Most companies understand the value of a website. These days anywhere from 50 to 80% of your potential customers will look for companies just like yours online, and if you’re not the first companies they find, they’re not going to choose your business. If you don’t have a website, you’re missing out on a lot of revenue.
But perhaps the greatest benefit for modern day businesses isn’t just that you show up well in search engines. It’s that your website does something that you can’t – stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Modern Business Hours
I’m often shocked by the business hours some companies choose to hold. Antique stores, for example, are only open until 5pm, and in some cases only on weekdays. In this economy, most people with money are at work until 6. At what point are they supposed to visit your store? We see this with clothing stores, gift shops, pest control companies, jewelry stores – all of these keep to normal business hours, and yet they’re companies whose clients are unavailable during normal business hours.
This is not to tell you to change your store hours – although really, the idea of “business hours” today is laughable. But it does show you a common problem with most businesses. Namely, your clients aren’t even looking for you until you’re done with work.
Websites and Availability
Your website, however, never sleeps. It never takes weekends off. It never takes holiday vacations. Your website is always available, ready to handle any customer that may come in. A website that is able to attract clients 24 hours a day is a website that’s driving more customers to your company when you are at work. By making sure forms and contact information are available, you can ensure that you’re always attracting more and more customers. And if you find that you’re getting a lot of business between certain business hours, you can change how you operate to see if you can build more revenue.
Websites that are well marketed are giving you something that you can’t do when you keep regular business hours: making sure you’re always available. That’s another forgotten benefit of this type of marketing.
