Another year is almost at a close and what a year it has been. When we started 2020, nobody thought that the year will go the way it did.

For all of you that missed out, the following happened:

1. Worldwide lockdown for the sake of keeping people safe.
2. Businesses unable to produce and income and had to close down and file for bankruptcy. 
3. People losing their jobs and only way to provide for their family. 
4. A virus that has infected people globally and has taken lives. 
5. Riots and protests have broken out in multiple countries. 
6. Celebrities gave donations to help fight this silent killer and challenged others to do the same.
7. Normal everyday people that opened their hearts and wallets to help people that was affected by this virus. 

During all of this going on, people still try to survive the turmoil. Finally some people saw the light and realised that the only way forward is to go digital. They now have moved all their products and services online to try and decrease the amount of contact with people. Everyone is trying to do their bit to flatten the curve.

What simply amazes me is the fact that there is a lot of businesses that still does not even have a website. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? Consumers will be changing the way they do business in the future. With a new, more aggressive mutated version of the virus that was discovered early in December, that future is closer than you think. People will be more reluctant to go to malls and business and if they go out, they will try to keep their stay at any shop as short as possible. They won’t be taking their time to browse all the products the way they use to. This means that businesses will have a decrease in sales and revenue.

Some businesses has a website that is so old and outdated that trying to read it on mobile device is either hard, or impossible to do. There is over 4.6 billion active internet users worldwide with over 4.2 billion is unique mobile internet users, and the number keeps on growing. So with an old and outdated website, you may be losing a lot of business.

Why do you need a website?

The days of the Yellow pages, flyers and other forms of traditional marketing is slowly but surely losing the fight against the digital age. In a plumbing emergency, you will not see people running for a flyer of a 24h plumber service that was distributed at a traffic light or start looking through the Yellow pages. Everyone these days are running to their phones and does a quick search for “24h plumber near me” and they get flooded with results immediately. Why do they do it? Because it is convenient.

What elements do you need on a website?

1. Contact Details
   Your contact details and location needs to be easily accessible. When potential customers needs to start looking for ways to contact you and they go through more than 2 clicks, they tend to leave the page and look elsewhere.
   
   
2. What products/services do your business provide?
   Be very descriptive about your products. Having a clear message about your products is key. Your potential customer must know exactly what your company is about. If you leave them confused, you will scare them off unintentionally.
   
   
3. The area your business provide products or services to.
   Make sure you specify the area or country where your business provide services. You may be getting orders from areas that you don’t service. This will either force you to show away a customer and leave them unhappy with your service or you will have to spend more money to provide a service to the customer. So not specifying your service area is going to leave somebody unhappy. 
   
   
4. Testimonials
   To have reviews from customers on your website, provides your business with some credibility. Just remember to treat all customers the same. It can take just a few small clients that you don’t treat the same as your big clients to give you a bad review. People always looks at the bad reviews first. These testimonials can either make or break your business.
   
   
5. Promotions and prices of products or service.
   There is 3 factors that comes into play when people are looking to buy a product or service. 
   • Convenience -  Why will people leave the safety of the homes, to go to a mall or shop, when they can order it online from the comfort of their home?
   • Pricing - People have and will always look for the better price. So running a special, you need to make sure that your promotion is better than your competitors.
   • Emotion - Most people buy something not because they have to, but because they want to. Set up your products description to connect with people, on an emotional level.
   
   Add a section for interested potential customers, to subscribe to a weekly or monthly newsletter. They may not buy from you now, but with the newsletters, they may buy from you in future. 
   
   
6. Blogs.
   To have well written and researched blogs is key. This will separate you from your competitors as an expert in the field. A lot of people hate writing blogs, so if it is a problem, then just outsource it. But having a blog will be extremely beneficial to your business.
   
   
7. Store / Ecommerce with payment portal. 
   Here we list all your products and services for customers to browse and make purchases from the convenience of their internet connected device. Purchases can be made using the payment portal that has been configured on your store. You can have multiple payment portals. Discount vouchers and shipping costs can be added depending on delivery location. 
   
   

Now we have all the elements needed to get people to interact with your website. We use these elements to create a CALL TO ACTION (CTA). The reason for CTA is to get people to enter their information. The information is then stored into a database. This can then be used to send promotions or newly released products and services. The people who submitted their details are now a warm audience. They will be more likely to make purchases from you in future when you present them with promotions.

Conclusion

With everything happening at the moment, there is a few questions that you need to ask yourself

• Do I have a website that can be viewed on a mobile device?
• Does my website send a clear and informative message to my potential clients?
• Am I providing a service to my customers that makes them feel safe? 

If you have a no on any of these questions then ask yourself: “Have I done everything in my power to keep my business’s doors open after another hard lockdown?”

2020 Has been the year of the DIGITAL BOOM. Don’t be left out in the dark and let your competitors get the edge over your business.

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Contact us today to find out how we can help your business enter the digital age.

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