We can all agree that a strong social media plan and presence is essential. To be effective in marketing your business online, however, you have to have a solid starting point. Social media marketing is just one piece of your sales funnel. It may be the way that people are initially finding your business, the way that people are checking up on your company once they’ve heard of you, or even the way that they are buying from you. Now that many social platforms allow for in app purchases, you may be wondering whether or not your business actually needs a website. The answer is yes. Before you get too far into building up your social media presence, make sure you have a good website.
Online marketing has to be a well-rounded approach because each piece compliments the other. It’s a balance of website, social media presence, regular relevant content, and plenty of backlinks to your website to improve how well your business is going to be found online. Neglecting one or more of these avenues is going to have a negative effect on your business.
So, why exactly do you need a website? First, people expect legitimate brands to have one. When people find a company on social media that they love and want to purchase from, the first thing they want to do is visit their website to find additional information. Make this an easy interaction, consistent across all channels. If your business is new to them, they want to know if they’re safe to buy from you. Your website serves as a way to build trust in your business. Think of how many companies you’ve found online that, while you liked what they were selling, you couldn’t find anything out about them beyond a social media ad and you didn’t trust them enough to order.
Consider also that a website is a centralized location to send people to where you control the narrative. You’re taking people off of sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter and you’re driving them to your online storefront to buy from you. Once at your site, you completely control the messaging. You have a way to display your products and services, capture leads, allow people to buy from you, and track customer interaction in ways that allow you to adapt your selling strategy in the future to give people more of what they’re buying from you.
The truth is, without a website, you’ll be hard pressed to have your business found online. Consider this: a majority of all consumers perform online research before making any online purchase. This means they go to Google and type in one or more keywords for the products or services that they’re looking for. Businesses that don’t have a website have zero chance of showing up in those search results. Google indexes websites with relevant keywords to show up in those search results. That means if you want to sell Ramen in Huntington Beach, then you’d better have a website with the words Ramen and Huntington Beach all over it. An Instagram page isn’t going to cut it and Google will not be displaying your business in any search results. Having a website allows you to optimize it for search engines which increases your chances of appearing in Google’s results and gets you more visibility with potential new customers.
Do you need help developing a website for your business or a strong social media strategy? We can help with both: (862) 438-5783
