If you own a business and you’ve never heard of WordPress, then strap yourself in and prepare for a lesson. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system which gives you the ability to build your own interactive website for your business.
Building a website can be crucial in marketing your business. Not only can it gather your customer base in one place, but it can also help boost your online presence tremendously. Here are 6 reasons why WordPress is a useful tool for your business.
Cost-Effective
It may be hard to believe but the cost of using this software is completely free! This can be particularly useful if your business is a start-up or small as you may have tight budgets. Not having to lash out on an expensive web developer is fantastic for your finances especially when you have the ability to make your own website at the click of a button. Did we forget to mention that it also has an easy installation process. Pretty handy, right?
Aided Website Development
If you are not a technical wizard, that doesn’t matter when it comes to using WordPress. The software is praised for letting both those that are technical and those that are not take advantage of its features. You can also customise your site to your target market with a number of free themes and plug ins which are available from the WordPress directories that come with the software. Do you require a live chat box on your website? There is a plug in that can do just that.
Helps Email Marketing
Email marketing is without doubt one of the most effective forms of marketing used to this day. WordPress (WP) has a WP Mail SMTP plugin which allows you to configure your website to send emails using simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP). This can be hugely beneficial for your business as you will have both your website and email all together in one place on the WP software.
Emails can allow you to reach a wider audience and can further help you build strong customer relationships. With WP you now have the ability to send out email campaigns and then you can monitor how much traffic it brings to your site. This will be useful to let you know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your email marketing campaigns.
Wide Range of Design Options
One of the most crucial features of your website is the design. After all, your website should fully represent your business, so you want to make sure you get it right. WP has thousands of pre-designed themes ready for you to choose from. This can be particularly useful if your company doesn’t have a large budget to pay an expensive developer to design it for you.
There are plenty of customisation options so if your logo has a certain colour scheme then you can use this same colour scheme throughout your site as you will want your brand to be consistent throughout all platforms online. If your business falls under a niche category like accounting, then there are also a large number of specific web themes.
Mobile Friendly
Now, more than ever, consumers are using their mobile phones to make online searches and transactions. So, it would be useful to have a website that is mobile friendly. WP can do just that. Most consumers would prefer to use mobile-friendly websites to make a purchase as they are easy to navigate around. If a site is easy to use, there is less chance of a visitor clicking off the site straight away. Making your website mobile-friendly also helps widen your customer base as not everyone uses their laptops and PCs to buy online anymore.
Benefit From Online Support
Since the software’s release in 2003, thousands of people have installed WP and used it to create interactive websites for their businesses. Because of this, over time, a large community of users has grown online. With millions of people using the software each day, discussion forums have come to life online. But why is this beneficial to your business? Well, the answers simple. If you experience problems with your WP site, the chances are, the solution is already out there on one of these discussion forums. Instead of paying a lot of money to an expensive developer, the information is already out there and readily available to you for free.
These discussion forums can also be a great way to gain some valuable knowledge on how you can utilise the WP features to your businesses advantage. WP themselves also post a large number of blogs sharing helpful tips and information. Reading these could give you a leverage over your competition by helping your website stand out amongst the rest.
