If you are a small business owner you may have been told your business needs a web site. If you already have a web site a bit on the retro side of things you may have been told that your site needs an extreme web makeover. You may also have read an article or two listing 10 reasons why your business needs a web site or your business will die.

Most of those lists (except the do or die scare tactic sales pitches) are usually all well and good with helpful items to include on your site like your business hours, directions, products, contact info and so on……but I want to point out the reasons behind these reasons. There may be a signal you did not see. There may be a situation you did not think of, and there may be a personality trait that fits you or your customer and has gone unnoticed. Do any of these these reasons hit home and describe you and your business?

• You have a competitive drive: If you have a competitive personality and are driven to succeed in your business, getting your business on the internet playing field can provide you with a whole new ball game to conquer.
• To learn about your customers: Information is power and collecting data about your web visitors can bring you loads of it. Learn the keywords that brought customers to your site, collect a database of products they search for while on your site, find out where your visitors are from geographically wise. This is just the tip of the iceberg, a free and basic web stats package can help you collect this kind of data plus returns on your marketing investments.
• To provide a convenience: One of the first places a customer will look for information on your business is your web site. You will provide a big convenience if you can give them what they are looking for on a web site.
• To develop trust: Customers need a certain level of trust in order to make an online or even offline transaction with a business. Providing a consistent and active web site with the basics and introducing the people behind the business will go a long way in developing that trust.
• Reputation management: Every once in a while somebody might say something negative about your business, your products or your field of business. Having a web site to present your perspective is a way to nip those situations in the bud to comfort and ease the minds of your customers.
• React quickly to events: This is related a bit to reputation management above in that the ability to react and get your message out quickly can be to your advantage. In this case there may be a positive story or event that takes place, if you can offer up some early information on the subject or show yourself to be an expert on it you may be noticed by the media and gain additional exposure.
• Engage your customers: Provide and engage your visitors with interesting, fun, and informative content so they come back to your site again and again.
• Connect with people: If you are active with your site you will start to connect with people, making new business partnerships and true friends. Opportunities are waiting for those that are in pursuit.
• People are interested: There are people in the world and maybe right across the street that are interested in learning more about you and your business. They maybe don’t want to buy one of your widgets today but some people are simply sometimes curious about your business. This may be because they happened to hear your business name mentioned some where, one of your drivers courteously let them merge into a lane of traffic, or maybe they saw your business name on a shirt at the Minnesota state fair. It’s strange how fortunate luck just happens some times.
• People don’t like to be pressured: You may not be the high pressure sales person we all have experienced at one time or another, but some people like to browse and gather information without being bothered at all.

I’m not here to tell you what your business needs, that is for you to decide. I just hope these items help you decide if a new web site is right for you and your business. Do you have any other reasons behind the reasons to share?