While large multinational companies may not concern themselves a lot with the relatively small cost of a website; SME’s and sole traders usually need to be more sure of a return.

A marketing executive at Pepsi apparently remarked once that half of the money spent on advertising at Pepsi was wasted … “the only problem was they could never work out which half !”

And that is exactly the problem. Unless you run an online shop or own a B&B that takes online reservations, you really can only estimate the value of a website to your business.

First a quick overview of the costs ….. don’t worry, the benefits follow !

Recommendation: Read this article on website cost.

To be realistic, you should try to think of the cost of a site as spread out over the years of it’s activity – so as to arrive at a cost per year; but remember to add in domain, hosting, redesign and update costs into the mix too.

When you have a cost per year estimate for the site then look at these nine ideas of what a website might be able to offer a small to medium sized company and you should have a better idea whether it’s worth it to you or not. Even a very basic site would be able to offer the vast majority of these, and while every section may not apply to each and every business; if even two or three sections ring a bell then it may be worth investing.

• Brochure: This can be very helpful for manufacturing companies, brick and mortar shops and tourist/activity businesses. Your can give your URL to anyone over the phone or in a letter or email etc. You don’t have to post out a brochure. Potential customers with broadband can be looking at what you are talking about while you have them on the phone. This could be an item of clothing, a flat for rent, a piece of manufacturing plant etc. etc
• Profile/Credibility: A Website increases your profile. This is more true of some businesses than others. Most hotels for instance have a website, thus the ones without can be somewhat in the shadows, especially if the clientele is in the under 40 bracket. There are other areas however where there is not the same expectation from the potential customers. Many brick and mortar shop owners for instance may believe this. However in much the same way that a nice sign can raise your profile, a website can have an effect also, provided you a) Have a pleasant and useable website and b) publicise the URL { in advertising, sinage, business cards, stationary etc. }
• Advertising: Most companies spend money on advertising, and whether this is on newspaper, magazine, radio or TV, space is always a premium. A URL is very small, so you can include it in all your marketing: Advertising, Vehicles, Signage, Business cards, etc. It is easy for anyone interested who sees it to visit your site, which puts them one step closer to making a purchase. You should pay particular attention to magazine articles and radio plugs, if you have been lucky enough to get some media attention then having a memorable URL available means that all your contact data and whatever else is on your site is effectively attached to the article or radio/T.V. piece. People tend to buy things that are more visible, and if your article is displayed next to another similar product, then the article with the URL at the end is the one that many people will end up remembering.
• 365-24-7 Assuming that you’ve got a good hosting company then your site should be always online, unlike your business which probably has hours of opening. This means that customers may look at your site and find something they like at literally any hour of the day or night, any day of the year. Also, provided that you have a contact form on your site, they can contact you as well.
• F.A.Q. This can save a lot of time. Having a frequently asked questions section, or an information page etc. on your site means that anyone who looks at your site can find answers to simple questions without phoning. This is particularly true of businesses that provide a service – home service companies like furniture installation or alarm companies for example may have a large FAQ section.
• Map/Contact Details. Related to the last section. Most good websites of bricks and mortar businesses have a map of the area. For obvious reasons this can be helpful, and recently GPS co-ordinates have become popular with rural based business because of the rise in popularity of satnav. Your website is also, for many people, the first place to look for your postal address and/or phone number.
• Internet propagation. Almost every subject under the sun has a ‘fan base’ of some kind on the Internet. Many of these people hang out in forums. If you don’t know what a forum is then you should type in your business area followed by “forum” into Google {for example gardening forum} and join one or two of them. Lets say there is a forum on gardening, and you sell a product to aerate lawns. People may want to tell other people on the forum about your product so if you have a website up then they can just share the URL. Depending on the forum rules you may even be able to do this yourself, but most forums have strict rules about advertising to protect against abuse, so read their charter first to find out. Blogs are another example of this – many blog owners are on the look out for something to write about – if you look for long enough {technorati is a good spot to start} then you should be able to find some blogs that would be interested in either mentioning or featuring you business or product, expecially if it is in any way unique or worth mentioning. Obviously a nice resturant or pub may warrant a review; but even very unlikely businesses can often attract attention on blogs or forums.
• After sales Service. If for instance you sell a physical product then you can provide after sales service for free on your site Simply upload things like product manuals, spec sheets, safety information, service information, etc etc etc onto your site and it might save you some lengthy telephone conversations. You can have diagrams, a knowledge base, etc etc. You could even run your own Forum or Wiki – most software companies currently do this but it could also work for any product, especially technical type products.
• Community Building. This could work for many businesses, but especially businesses that have people come to them, for instance activity centres, pubs, restaurants, bowling alleys etc. If people have something on the site that relates to them, for instance a photo of their group out bowling, or the results from the snooker tournament in the local pub etc. then there’s more of a chance they’ll visit the site, and that builds community. Now if people are on your site then they are effectively looking at an advertisement for your company, and that has got to be valuable.

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