It’s certainly not the first time you’ve heard this, and we very much doubt that it’ll be the last, but it’s a point worth repeating: The internet has changed just about every aspect of our lives.
From shopping to dating, watching movies to keeping up with current affairs, if it can be done, there’s a high chance it can be done online.
What’s more, whilst most of these tasks used to to mean endless trips into town, a lack of competition leading to higher prices, and customer service which left something to be desired, by taking care of them over the web, we have more time, more cash and more freedom to do the things we really love.
If ever was a compelling reason why you should start a website of your own, that’s got to be it. With more and more people taking advantage of all that the web has to offer, you’ll be missing out on attracting a huge portion of your potential customer base if you don’t have at least some form of web presence.
Social media can only do so much
Sure, you could always settle for a free Facebook page or use some other social networking site, but even the best of those pale in comparison when it comes to the benefits you could be enjoying by having your very own website.
After all, as much as customers may well expect to find you on Facebook, Twitter and similar sites, what they really expect from you is an actual website that belongs to you and you alone, somewhere they can reach out and get in touch with you, where they can purchase your products and services, or at the very least get the information they’ve been searching all over the web for.
A better experience for you and your visitors
Besides, a bespoke website that is unique to your business offers far more flexibility and the freedom to present that information in a way your visitors can really make the most of it, rather than having to fit in with the fairly inflexible and still ever-changing layouts and policies of a leading social media site.
Take Facebook for example. There once was a time when creating custom pages for your Facebook business page was all the rage. Now, not so much. Now, any information you really want to get out there will be better placed on your wall, where it still may only end up being swallowed by the mass of other posts your audience are connected to.
Increase the likelihood of your content being seen
Indeed, you could have the biggest Facebook following in the world, but if your content isn’t up to scratch, there’s no guarantee that any of your followers will actually see it.
This is especially true if most of your social media are designed only to sell your products.
In late 2014, Facebook made the announcement that they’re going to start actively filtering out organic posts that they deem ‘too promotional,’ that is, posts that are designed solely to push people into buying products, installing applications or entering sweepstakes ‘with no real context.’
With that in mind, trying the direct sales approach through Facebook is likely to become a waste of your time and energies before too long, whereas you can put as much sales copy on your website as you like and guarantee that it will at least be seen by everybody who comes across your site.
Whether that content is good enough to produce the results you need or not, well, that’s no doubt another quandary for another article.