78% of shoppers will get information online before purchasing products in a physical store. The same is true in BtoB: the Internet has abolished “word of mouth”. For all companies, whether in BtoC or BtoC, whatever its size, investment in websites is no longer a subject of debate today. However, 30% of French small and medium-sized businesses still do not have a professional website! Are you one of those people and you still think you can do it? Let’s first look at the exact meaning and purposes of a website.
What is a website?
“But yes, of course I have a website on Facebook”
You may have heard this phrase before :-). Surprising, isn’t it? Facebook (and social networks in general) and websites are two complementary but different levers: their uses and objectives are different. Facebook is a social network: you can create profiles and pages, in particular to present businesses, communicate about news, stories, products, and communicate with your network (perhaps like (“like”) or comment) your publications. It is presented in the form of a news feed, with the postponement of yesterday’s publication, and so on.
A website is more institutional and durable: composed of organized pages, it allows you to present your activity in a more complete way. In this sense, it gives you the opportunity to construct a message, to think about the user journey, to provide more information… in short, to implement a real strategy. Another important point: the website belongs to you, which is not the case with Facebook :-). Your site is accessible via a personalized address, called URL, and is hosted on a server on your domain name (example: monsite.fr).
A website is a permanent presence, available 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, which allows you to reassure your prospects.
Creating a website: different objectives
Don’t jump headlong into creating your site. A relevant strategy and a thoughtful communication plan will be your best assets for the success of your project. Start by asking yourself what your priority goal is. Would you like to:
- improve your notoriety?
- develop your customer database?
- increase your turnover?
- or… wait until a wiser competitor overtakes you 😀?
