Open for Business? You Need a Website
If you are actively taking money for products or services, you must have a website.
In the past week or so, I’ve run across about 5 (established!) businesses that either had no web presence at all, or that relied on Facebook for all their website needs. This is problematic for a few reasons, and with today’s technology advances, there’s really no good excuse not to have any form of a website.
First, let’s tackle the no-web-presence-at-all scenario.
I understand that you’re busy, or maybe you’re side-hustling, or you’re working off of referral-only. I’d say most business-owners have been there, and you have to make choices about how to spend your time and money. But at the bare minimum, once you’re open and running for a few months, you need a landing page that alerts prospects, referral sources, and others that you exist. A GoDaddy “domain taken” result does not inspire any confidence, and instead causes the visitor to question your legitimacy.
Next, let’s discuss Facebook-as-a-website.
When Facebook launched its business pages, I thought - “wow, this is going to change everything.” And while things really did change, Facebook is not an all-in-one business tool. Here are a few reasons why you should not rely on Facebook solely for your web presence:
You do not own your contact list (or, really, your content). Unless you’re converting every follower over to your email database, there’s no way you can reach every single follower with a Facebook post or message (unless you pay out the nose). Facebook could completely change their rules tomorrow, and everything you’ve built would just be gone. That would be devastating.
Not everyone is on Facebook. It may feel like the whole world is on Facebook, but I know PLENTY of people who never have been, and lots more who are leaving every day. Non-Facebook users are simply not going to contact you if they can’t navigate to your information. (Yes, they can technically see your page, but it’s very cumbersome when you’re not on Facebook. And cumbersome is not an ideal way to serve your customer.)
Only a small fraction of followers see your content. You have thousands of followers - yay! But Facebook is constantly tinkering with the settings to ensure very few people actually see your content. You would have FAR better success with an email or text campaign than solely relying on Facebook.
Your bare-bones web presence needs.
There are a handful of inexpensive web platforms out there (SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly, etc.) that are easy to use and allow anyone to have a place for visitors to land. Here’s what you need, at a minimum:
Your business name
How to contact you (a phone number and email address, and/or a contact form)
A nice, smiling picture of you OR smiling, happy people enjoying the successful result of a product/service like yours
When I was creating my company, I had a landing page on SquareSpace for about 6 months before I finally made the time to build out a full site. It’s a lot, I get it - especially if this isn’t your expertise or if you feel like you’re not technically savvy. There are tons of great marketing professionals and coaches out there, though, who can help you while you’re on your way.
So, what are you waiting for? Get to work! And if you need some guidance, give us a call.