Websites really do increase business effectiveness
I've been telling businesses for years that getting a website is a no-brainer, believe it or not its hard to convince some people of this. Return on investment for a quality website is (in my mind) easy to quanitfy but for a lot of businesses taking the step and investing in a so called intangible technology is often a hard barrier to overcome. There is a trend though that small business owners, it seems, are starting to realise the benefits of a well designed, quality website.
According to the Sensis e-business report released in August, 71% of SMEs believed that their website has improved business effectiveness. The promising aspect of this is that this figure is up from 65% on last years report. This trend indicates to me that
- The quality of websites are improving
- SMEs are using the technology in a wiser manner and
- There is now more understanding of how a website can help a business.
According to SMEs interviewed their website increased business by:
- Informing people about the business (18 per cent);
- Increased awareness (11 per cent);
- Exposure to a broader market (10 per cent);
- Easier for people to access (10 per cent);
- More enquiries (nine per cent);
- Extra sales (eight per cent).
Interesting to note also that ...
- More than fifty per cent (54 per cent) of SMEs now have a website
- 13 per cent of SMEs are expecting to start a website over the next 12 months.
- Less than one-third of businesses have no intention of having a website.
- Eight in 10 businesses in the accommodation, café and restaurant sector now have a website,
- Just two in 10 businesses have an online presence in the building and construction sector
I love stats!