Talking to as many business owners as I have been doing over the past couple of months, you get to see just how little is understood about the importance of having a website for your business.

Your Website Is Your Brand

As a ‘marketing expense’ money would rather be spent on getting brochures, leaflets and other things which we are more familiar with here. I mean, who hasn’t had a brochure or two stuck on the windscreen of your car recently?

But a Website is not just a typical marketing expense, it can’t be put together in the same league as a brochure or a leaflet. A website is part of your brand.

Your logo, your mission statement/ aim (probably placed somewhere on your ‘about us’ page), your contact details, your team members are ALL on your company’s website.

When people search for a business, they typically look for their company website on Google, Yahoo or MSN and see what the business is all about.

You may be actually quite a good business, but if your website gives a bad first impression, that can be all it takes for a prospect to never walk into your door.

Control What People Think About You

With a website, you can typically (but not always) control what people see/ read about you.

It’s a known statistic that when searching for information, browsers rarely go any further than 3 links down the first page of the search results.

Without a website, who would be these first 3 links for your business? They could be completely unrelated, or worse, they could be a website saying negative things about your business.

Let’s take this website as an example. When you search ‘OnlineBusinessMalaysia.com’ on Google.com, almost every single link on the first page belongs to either this site or a 3rd party site with content I have put there linking back to this site.

So essentially I have controlled what people think about this site and how they perceive my brand. Can you say the same about your website?

It Only Takes One Lead To Make Money

For my Web Design business, it only takes a single lead to make a sale, as web design is a relatively high ticket item. For some of you who sell products or services with higher profit margins, this may be the case.

One lead, one prospect coming to your site may cause you to break even that month, or make a record profit?

And the beauty of the Internet is that there are things you can do to drive more and more traffic to your site, hence increasing the number of leads you have and possibly boosting your business.

Facebook, Twitter, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are just a few of the methods that people use to get more ‘eyeballs’ on their websites, products or services.

A Website Works 24/7 All Over The World

Unlike magazines, brochures, leaflets or many other typical points of contact with your audience, your website can work for your 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

No matter what time of the night people may be searching for your business or service, they can get access to that information.

If your clients are overseas and need to get some information from your website they can do that, regardless of time zone. Better still, if you’ve always wanted to do business overseas but never knew how, a website can open up that channel.

Building a website, even here in Malaysia, means that it’s online, all over the World, for all to see.

I remember asking one of my friends what happened when he had a website made for his family business, he said:

“I’m surprised where some of the leads are coming from, not just in Malaysia but sometimes overseas as well”

If you’re considering getting a website made, you’re opening doors you may never knew could be opened.

If you’re still not sure if a website is for you, I hope the above information goes someway in convincing you otherwise.

Now what are you waiting for? Get a website created today!

Your Internet advocate,

-William Lee