A report from CNBC in 2018 indicated that 45% of small business owners do NOT have a website for their business!!  

Yeah, WOW…

2 of the most common reasons are “I’m on Facebook,” or something like that. While having a social media presence in today’s market is an absolute must, you should have a place where your customers and followers will land a place that belongs to your business. To begin, here are six reasons why should have a business website:

1. Your social media channels should convince readers or viewers to take action, also known as a Call-to-Action (CTA). A CTA encourages customers to buy something, to call or send a message, to sign up for a freebie or newsletter, etc. Once they take action, they should land on your website. In other words, your website should be the landing page; the last important stop of your CTA.
2. Your website is a permanent piece of “real estate” that you own on the world wide web. Social media platforms change, and come and go with little regard to their users wants and needs. Not to mention that the platforms “own” all of the content that gets posted on their platform.
3. You are in complete control of your website. Just as a homeowner does, you get to determine the look, feel, branding and user experience of your website. In addition, you “own” all your content, which are considered digital assets.
4. Your website can convey complex, detailed information about your business that social media platforms cannot match. When consumers want to know specifics about a product, a company’s service, or a restaurant’s menu, they look for a website to find that information.
5. Your website should pull everything together, set the tone, and determine the content of the brand message for all other social media channels to follow.
6. Last, but not least, websites are extremely affordable, with web hosting beginning around $10 per month for a basic site, and approximately $25 per month if you want to sell products. Most website platforms offer drag-and-drop templates making it a breeze for even the non-technical user.

Once your website is developed and set as your “landing page,” it’s time to turn your attention to the social media platforms. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, determine which social media platform the majority of your customers are on and set out to master it as best you can; then move to the next platform that best serves your customers.

After you have at least one social media platform mastered, begin working on a social media strategy. In the beginning, it could be as simple as posting daily on your platform, but over time you should consider designing a full-blown strategy to guide you. Such a strategy should include the following elements:

1. Identify and set your goals. Is it to increase awareness? Generate leads? Make Sales? Determine the best tactics to achieve your goals.
2. Analyze your target audience. Marketing efforts are useless if you are not targeting the correct audience. Know your customer!
3. Identify and monitor relevant metrics. Pick the relevant metrics to measure for each social media platform you are using.
4. Create, curate and share engaging social media content. Content is king and will play a huge role in the success of your efforts. If you are new to creating content, begin by sharing content from authoritative industry websites and blogs.
5. Track and optimize your efforts. Analytics and data monitoring will provide invaluable insight into what’s working so you can improve upon it and change what’s not working.

Websites and social media platforms integrate beautifully, and we hope this article has helped you understand why. If you’d like more information about this, or anything else, please Contact Us!!