implant your business' market position into those contacts, clients and prospects (both client and staff) you already have. Needless to say, having an idea of what distinguishes your business from your ‘competition' is an essential part of this legitimate marketing choice.

3) Community Interaction (eg YCombinator News)

You don't have to build the next Facebook or MySpace to build a Community. Plenty of businesses have popular brands, which lend themselves to building a community of fans - Lego is a great example.

If you don't have a big brand, the opportunity still exists to create a community on your website. A community doesn't need to be huge to be beneficial for the business. Not only are niche markets (think display stands for retailers in New Zealand) or collaborative Web 2.0 projects more plentiful and often easier to target, they lend themselves to the kind of internet communities that link people with common interests in a way that the random geography of birth cannot. This can also provide a great way to research your market, and respond to feedback direct from clients (and clients of your competition).

4) Business functionality (eg Best Practice)

In what can easily be (ego aside) the most advanced use of internet technology, many businesses use their website to actually help them do business with their clients. And you don't even need to be a tech-based business - in the example I've used here, Personal Training clients complete fitness questionnaires, record their exercise and diet regime, and monitor their improvement (or otherwise) across some core indicators over the time they've been clients.

It's not cheap to establish a website with this level of technology, particularly when tight security is required. However (and if this option is a possibility for your business, you've probably thought of this already) there can be significant savings to operational costs by leveraging technology.

The important question here, however, is not whether it benefits your business but whether it contributes to the service you deliver to your clients? A good test is asking yourself whether your clients would pay for the added functionality? If they won't, your efforts and expenses may go to waste, even if you offer it for free, and I would suggest that this option isn't for you.

So why does Shirlaws have a website? Actually, we have two websites, both this one and ShirlawsCoaching.com. And we have a different purpose for each - if you read through ShirlawsCoaching.com, you will see it's designed as brochureware to position our coaching business globally to potential clients and referral sources.

Shirlaws Online, on the other hand, has a much larger purpose to be revealed over time. There's more detailed content, and an opportunity for you to influence that content by interacting with coaches (like me) through the comments and contact on this very page.

Your business may not need two websites, but it certainly needs one. And for that website to achieve what you need it to achieve, you need to be clear on why you have it in the first place. If you don't know, or have never thought about it this way before, schedule some time now to do that. You will be grateful later.

Comments

There are currently 5 comments about this blog.

Jacob Aldridge, 7 months ago

The face-to-face point is very important - websites, even for Sales purposes, are an additional (and hopefully complementary) resource. For maximum impact, integrate your website into your overall ('traditional') marketing practices and business strategy.

wwwalker, 7 months ago

For the 1000s of hits I get on my technical Website, I mainly get sales from face to face contact.

wwwalker, 7 months ago

Face to face is also good. The Website just creates hits that let people know you are out there. Often people far from you, say in America, will know you better than colleagues in the same city.

Satsumas, 7 months ago

These are very wise words from Shirlaws. As a web solutions company we summarize these points into 1. people wanting to find out more about you and 2. people wanting to contact you. The context however is the same and Shirlaws have it completely right. As a genuine tip to any website initiative - make sure your actual contact details (phone, email post) are easy to find, in fact always available on your site. Many people use your website as a means to find your phone number to talk to you. There is nothing worse than going to a company website with the hope of finding a phone number and you cannot find it! (like Telstra) The new technology (website) is often an way to use an old technology (phone).

Caspar, 7 months ago

Jacob - a good summary of some of the reasons for having a website (and often more than one website.) At Trovus, as part of our strategy consulting around the web, we always try to encourage clients to look at a website from the point of view of the user ie why will anybody visit this website, and far more importantly why will they return to the website. The challenge is to identify the different relationship groups around the website and try to understand why any of these groups of people would use your website – it may be it is a sales site for directly supporting the sale of more product, a brochure site for providing validity that you are credible as a business, or for engaging with clients (client application based sites), suppliers or distribution partners (extranet type sites) or for engaging with staff (in terms of Intranet sites). I have seen many web sites trying to be all things to all people – the issue with these ends up as a positioning one and leads to the question– “whats the point of this site” – the harder you make people work to get information, the faster they disappear off to a new website. The question always comes down to the end user for me – how are making life easier for that person – what is it that your target person is looking to do and how can you support their process and help them achieve their goals. Focus exclusively on the user group and provided you make life easier for that group of people through content, tools and access to people, and support that process over time and you will begin to engage with those people. The number of reasons for having a different site and different positioning will only be bounded by the number of different relationship groups around your business who you can meaningfully engage with.