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Asserting your online presence to better launch your business

2 min

When a start-up launches a business, it must also exist online. What are the keys to achieving this? Co-founder and Marketing Manager of the online platform CentralApp*, Pablo Castel Gazier answers our questions.

“Buildings, restaurants, shops, liberal and medical professions… Today, everyone is looking online for what they need. 80% of people, for example, find the restaurant where they will eat online. And 50% of reservations are made outside of opening hours,” explains Pablo Castel Gazier. “So yes, a business that’s starting needs to exist online!”

Being seen, convincing and converting

But what should you pay attention to so that this online presence has real added value? Pablo: “First, you need to think about visibility, and therefore have an optimised website to appear as high as possible in search engine results. The content of the site must then be convincing enough for its target audience: photos of achievements for a building contractor, an online product catalogue encouraging a visit to a local shop… And finally, the conversion of the visitor must be easy, for example via a reservation or appointment module.”

The starter's dilemma

Can a starter manage their digital presence alone? “When you launch your business, you try to do as much as possible yourself to minimise costs. But you shouldn't underestimate the complexity of digital technology,” says Pablo. “Creating your website by going through a free online platform? On paper, it's attractive. But in practice, it's much more complicated, as you need a good level of expertise and quite advanced technical knowledge to get a satisfactory result. This often requires going through an agency, which implies a significant financial investment.”

Avoiding the starter having to choose between digital efficiency and investment cost is precisely what CentralApp proposes. “Even without any technical knowledge, our online platform allows you to easily create and manage a high-performance website… but also to be accompanied by our team of experts, all at a really affordable cost, from 25 euros per month,” adds Pablo.

A simple and powerful tool

What differentiates CentralApp from other market players is its ease of use and great modularity. “There’s no need to tinker: you define what you want by answering a few simple questions, and the tool takes care of the rest, creating a customised design adapted to the specificities of your business,” says Pablo. “Platform, accompaniment… Everything is designed so that the site has real added value. And therefore, generates traffic, convinces the visitor and facilitates their conversion. It's a simple, powerful and adaptable tool to the very specific needs of each entrepreneur and sector.”

The advantages of modules

To facilitate the creation of a truly personalised website, CentralApp relies on a very large number of integrable modules in just a few clicks. “They allow you to cover the digital needs of each one: appointment scheduling, job postings, hotel room reservations, conversational commerce via a chatbot… You just need to go to the platform, choose the module you need, define its content by filling in a few fields, and it appears directly on your site,” completes Pablo.

Customised accompaniment

The CentralApp platform therefore allows starters to create the site their business needs. But these starters also benefit from accompaniment that they themselves define. “It can range from a simple training session to use the platform including technical assistance to the creation and management of the site from A to Z by our teams. One of the strong added values of this accompaniment? Our knowledge of digital technology sector by sector allows us to choose the strategies that will make a difference. Like adding a module to a restaurateur's site to request online privatisation of their establishment, with a spectacular increase in these requests as a result. Or activating a module for a medical house to present their teams, which also translated into convincing results in terms of visits and appointments,” concludes Pablo.

Want to take advantage of CentralApp's benefits for your website? As a starter client of BNP Paribas Fortis, you benefit from exclusive advantages: enjoy a complimentary mini-site through our Cover Pager formula, plus a free one-month subscription to our more comprehensive plans. Learn more here!!

* CentralApp SA, Avenue Louise 54, 1050 Brussels, Belgium – VAT BE 0545.941.437 - RPM Brussels