As the new tax year rolls around, you may be starting to worry about new legislation having an impact on your bottom line.
As such, it may be tricky to envision that investing more money at this point will pay off in the long-run, let alone the short-term.
But the good news is that having a business website may cost less than you’d initially thought, and could be an invaluable way to attract new customers.
Is An Online Presence Necessary?
As small business owners, we know that we should be making the move online but maybe we’re not entirely sure why or how it will actually benefit our business.
If you take off your business hat for a moment, and instead consider yourself as the consumer, it makes it much easier to consider the value of creating an online presence.
Even if you choose to visit stores in-person, rather than shopping online, it’s likely that you’ll use Google to search for local services and shops, and you may even ask social media communities for recommendations before visiting. The same goes for the hospitality and service sector such as restaurants, pubs, and salons.
The fact is, we all like to look at reviews and get a feel for a place before visiting, and you wouldn’t be alone in doing so.
Recent data tells us that nearly all people aged between 16-24 (98%) have a smartphone, and 86% of people use their phone to go online (USwitch, 2024).
Is A Social Media Strategy Enough?
Social Media is, no doubt, a powerful tool for promoting your business and to get the word out to your customers about offers and events that you are running.
However, the issue with relying solely on social media is that it’s designed to be an echo chamber in that it shows people more of what they engage with based on the assumption they want to see more of it. For example, if you watch to the end of a Facebook video (reel), it’s likely that the next video on your feed will be from the same page or offer similar content. This is because Facebook’s algorithm is based around you spending more time on the app so that it can sell more advertising space to people who are engaging with a particular style of content.
This is good from a marketing perspective, because it means you can precisely target people who are interested in your product or service. However, aside from viral content, the likelihood of a small business making waves without a budget for advertising on those platforms is slim.
There are some ways around it, such as tagging your followers onto each post you create so that you send them a notification. However, you’re not always promoting at the point they want to purchase and so risk bombarding them with products or services they’re not yet ready to buy – meaning you’re at risk of them unfollowing or losing their trust.
Is A Website Necessary for My Business?
Although you may not be a business that requires e-commerce (online sales) – a website is a crucial component to any marketing strategy, whatever your business type.
Hospitality Websites
The hospitality sector is frequently featured in the news as one facing the most hardship – taxes of varying levels, less disposable income for people to spend, and less footfall in our towns and cities.
That said, there are a huge amount of thriving businesses in the sector that are doing well because of a loyal customer base and friendly landlord or manager.
For regulars, you want to make sure that you are providing them with menus they can peruse beforehand, and for out-of-towners, you want to be ranking well in search engines for terms specific to your business. This ensures they can find you and visit you when they are in the area.
Tradespeople Websites
Reputation is key with any trade, and word-of-mouth probably accounts for a good proportion of your interest and sales. Although your website can bring in new customers, the most powerful feature is solidifying your trustworthiness to those who are ready to convert.
Online directories may bring you custom, but each lead can also be expensive, and so it’s important to grow your own online presence and target people at the point they require your service.
Services Sector Websites
Again, you may not need your website to convert to sales – but you need to be clear on what your services are and why people should choose you.
A sleek website can ensure that you look reputable, and can provide visitors with the answers to the questions they need.
A service list or price list would be a good place to start, and hairdressers or salons may consider integrating a booking portal into their website for a seamless customer journey.
Events Websites
If you are a venue or host regular events – there’s no point flyering and selling tickets in-person if it’s difficult for someone to find the information they need at a later date.
Make sure you include your upcoming events in a way that’s easy to navigate to encourage people to book tickets and visit your venue.
Artists & Sole Trader Websites
Very small businesses may just wish to create a portfolio website in order to showcase their work. You can make this more sophisticated by integrating shopping capabilities into your website, but this doesn’t need to be done immediately.
It’s always useful to consider your long-term goals and small steps to how to make them happen.
Other Business Types
The truth is, that no matter your sector or business type – if there are people looking for your business, it’s crucial to have a web presence.
When made well, websites are a great way of creating trust and generating leads or sales. The sooner your website is created, the better chance you have of ranking for key search terms and converting those who are uhm-ing and ah-ing about using you.
How Much Does A Website Cost in the UK?
The giants in the website making game may charge very little – we’re talking between £10 and £25 a month for making your own website using drag and drop builders such as Wix and Shopify.
These are undoubtedly a great place to start for getting an online presence – but they are incredibly time-consuming and you’ll be lucky to rank in search engines as the ability to optimise your website is minimal. Furthermore, once you’ve signed up to one of these platforms, it’s very difficult to transfer it over to another content management system at a later date.
On the other end of the spectrum, you’re looking at agencies who can build you a fully-flexible, bespoke and optimised website for upwards of £5000+VAT.
In the middle, is MIMI Marketing. We have the technical know-how to create websites for small businesses, ensure your website is able to be optimised, can research keywords for your industry that have a decent search volume, and can ensure your website looks great across all devices at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke design.
We use reputable suppliers to host your website (rent a space for your site to live on the internet), give it a unique domain name (your website URL e.g. mimimarketing.co.uk), and use software and templates that lessen the build time without compromising on how your site looks or ranks in search engines.
We then pull all these pieces together for you and carry out keyword research to find what people are searching for that is relevant to your business.
Your website will be populated with homepage content, a services page, a contact page and an initial blog post for £500 (as of March 2025) plus £10/month to cover hosting fees. We will then show you how to use your website so that you can populate it further yourself using the initial keywords that we share with you, or you can opt for further on-site marketing services at a cost of £30 an hour (a blog post of a similar length and detail to this one will typically take 2 hours).
Getting Your Small Business Online
Not only do you need a website, you need one that’s responsive – meaning that it can be easily viewed across different device types and sizes e.g. mobile, tablet & laptop.
Having a website isn’t enough, you need to make sure that it looks good, provides good User Experience (UX), and provides potential customers with the information they’re looking for.
For help with creating a website, or other affordable marketing for small businesses, get in touch with us today by calling 01524 243 173.
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