Here are a few fun facts about having a website for your business:

In today's digital age, having a website is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for businesses of all sizes. From increasing credibility and global reach to saving money on traditional marketing, a website can provide a wide range of benefits for your business. In this article, we'll take a look at some interesting and surprising facts about the impact a website can have on your business. So sit back, relax and enjoy the read!

A website can give your business a global presence:

With a website, your business can reach customers all over the world, 24/7, regardless of where you're physically located. In an ever more competitive business landscape, this is more important than ever!

Having a website can increase credibility:

A professional-looking website can help establish your business as credible and trustworthy in the eyes of potential customers. It almost goes without saying that any real business will have at least a basic website that their customers can visit to learn more about whwre the business operates from and who is behind running it.

A website can help you save money on traditional marketing:

A website can be a cost-effective way to market your business, as it allows you to reach a large audience without the high costs associated with traditional marketing methods like print or television advertising. These days anyone can create a website for free using a website builder like Wix, Strikingly or SquareSpace. Once you have a free website you can share it easily with family or friends over whatsapp or email; and just like that you're marketing your business!

A website can help you get found:

With a website, your business will be discoverable through search engines like Google, which can help drive more traffic and customers to your business. This is crucial as most people today rely on a google search to find the things they are looking for!

A website can give you valuable data about your customers:

By using tools like Google Analytics, you can track website visitors and gain insights into who your customers are, how they're finding you, and what they're looking for. In a world driven by data it is imperative that your business uses the insights that these analytics provide so that you can stay ahead of the curve and on par with your top competitors.

A website can help you build customer loyalty:

A website allows you to create mechanisms whereby you can keep in touch with your customers and build a sense of loyalty through regular communication and engagement. For example you can collect email addresses through your website to build up a subscriber email marketing database or build a community by having a forum.

A website can be a powerful tool for E-commerce:

A website can allow you to sell products and services directly to customers, which can be especially useful for businesses that don't have a physical storefront.

Are you ready to build a website?

In conclusion, having a website for your business is not only important but also essential for the growth and success of your business. The facts we've discussed today highlight just a few of the many benefits a website can provide. From increasing credibility and global reach to saving money on traditional marketing, a website can play a vital role in the success of your business. If you don't have a website for your business yet, now is the time to invest in one. Your business, customers, and bottom line will thank you for it!

Thank you for reading our blog on the fun facts about having a website for your business. We hope you found the information to be valuable and informative.

If you're looking to create or update a website for your business, look no further than Marshall Arts. We specialize in creating professional, custom websites that are tailored to your specific needs and goals. Our team of experienced developers and designers is dedicated to creating a website that will help your business succeed online. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your business goals.

Building an Ecommerce site on Wix (How easy is it?)

Rating: 3 star difficulty level.

Let's start by saying, building an Ecommerce website on Wix is probably the best way for big and small businesses to get an online store online fast. Wix is an incredible website builder that is

1. easy to learn

2. extremely functional

3. makes updating an online store really easy and scalable

So, if it's so easy and great why doesn't everyone do it? Well that's where you have to look at what building an online store actually entails...

To build an online store you need:

1. a GREAT product, that people want and has a good profit margin

2. an awesome brand that people can understand, identify with and stay loyal to

3. awesome photography of your products

4. great reviews of your products

5. a marketing platform like social media or some other way to drive traffic

6. a marketing strategy and the content (pictures or videos etc.) to execute the strategy

7. an extremely user friendly and professional looking websites, as "amateur-looking sites" are the number one cause for a person not trusting a website

8. a registered business with a business bank account (this is so you can collect money)

9. an account with a payment gateway provider (this is more difficult in stricter countries)

10. a fulfilment strategy. - this is how you deliver your products to the people that buy them

That is a short but very important list of things you absolutely NEED before you even build a website. Once you have all of that, building a professional looking site, that is user friendly and functional are only two of your challenges. So being good at Wix doesn't mean you will have a successful online store. Being good at Wix is the easy part of owning an online business.

At Marshall Arts, we build stores for clients all the time. We provide a number of services that take care of all of those needs above. That's why people hire out agencies to build their online businesses all the time. Perfectly normal people with little to none of above "needs" taken care of, outsource their online business and make good money doing so. In a lot of ways, it is kind of like Ghost Writing a novel... Writing a novel is "easy enough" so long as you can speak and write... But there is so much more to a good novel than just the author's ability to craft a sentence. This is what website building agencies understand and it is the main reason to work with them.

What is awesome about Wix, is that even after the agency has built your site, it is easy enough for someone with absolutely ZERO website experience to take over and manage on their own.

Building a site with Wix from scratch, if you have zero website experience, will take you a little while but it is 100% possible and if you have all of the above needs taken care of and all that is missing is your site, then I seriously recommend you start building it right now.

But... if you only have a great product and you need everything else on that list, I seriously recommend working with agencies to outsource those jobs. You'd be surprised how little it can actually cost.

(View agency rates)

Of course if you decide to just go it alone and build yourself a Wix site then I do recommend checking out YouTube for step by step details on how to do that. There is a channel called the Wix Training Academy and they have over 483 videos about how to do things on Wix. So whether you are stuck with a small problem or need to know how to build a website from scratch, their channel is bound to have something relevant for you.

The above video link is a whole playlist created by the Wix Training Academy and it is the ultimate guide to creating an Ecommerce website on Wix. I highly recommend you check that out.

If you decide that you want to speak to us about building your Ecommerce site, managing your product photos, social media strategies, content and more - then why not book a call with us. It is totally free and comes with no obligations. We can just have a chat about what your business needs and then we'll send you a quote.

Book a call with Marshall Arts

Why I chose Wix - 3 years later

My name is Michael Marshall and I build Wix Websites. I have built sites for Disney, Coca-Cola, Suzuki and over 100 mentionable brands and I have done all of that in the last three years and all of it has been using Wix.

Most people are shocked at that point. They usually don't believe me when I show them a virtual art gallery that I made, like this one (click the link to visit the gallery shown in the image below)

Absa Art Hot Spot - Virtual Gallery Experience

I have built everything from Video on Demand sites to Ecommerce stores that make thousands per month and I have to say, Wix has performed exceptionally well on all my projects.

So I made the right choice, but I made that choice 3 years ago and I wondered if my reasons for choosing Wix would be different if I were to be just starting out now.

Why I chose Wix three years ago:

1. Hosting. Unlimited bandwidth and video storage space are an amazing offering. Yes, everyone offers unlimited hosting, but it was vital to me that Wix offered these two services.

2. Impeccable website security. Every heard of someone hacking a wix Website... ? Go on, Google it. I'll wait for you in the comments. In the meantime, I'll tell you that when I googled WordPress hacks three years ago, the results were frightening. So unlimited bandwidth and video storage with great security and I was ready to offer my clients something unique.

3. Ability to use code and embed iFrames. These should maybe be two separate points - and I should also talk about API's but I'm just going to boil it all down and say that being able to do some coding was super important as I knew I would need inevitably need some feature that Wix doesn't provide. With the the ability to use external API's, a bit of JavaScript and a lot of iFrames, I know I can do anything.

4. Analytics - I knew Wix offered analytics and that is hugely important tool in my business.

5. Wix was built by designers for designers. At least that is how it feels. Because I have worked in Photoshop, Canva, Mobirise, illustrator, and Final Cut Pro, learning Wix was actually super easy because it feel intuitive for a designer. The templates are also beautiful and the whole platform feels easy to use, quick to navigate and enables me to design what I want.

6. Everything above was included in one simple price that was easy to understand. I am an Apple user all round. I have the Watch, Phone, Air Pods and Macbook. Wix feels like Apple sometimes. Everything works and it is all from one supplier. Yes, I learned all about the Wix App Market and that is a great place, but for me it was really important that everything I needed my website to do was catered for in one price and that price was going to Wix. In contrast, on Wordpress I must pay a million different app providers for each and every app that i want on my site. I must have a Woo commerce account and Yoast SEO account and that all felt cumbersome and annoying. Wix took care of all the essential features I needed.

So, would my list be any different if I had to chose Wix now. My website builder priorities now would be:

1. Can it build responsive sites?

2. Does it have features that allow me to edit and write code?

3. Is it user friendly and can I "design" what I want?

4. Is it a well priced, all in one package?

5. Does it have good analytics?

6. Unlimited Hosting and storage

Honestly, my needs haven't changed much. These are still THE most important things. Wix does them all. Webflow, Wordpress, Squarespace, Google Sites just cant do everything on that list. Wix is still the only platform that delivers all of the above. So for me it is a no brainer, I am choosing Wix for next 3 years at least and I'll update this blog and let you know if anything changes.