You might be surprised to hear that almost half of small businesses don’t have a website.

If you’re wondering if your organization really needs a website, the answer is yes. Absolutely yes. Unless your business sells time machines and you are somehow visiting this decade from the distant past, yes you need a website.

Not only is a website crucial to showcasing your business, products, and promotions, but it can also be a major force in attracting new customers. Most people search for products and services online, so if your business doesn’t exist online, it’s almost like it doesn’t exist at all.

So why are there so many small businesses that still aren’t online?

The truth is, learning how to make your own website can be overwhelming, especially for the vast majority of us who don’t know how to code. The alternative—hiring a web developer—can be expensive, so you need a website builder tool you can really trust.

Your website builder should be intelligent and modern. Your site needs to showcase the quality of your business in an attractive way, but a modern website also needs to be mobile-friendly, secure, and optimized for search engines. With all of these considerations, it can be hard to even know where to start.

Our answer to this problem is the new Constant Contact website builder—a solution for small businesses that need to get online or revamp their online presence with limited time and budget. And best of all—it’s free.

A free website builder made for small businesses

Our free website builder is at the center of our powerful marketing platform for small businesses, which includes LogoMaker, email marketing, social media and Google advertising, domain names, ecommerce tools, and more to help you grow your brand and find success—all in one place.

The Constant Contact website builder is made specifically for people who have little-to-no experience in web design, but still want precise control over how their website looks and functions. Within minutes, you can set yourself up for people to easily find your business, learn about your offerings, and even make purchases online.

Even though the builder is quick and intuitive, it’s also powerful and highly customizable. Once the tool walks you through setting up your basic website, you’ll be able to decide what to add next based on your business’s unique needs. Some of the things you can add are:

• Contact forms
• Photo galleries
• Menus
• Videos
• An event calendar
• An online store

And that’s just the beginning. With all these options and more at your fingertips, you’re able to create a website from a nearly endless number of combinations.

The easiest way to build a website

As we said, the website builder is designed for busy small business professionals with little-to-no experience building a website, and no time to learn how to do so. The tool walks you through the entire process, step-by-step until you have an online home for your business that you can be proud of. 

It’s easy to get started. Just answer a few basic questions about your business and your website will be online in minutes, optimized for search engines, and ready to be found by potential new customers.

Automatic A.I.-powered design

We know you’re busy running your business, so you can leave the web design to us. When it comes to filling your website with relevant, good-looking content, we’ve got your back. 

The website builder walks you through creating all the essential sections of your site and automatically adds high-quality photos, curated color combinations, professional font sets, sample text and more. With all the elements laid out for you, you can begin to edit in all the essential information you want your visitors to know. 

The A.I.-powered website builder makes it all come together. All you need to focus on is the thing you already know best: your business.

Need to add another element to your site? No problem. Simply click the plus sign (+) where you want to add a section and you’re presented with a menu of options, all with multiple styles to choose from.

As you add elements to your site, you can easily scroll through various design options until you find one that feels right for you. You can also remove, rearrange, and swap out elements just as easily.

Built-in eCommerce tools

Did you know that 76% of adults shop online? By 2023, there are expected to be over 300 million online shoppers in the United States alone.

Translation: If you want to sell, you should be selling online.

The Constant Contact website builder has built-in ecommerce functionality to get your store online and generating revenue in a few simple steps:

1. Choose a professionally designed layout that will look as great on a mobile device as it does on a desktop.
2. Add your products with descriptions and images, organizing them into categories if you want to.
3. Add some basic info to set yourself up to receive payments and start selling!

That’s it. Our built-in payment processing will handle transactions for you, with a 3% fee on each sale (or no fee if you’re on our Business Plus plan).

As you start selling online, you can update and manage your inventory, track orders, see your revenue, and more, all within the same tool.

A truly free website builder

One of the most exciting things about this tool is that you can build a website, create a logo, and even launch an online store—all for free. When you’ve gone through the basic set up process, you won’t just have a prototype, but a full-fledged, well-functioning, public website.

What this means is that you can actually see what your new business website looks like online without taking on any risk or additional spending. You can create your own website and even share it with others for feedback so you can further refine it, all without spending a dime.

By default, all free websites are published as subdomains (for example, “yourwebsite.constantcontactsites.com”), but users have the option of using a custom domain instead, which will need to be purchased. Yes—you can choose and purchase a custom domain within the tool, too.

Try it out! Start your website today for free

It’s our mission at Constant Contact to help small businesses and nonprofits do more with their ideas. With the launch of our website builder, we’re excited to be able to offer one of the most essential elements of online marketing—a website—at no risk. 

The best way to figure out what works for your business in terms of a website is to experiment. Build a website for free and see for yourself what your business or side hustle looks like with a polished online presence.

We hope that you’ll be inspired by what you’re able to create in just a few simple steps and that you’ll be motivated to keep growing your ideas through online marketing.

We can’t wait to see what you create!

The post Introducing Our Free Website Builder for Small Businesses appeared first on Constant Contact Blogs.