In both direct and indirect ways, a website reduces costs of doing business – regardless of your business or industry.
Direct savings
Many of these direct savings focus on increasing your business’ ability for automation, productivity and profitability AND they reduce costs for expenses like advertising, sales personnel and other support staff.
Advertising – after the initial set up costs a website is a permanent advertising tool for your business with the ongoing costs often being less than the cost of traditional advertising such as a newspaper advert which also has a limited shelf life.
Printing and Distribution – Digital brochures and catalogues and the ability for your readers to download them directly from your website will save you printing, distribution and mailing costs. You can also save by being able to quickly, easily and cheaply update your brochures and catalogues without worrying about boxes of old printed versions being wasted.
Time – We all know that time is money and a website will save your business and your team a lot of time. Pages such as FAQ pages will reduce the amount of time your team spend on the phone, face to face or responding to emails in order to answer common questions from customers and potential customers. Online query forms and/or order forms will allow people to ask questions or simply order your products/services directly.
Recruitment – Your website can be used as a vehicle to recruit new staff as the need arises, again without incurring advertising or other recruitment costs. And you are potentially hiring someone already familiar with and connected to your business.
Information Transfers – A business website can provide you with the ability to transfer information between your staff and clients, your staff or your branches in a secure way and reducing printing, photocopying, paper and postage costs. For security and confidentiality passwords or a secure area can be provided for this purpose.
Indirect Savings
Your business website will reduce or eliminate the need for spending precious cashflow to build your business. Overall a website will:
- Gain credibility and cement your business’ professional, expert and credible image
- Keep your customers informed and up-to-date with new product and service offerings, upcoming events and special promotions
- Be accessible to your customers and potential customers 24/7 without the additional wages and other labour costs
- Target a wider market and even open up markets within a global audience
- Provide a medium to showcase your products and services
- Improve your business’ ability to provide excellent customer service by providing blogs and articles which work as a value added service
- Allow you to sell products and services online 24/7. Your website offers you an additional storefront without renting shop space or paying any of the other associated expenses.
- Provide a source of stability for your business, something your customers can rely on
- Complement your business’ identity but providing the centre of your strong, online brand identity
- Provide a channel for customer feedback
