Many small businesses are implementing WordPress for the first time in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Teachers, lawyers, and even doctors are just a few of the professions that are learning to embrace remote work in response to social distancing measures in place around the globe.
Professionals of all kinds are finding new and innovative ways to remain productive without direct, face-to-face interaction with their customers and partners. WordPress is quickly becoming the go-to platform for building the solutions they need.
There are many good reasons why this is the case. WordPress is the most popular solution for managing content online. It is inexpensive, easy to learn, and highly customizable. This makes it ideal for small business owners who suddenly have to move all of their services online.
Who Needs to Build a Website Now?
Almost every professional service provider and brick-and-mortar business out there has considered complementing products and services with a website, but less than two-thirds of small businesses actually have one. Of those, six out of ten reported that they “plan to build one” in a 2018 study.
Now, of course, things are different. Many businesses can no longer put off the decision to move their services online because those industries now only exist online. These are the people who are now looking for skilled WordPress developers and digital agencies who can deliver top-quality results, fast.
The majority of small business owners reported three main reasons why they did not prioritize developing a website:
- Prohibitive Costs. For some, the cost of developing and maintaining a website was greater than the reasonable earning potential the website represented.
- Industry Irrelevance. Many small business owners don’t think websites offer any value to their industry. This is a common sentiment among convenience store owners, restaurateurs, and many professional service providers.
- Social Media. The third most common argument against building a website is the idea that social media offers enough visibility to drive business.
As the world settles into a period defined by social distancing and remote work, the factors described above begin to lose their power. Not all websites cost a great deal to develop. Many industries must now pivot to an online format. Social media cannot handle the entirety of a small business’s needs all on its own.
Restaurants make a fine example. Before the coronavirus crisis set in, many restaurants were doing well enough with foot traffic, traditional advertising, and word-of-mouth recommendations from regular customers. Now, restaurant owners need to completely re-envision the way their business works, creating brand-new profit strategies that focus on home delivery – exactly the kind of initiative that a well-made WordPress site can deliver on.
Fitness centers are another good example. Convincing dozens of people to share a room with one another to use workout equipment seems impossible in today’s public health environment. But with the right video hosting platform, a fitness trainer can redefine the way they interact with their customers using virtual meetings or web conferencing software.
The fact is that nearly every small business, in nearly every industry, stands to benefit from deploying a robust, fully-featured website to help it connect with users and employees. Now more than ever, small business owners are turning to WordPress developers and digital agencies who empower them to achieve these ends and keep their businesses afloat.
Why Choose WordPress for Coronavirus Response
One of the reasons why WordPress has become so popular among first-time website owners looking for an effective COVID-19 response is that it directly addresses the obstacles that small business owners face.
- It Is Inexpensive and Scalable
Instead of being prohibitively costly, it is free to download and use. Many of the value paid features available through its various themes and plugins are either free or low-cost. Incorporating web conferencing solutions or e-learning into a WordPress website is easy to do, compared to other alternatives.
This makes it easy for a small business to open its first website as part of a coordinated Coronavirus response, keep its doors open during the crisis, and then gradually reintegrate physical business processes as time goes on and restrictions get relaxed.
- It Offers Futureproof Customization and Flexibility
WordPress is also incredibly versatile. The wide availability of customizable plugins and themes allows businesses to easily leverage advantages that meet industry-specific needs. There are plugins that can transform a restaurant website into a functioning home delivery service within a week. This kind of functionality offers clear value to small business owners who are now considering their first foray into the world of WordPress.
WordPress is the ideal choice for adding value to industries that would otherwise not require a sophisticated web platform. It empowers users to create new revenue streams while adapting to pandemic crisis conditions in a positive way.
- It Complements Social Media Instead Of Competing With It
Social media is a critical part of any outreach strategy, but its most popular platforms do not offer the functionality that businesses truly need. Teachers cannot easily organize and schedule entire classroom sessions on Facebook – they need a more robust solution in order to offer their students that kind of functionality.
The same goes for many industries, where social media offers unique benefits for customer relationship management and outreach, but needs to be supported with a powerful, customizable framework for delivering value.
WordPress: Ideal for Coronavirus Microbusinesses
Microbusinesses – defined as companies with less than $250,000 per year in assets and sales and fewer than five employees – have much to gain by embracing WordPress as their go-to platform for navigating the post-COVID economy. Sole proprietorships now have a powerful incentive to expand, automate, and scale their services in new ways.
Many small business owners are already aware of the benefits that starting a pandemic-resilient WordPress website can offer. The very smallest of businesses, used to being overlooked in discussions of productivity-enhancing technology, can now step out into the spotlight and deliver value to customers on the same footing as their much larger competitors.
