As a company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, GoDaddy supports small business owners and entrepreneurs for them to be well-equipped to thrive online, especially given the current landscape. The company is particularly focused on empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as the global pandemic has significantly impacted this sector.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in a recent survey, said that 10% of Philippine MSMEs have closed operations since June of 2021, with 46% of MSMEs in partial operations, and 53.8% reporting a decline in their sales.
With these figures, it’s no surprise that many have adapted a digital means of conducting business, with varying degrees of success. While social media is often the main entry point and a great first step in establishing an online presence and futureproofing your business, GoDaddy also emphasizes the need to identify the unique advantages that having an official business can bring to help entrepreneurs move along in their digital journey.
While it’s instinctive, especially for small businesses, to think that creating a website is time-consuming and expensive, establishing an online presence via an official website is actually a great, long-term investment. Having your own website allows you to leverage borderless communication, control your own messaging, and increase your reach among audience segments you might otherwise lose to other brands on social media.
With tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder, you can launch your website in no time, as the tool gets you started with thousands of templates to choose from, as well as a drag-and-drop editor to easily build the website’s look. Custom site content can also be added in each section of the website. The Website Builder features tablet and mobile layouts, making your website more responsive and unique to your business.
Having a website can also allow you to spotlight your brand’s offerings, away from the clutter of images on any given social media platform. You can organize this further, and dedicate an ecommerce shopping section integrated with your website, with GoDaddy E-Store.
Another benefit of having your own website in the early stages of a business is being able to pin down both the quantity and quality of your website traffic. To maximize this capability, a powerful tool you can add in your kit is the Digital Marketing Suite, with inclusions such as analytics to track marketing success, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) training to guide you in driving even more traffic to your site. This suite of digital tools comes with tailored action plans, enabling you to plan your next moves, guided by data, in attainment of your business goals and toward expansion of your business.
“It’s only logical to go where the audience is, and that is online with the quarantine having increased the online activity. With a lot of businesses having started doing so, the challenge now evolves to how to drive and retain online engagement,” Norman Barrientos, GoDaddy’s Director of Marketing for Southeast Asia, said. “There are many ways to go about this and one of the most exciting things about digital is the capability to experiment. For those who have little wiggle room for extra time, having a website can be a way for businesses to strengthen and streamline their online presence,” he added.
