We all know that being a new player in any industry can be hard, especially if the niche is highly competitive. In fact, venturing into the world with a new business is never something to be taken lightly. Not only will you have to prove to your consumers that you can deliver, you’ll need to maintain an excellent brand image by maintaining a stable online marketing campaign.
In today’s world, it has become increasingly important for businesses, big or small, to maintain an online presence via a professional website and social media. Because of their proficiency, however, many people seem to rely heavily on social media rather than their own website.
While it’s true that a business can exist with just a social media presence, doing so is a major mistake. Even though social media platforms can be used as a powerful channel to reach your intended audience online, it doesn’t fill the shoes of a professional, well-designed website.
That’s why it’s important to modify your online marketing strategy if you find yourself prioritizing social media over your business website for the following reasons.
Credibility & Trust
Big or small, business owners know that credibility and trust are everything. While creating a social media business page is an easy way to market your business, this low-entry strategy can be susceptible to the creation of dummy and scam pages. That’s why having a professional website is a smarter step forward to establishing credibility.
With a professional website, you will have a well-optimized domain name along with custom, unique content for your static web pages, and one of a kind sales copy, images, and videos tailored to your target customers to introduce your business online. These efforts simply cannot be compared to generic social media accounts.
Possession
When you think about it, who really owns your social media account? While you can publish posts, comment, and reply to your audience, the relationships you build and maintain are actually owned and controlled by the platform itself.
In fact, depending on the social media platform you use, some networks make it very hard to leverage the relationships you build online using their platform. They are very much aware that once you take these relationships off their platform, they subsequently lose the data you’ve cultivated. That’s why it’s better to lure your audience back home to your website to sustain a quality business relationship.
Business Value
While nobody wants to think about selling their business, you never know what the future may bring. What buyers look for when purchasing an existing business is a brand with formidable assets. If your business doesn’t have a professional website with a continuous flow of traffic, leads, and inbound links, your business will be worth much less than a business with an established online presence.
Moving Target
Because the digital world has become more and more mobile for consumers, it’s extremely important for business owners to meet their customers wherever they are. Since media interactions are much more screen-based, consumers search for businesses like yours using search engines, social media, and video platforms.
This clearly shows that consumers are a moving target audience. Hence the need to meet them wherever they are and bring them home to your website. That’s why a well-designed, professional website is an absolute must when it comes to maintaining your brand’s main digital footprint.
Control
If you own a home, it’s easy to repaint, remodel, and add custom amenities based on your individual needs and preferences. But what if you rent? Any modifications to it’s existing structure could be prohibited or very difficult to get approved. The same exact principle applies online with social media platforms. When you have a business page with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., you’re basically “renting” out space using their platform (even if it’s free) which gives them total control over your content.
Even more, it’s important not to forget about their “Terms & Conditions.” If you want to do something unique using their platform, you will need to abide by their laws. In fact, whatever you do on social media, you will need to read the fine print to make sure you’re not violating their rules. So who’s really in control? If you have a professional website, however, you will be in full control when it comes to functionality, content, etc.
Data and Analytics
All business owners need to monitor their online marketing strategy constantly in order to enhance their potential reach. However, you can’t rely on social media because the data they provide is often limited. On the other hand, you can assess your data and analytics fully when you have your own website with tools such as Google Analytics that provide website owners with extensive data and insights. This will help you improve your online marketing strategies to help you grow your business.
Conclusion
While social media can provide business owners with a wonderful opportunity to cultivate and build relationships with consumers, it’s important to be aware that social media platforms are businesses too. They are just as driven to develop their own features to gather data and information in order to make a profit. While you can capitalize on using the services they offer, you should only rely on social media to improve audience communication, brand awareness, and lead generation. Everything else should be done and sustained using your own website.
Ready to get started? Thrive Web Designs can provide you with a wide variety of professional web design services like custom web development, e-commerce solutions, WordPress development, affordable website hosting, maintenance, and search engine optimization just to name a few.
If you would like more information, contact us at (208) 391-2504 for a free quote.
