A website is a business tool and should never be seen only as a simple online brochure. The same with any marketing strategy, your website should have clear goals on what you want to achieve with it, and milestones that will stipulate your progress. With your website, you need a real business reason to have one, otherwise, why spend all the money on one?
Your website should always help you reach your business goals. If you know what you want to achieve with your website, then you will understand what type of website you will need to achieve your goals. Find below a couple of ideas on what you can use a website for.
Website goals
Serve your target audience: With your website you can give information to new and current customers about your business. Which hours do you operate in? Where are you from? What are you offering? Look for questions your customers are asking and answer them in the content of your website pages.
Find new customers: Your website can be used to find new customers, generate sales, and new business opportunities. If you are interested in generating leads with your website, you will need a constant flow of new visitors with a clear sales path. Use a SEO strategy, social media marketing or PPC to drive targeted traffic to your website.
Perform sales: You can create an online store that could sell your services and products on the web. It’s not that hard to create an eCommerce store and there are many open source free stores that you can use out of the box for your business. With an e Commerce store, you can operate 24 hours a day.
Educate your audience: Use various types of content to educate your readers. You can use text, videos, images, and blog posts to educate your audience on your services and products. This is a form of education based marketing.
Don’t create a website for the pure sake of just having one. Decide on what you want to achieve with your website. This will help you decide which type of website you will need to achieve your goals.