These days if you have your own business, it’s a no-brainer to have a website. Without one, you essentially don’t exist to potential customers online and pose no threat to competitors. The same can be said for social media. Without any presence on popular networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), you’re missing out on countless business opportunities.
Show Customers that You’re a Professional
First impressions are important, and when you’re reaching out to new customers, the website you build will often play a vital part in the decision they make. If a potential customer is greeted by a homepage that looks like it was whipped up in five minutes, the chances are they won’t be on your website for very long.
This isn’t to say that you should solely concentrate on making your site look good. Your web copy needs to be useful and authoritative to persuade potential customers to stay on your site long enough to make a purchase.
Establish Yourself as a Brand
Now that the majority of companies have a website and are likely to be active on social networks, businesses find themselves in a much more competitive market. It’s crucial to stand out from the competition in some way.
Social media is the perfect platform to show customers a bit of your personality, and more importantly why you are superior to your competitors. Everything (good) that you feed out through social networks will help to develop your company further, and establish it as a brand.
Monitor Your Progress with Ease
By having your website, you’ll be able to track its progress and find out which pages are most popular. You can then use all the information you gain to help improve aspects that aren’t working and continue with those that are.
You can do the same with your social networking by using analytic tools such as Facebook Insights, which can tell you which of your posts are most popular with your target audience. This helps you to produce the right content that keeps followers engaged.
Advertising Without the Expense of a Campaign
The internet has been a game-changer in the business world, and social networks have become a marketing dream for business owners. Large organisations were always one step ahead with big advertising budgets, but now social networking has provided a way for smaller companies to market to millions of people for free.
It’s true that the social media companies are increasingly giving advantages to those that pay well, but it’s equally true that many pieces of viral content are created with nothing more than a cameraphone and a Chewbacca mask. Why couldn’t your business be the next viral success story?
Better Relationships With Customers
The relationship you have with customers is crucial. Social networks have made it easy to keep in contact, meaning you’ll be interacting with clients more often, sometimes on a daily basis.
By forming a better connection with a customer, you can help your business to appear more trustworthy. Be authentic though — trust is a resource which is hard won but easily lost.
Keeping in close contact with customers is also a great way to keep them updated about any current projects, or if you have any new products or services coming soon that they might be interested in.
Spy on the Competition
It’s pretty much a certainty that your competitors will have a website and social network accounts — if they don’t then I would say there’s not much competition. If you’re stuck for content ideas or have noticed a competitor is having a great month, then you need to see what they’re up to.
This doesn’t mean you should copy their every move, but if something is proving to be popular with your target market, then you’d be stupid to ignore it. It’s worth checking out their followers on Twitter, as there’s a good chance it will provide you with new leads.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Blogging
Blogging has been around long enough to no longer be considered a new concept, but many business owners are yet to recognise the importance of having a blog. These days many people find a blog to be an essential for any successful business.
The problem many companies face is that they struggle to keep things fresh for their target market, this is where a blog will save the day. Producing high-quality posts on a regular basis will give people a reason to keep checking your site, and the content itself will help you to tell customers about any exciting news or new promotions you have coming up.
Sharing your blog posts through your social network channels will help you to reach out to a much wider audience, gaining you the type of leads that would’ve only been possible to obtain with blog content.
In a digital era where the internet has completely changed every industry you can think of, not having a website for your business isn’t an option. As of this year, Facebook recorded 1.65 billion active users, with such an insane amount of people online, your potential for gaining new custom is endless.
