The Real Business Case for Investing in Your Local Web Presence

By: Jacob, Your Expert

Published: 21 Nov 2021

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Its nearly 2022, and still, many local businesses barely exist on the web. While this may seem acceptable to some, the hard truth is that if these businesses continue to live off-line, it won't be too long before they close up shop.

Your customers are every day more reliant on mobile phone applications and websites, and even talking robots in their homes to find products and businesses that suit their needs.

If you don't ensure that your local web presence is solid, at minimum, you will soon be failing in the most essential of business practices in the modern era.

Why Local Business Owners are Hesitant to Invest in Web

Too many options exist (many of them bad) for business owners to make the best choice.

I have noticed a trend with local businesses. Many that are bold enough to embrace the modern web, with its many technical challenges and saturation, do so in the wrong way.

People make mistakes all the time, but what is different about trying to get your business on the web is that their are more options to do so than just about any other business choice.

Want to buy a product for your store? You might have at most 5 or 6 unique suppliers to choose from. Want to get a website for your business? Thousands of options, many of them just eager to get your money and run. Some are honest, but are absolutely clueless, which feels better but does your business just about as much good.

The big problem is that once you get on the web the wrong way, and realize it, that doesn't make finding the right solution any easier. There are still 999 options. Which one is the right one? We'll return to this question soon enough, but first, let's dig into why we should invest in online presence at all.

Why Invest in My Business's Online Presence at All?

Why Should I invest in my small business website, digital brand, and social media?

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, the future is here. The businesses that live in the past are doomed to stay there forever. Okay, this is anecdotal at best and should I really invest in the web just because everyone else is doing it?

I understand the hesitation for small business owners, I really do. Many I deal with are extremely busy people, just trying to make an honest living and their website is the last thing on their long list of things that need doing.

So what do the numbers say? For real businesses I have worked with, I have seen improvements of up to 50% yearly revenue. Want to see the case study for this business? Check it out here.

Setting Proper Expectations is Key

Building Your Digital Presence take both time and effort.

The thing that most business owners that are just exploring the web for the first time fail to grasp is that building a digital presence from the ground up and making it work for you as well as it possibly can is something that takes concentrated, sustained effort over a long period of time.

People tend to think that success online happens overnight. It is easy to see why people think this way, even though its unreasonable.

The web represents an instantaneousness that we have only had in our lives for a very short amount of time really. But this doesn't translate to everyday business on the web.

Good Expectations Let Us Invest For the right amount of time.

Time Investment

By setting proper expectations for the results that you can achieve, we can ensure that we invest in building a proper web presence - website, digital marketing, ads, social media- the whole thing, for the appropriate amount of time. Most people give up too early when they don't see instanteous results.

Don't succumb to this mistaken thought process. Instead, adopt the knowledge that great results happen by making small amounts of progress over a long time. This attitude will put you in a position of patience and give you the resilience to invest longer and increase the chance of seeing the desired results.

Cash Investment

This is another problematic area with business owners that are new to business on the web. People are constantly exposed to the idea of the free Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Website builder.

You can read in detail why DIY web builders are often a terrible choice for small business owners. I won't get into the whole business here, but essentially what happens is that people's expectations for what a website should cost becomes outrageously biased towards... well, towards free!

This is far from the truth of the situation, as a well-built website can actually require a decent cash investment from the small business owner. But fear not. If you select the right web development agency, then you will be well-prepared to make that investment back many times over in increased revenues.

For a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in a website, see here.

The Right strategy is essential

This is why having someone on your team who understands the power of the web and very specifically how to leverage it for your business is the most important decision you, as the small business owner, can make when deciding how to invest in web.