BENEFITS OF ONLINE BUSINESS AND JOB CENTERS

Many small businesses may be shooting themselves in the foot by not understanding the relevance, and indeed, importance of holding an online presence in the modern-day business world.

In terms of how this could affect you; you can now improve your visibility giving fresh, and relevant, eyes to your business. When it comes to things like renting out a property people’s first port of call is now to check online. Not only can they see about the property from where they are already sat but they can also look at statistics of the area and amenities. This also gives opportunity to check out your business.

Although not seen as a traditional avenue of marketing, small businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of having some kind of online presence. This goes for having Facebook pages, twitter accounts, Google+, YouTube, blogs as well as a website too. These things take commitment to maintain; and in some cases businesses do not understand how important this investment could be. By having a dedicated person, or even team, that can be constantly working on your website you can keep providing excellent content that is not repetitive to your audience and build a direct relationship and interaction with both your customers and readers.

As you can see; there is a lot of work to deal with. Each account requires a different approach, which is a job in itself. Many companies are employing in-house to deal with their online marketing as they understand the importance of this.

When you look at the stats Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn are the top three most used media networks by small businesses. LinkedIn is excellent in terms of relationship building and expanding your network, essential for all small businesses that have some kind of focus on their development. Facebook and twitter give you an almost instantaneous communication channel with your clients and customers. Having this much connectivity means that you should always look at someone to deal with this, as it’s a vital party of your marketing strategy.

As you can see from the below info-graphic, 9 out of 10 people call or visit a business when found after a local search, with statistics like that it starts to hold more gravity. Nowadays, with the internet available pretty much everywhere we can find out information in literally seconds. As with any business strategy, if you’re not willing to move with the correlation then you’re going to get left behind. Your loyal customers may not be quite as willing to part with their cash when they feel like you’re playing catch-up and your competitors are miles ahead.

We are already beginning to see that in the UK economy, brands that didn’t keep up with the online internet boom of recent years are now in a very dangerous position. Many of which, are now regretting this decision; as they were not quick enough to embrace change.

Perhaps many businesses cannot see how they will see a return on investment? However, other more savvy business owners are now in a position to leverage themselves online now as they had already future-proofed their business.
How many businesses do you think can survive in the current economic climate without a web presence?

If you still aren't sure about going online, you need to make up your mind fast! An online presence for business is a powerful marketing and communication tool, an incredible source of cost-efficiency, an environmentally friendly way to work, a sign of professionalism and pretty much a requirement today. Your customers are expecting to see your website address on your business cards and promotional materials. They are asking you: "Do you have a website? Can I read more about your products or services there?"

Here are just a few advantages of going online:

• Powerful, fast and efficient marketing and communication tool and medium
  
• Minimal startup time & investment. Search engine optimized websites pay themselves off very quickly as long as they provide customers with valuable products or services
  
• The most environmentally friendly way to run a business. Telecommuting reduces the number of cars and car miles. You can test your sales strategies and offerings without wasting precious paper. Put your invoices, newsletters and catalogs online and save numerous trees
  
• Very inexpensive way to reach new markets and interact with them
  
• Office & transportation cost savings
  

• Unlimited possibilities for automation of your business. You can automate your order and payment processes, inventory management, your customer support tasks and more
  
• Freedom to live and work where you like. You can be traveling while running your online business and run multiple businesses simultaneously!
  
• Global presence 24/7
  
• A sign of professionalism