A company without a site is pretty much unimaginable today. Unfortunately, many people feel that just having a site with basic contact info and a few pages about their products and services is enough. They are missing a huge opportunity to create a synergistic effect between their site and their sales and marketing departments. Employed correctly, this coordinated effort can push your company over the top. There are many benefits of having a trustworthy site for your business and below we have listed some of the most important ones.
Reputation
Reputation is one of the key components of a trustworthy site. Building a reputation can be tricky, due to the fact that people find different things reputable. For instance, older generations will consider a company that has been around for a long time reputable, while your younger customers may be indifferent to the fact that you have been in business for 50 years. They will judge your reputation on how many followers you have on social media, for example. Understanding your customers is key for devising a strategy that will help you create a reputable business.
Respect Your Users
There too many business sites out there who will take advantage of their users at every turn, either by spamming them or by selling their data. This is a sure way to get people to unsubscribe and delete your site from their bookmarks. One of the best examples of how you should treat your users is a casino review website AskGamblers. AskGamblers stands for trust, independence, quality, fair play, transparency. Despite having hundreds of thousands of registered users, they have never sold their data. The chief premise of their business is transparency and you can read every review ever sent to them, regardless of how good or bad it is. This has built a strong trust between the site and its users, allowing them to become one of the industry leaders.
Marketing
In the early days, marketing was the sole purpose of many business sites. Today, Internet marketing is the cheapest and most effective way of marketing. According to some studies, the cost of reaching 1,000 people via newspapers is $32. If you choose Facebook, it will cost you just $0.25. The price alone is a huge factor when devising a marketing strategy, but if you rely on social platforms, your site has to be impeccable. It will be the focal point of your campaign. Think of it as your online HQ. Your accounts on social media will only serve to funnel traffic to your site, which will act as a hub. Of course, this will only work if people trust your site. If they not, your campaign will appear spammy and dismissed as just another Internet scam.
Increased Sales
In the modern world, people will only trust reputable sites with their credit card info. So, if you are planning any kind of sales through it, your site better is verified and trustworthy. Not only it is a condition for payment processors, but your customers will think twice about buying anything if they aren’t 100% sure your site can be trusted. Online sales constitute a large chunk of profit margin for many companies, especially the smaller ones that are only starting. Usually, they still don’t have enough clout and reach to be present everywhere psychically, so online sales are often the only way they can generate revenue. A trustworthy site is crucial for that.
Getting Your Customers Involved
A well-run site is a great way to involve your customers with the development of your brand. By interacting with them, you will increase their loyalty and your marketing reach. You don’t have to look further than Apple or Nike to see what an army of devoted fans who are also paying customers can do for the popularity of the brand. Your customers can become your biggest promoters and your staunchest defenders. If you have ever tried to talk to an Apple fan about the shortcomings of the latest iPhone, you have seen how impossible that task is.
Content
By creating quality content, you can make your site a go-to place for industry news. This will benefit your business in several ways. The most important is that people will start perceiving you as the authority in your field, which will have a massive impact on your sales. Of course, this won’t happen overnight, but it is never too early to start. You can begin with simple how-to videos and articles, explaining your product or service and how your users can benefit from them. Detailed user guides in video form are also very helpful and will help you create organic traffic. Later, you can build on that with industry news and developments.
A site on its own won’t do you much good. Rather, it is how you use it in your everyday interaction with your customers that can help you grow your company.