In our digital world where online marketing is so important for a business' success, having your own website is a must, even if you've already built an online audience through social media. Social media pages have limitations that are out of your control while building and maintaining a website is a valuable and worthwhile project that gives you full control of your business' online presence.
Relying on just social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram to promote your brand has its disadvantages, such as:
Technically speaking, utilizing social media alone doesn't mean you have a digital marketing strategy in place for your business or brand. "Digital marketing" means you have taken advantage of more than one online marketing channel. A website you can personally customize to your brand is a great way to really kick off your online marketing campaign.
If you are only engaged in one [online] channel (like social media), you typically wouldn't say that you have a digital marketing campaign in place.
-Jeff Bowdoin, Social Media Strategies Summit (blog.socialmediastrategiessummit.com)
Your website should be the heart of your online presence and social media should be your marketing tool.
-nic.icu
Ideally, your social media pages should complement and funnel online traffic to your website. A website gives social media users something to reference and use to get to know you and your services better.
This is because you own your website. You have full control over its layout and content, which gives you the opportunity to show your audience exactly who you are, what your mission is, and what distinguishes you from your competitors. You can do all this under your own terms and conditions, not someone else's.
Other advantages of having your own website include:
A few more reasons why your business might benefit from having its own website and domain name are:
We highly recommend to our clients that they invest in a website that they own...
-Conversion Strategies, Inc. (conversionstrategies.net)
The benefits of having your own website go even further. With a website, you can keep track of how your audience responds to your marketing. After all, staying connected with your customers and what they need from you is key to your business' success.
Also, via an FAQ page on your website, you can be part of the dialogue when your customers have something to say on online review sites like Amazon, Yelp, and Angie's List. These reviews have a significant impact on potential customers' decisions regarding what your business has to offer. Being able to control the dialogue is crucial. Again, it's all about staying connected to your audience.
People listen to what other customers have to say. Dimensional Research found that 90% of average buyers buy based on online reviews.
-Pam Haskell, Chili Pepper Design, LLC. (www.cpdesignco.com)
Furthermore, when your business has its own website, you aren't depending on a separate platform to stay in business, keep certain key features, or maintain their current terms and conditions. If your social media page comprises your entire online presence, any changes social media sites make in any of these areas could potentially result in your business closing down. The best way to safeguard against this is to create relevant, high-quality web pages that address your customers' needs.
It'd be like a clothes merchant who goes from paying for a booth at a flea market to buying her own store front. With her own store comes more control over her business and how it operates, the possibility of more people finding her store, and more freedom over what she gets to sell.
The reason a website is still valid is because you can keep your fingers on the pulse of what is happening.
-Dale Berkebile, www.success-movement.com
TCM is here to provide an array of content management knowledge, products, and services to help you set up and maintain your website, and realize and enhance the vision you have for your brand or business. Whether you're well-established online or looking to enlarge your online presence, Tesames Content Management can help you succeed and make decisions that best meet your business needs, using whatever IT resources will work best with your situation.
If you think building or refining a website for your business is the next right move for you, TSM can provide you with custom content management systems (CMS), software that can help you manage your website's contents. This can enable you to achieve things like:
Even if a website doesn't sound like the next right move for you and your brand, TCM wants to help you with all your information technology needs. To learn more about how Tesames Content Management can help you achieve your goals, please visit www.tesames.com.
Learn more about the difference between a website and social media by clicking on the following links: