Business strategies nowadays especially for those who are starting up a business, online presence has been the best strategy they need to cope with. Customers and target markets are always present online using mobile phones. For small businesses, having a social media page can cover a whole e-commerce online store already. But the question is, is there a need to have a website for small businesses?
That may fascinate you for now, but I am here to tackle and answer that simple question which is quite complicated to find answers for. Let’s see how much impact does a website makes for small businesses and for those who are starting up a business.
But first, let me refresh you what is the difference between a social media presence and having a website.
Social Media Page vs Website by definition
By definition, according to investopedia.com, Social media is a type of computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing in a form of ideas, thoughts, and other information by building virtual networks and communities. These communities are usually found when you use your hashtags. Social media is designed to give users quick electronic communication of content. And through those content, people are able to communicate. Those who are into business, business owners are able to promote and introduce their products, services, and branding through content on their respective pages.
A website, on the other hand, means a set of web pages that are interrelated to each other as they are collectives of a certain brand. Web pages are located under a single domain name, typically produced by the business owner or a company.
In this article, we are going to focus more of our attention on the WEBSITE.
Is it necessary to have a website for small businesses?
For any technical personnel dealing with Social Media and Websites, the answer is not clear. Unfortunately, there is no specific answer as YES or NO. However, I will help you decide on what to do about it and it is up to you if you need one. I will show you the PROs and the CONs of owning a website before you ever decide to build one.
The following are the positive side and the negative side that you need to figure your decision.
Let’s think POSITIVE
- Legitimacy – owning a website can assure your target market that you are a legit business owner. There may have been any scammers or bogus owners which have their own websites, but usually, these people cannot operate a credible website because they have limited execution and performance.
A legit business owner always has a clear display of digital presence, has a stable domain, has a legit name or branding, and follows strict guidelines from website builders.
- Credibility – owning a website can make your credibility intact. Customers will believe in your integrity especially how you showcase your branding and the whole company.
- You are visible to search engines. Owning a website means you have your SEO. if your content is optimized properly, then you can rank your branding in search engines like google especially if customers pay visits to your website that would absolutely create traffic.
- The reviews and testimonials from customers can be highlighted clearly on your website.
- The full control in yours. Your website, your own control. You can filter your subscribers and you can do segmentation inside your website.
- You can build a free website from website builders. The best example is the use of WordPress. WordPress has been proven effective and the most usable website builder used by bigger companies around the globe. This website builder has free usage for businesses that wanted to have a simple start-up.
What about the NEGATIVE?
- Always remember the rule of the thumb when you want to build a business. Whether it is big or small, the rule is to always OVERESTIMATE YOUR START-UP COST. That way you can protect your business from crop-ups. Besides, having a contingency fund is a must for business owners, right?
- Take time to update your website from time to time. You can’t just build one and let it be. A website needs a manual updating from you as a business owner. One reason why most business owners, even the small ones have their own Virtual Assistant to help them update their website.
- Bad reviews can be visible once posted on your website. You may filter or delete the negative testimonials, but most of the time, before you even delete them, people already saw them.
- If you do not have a good display and poor showcasing of your branding, you will be tagged as an unprofessional business owner. That’s why it is very important to build a business website with the help of professionals.
- The free package is free. However, as your business grows and made a positive impact on your target market, there is a huge possibility that you are going to move a little bigger as well. You go for a subscription. This means that you need to grow your website and build a better one since you are already earning. You need an annual or monthly subscription of hosting and you need a paid domain. So which means, you need to spend an ample amount this time.
Are you decided to build a website already?
If the answer is NO, then you may continue your Social Media presence which is one of the best strategies also. However, if your answer is YES! Read the steps down below.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Budgeting – Do not strain your cash flow and drain your business debt.
- Figure how will you build your website. Will it be from website builders like WordPress? Or are you going to have them built by Web Developers?
- Draft your web pages. Do not forget the About, Story, Contact Us, and Testimonials.
- Be consistent with your content.
- Add payment system. You do not want to confuse and hassle your customers, right? Give your customers the comfort they need when they decide to buy your products or avail of your services. Payment options should be comfortable for them as much as possible.
- Always remember to test your website before you go LIVE. Please do not hurt yourself by committing this mistake. Test first before going live. And before you publish your content, always have it reviewed first and do proofreading.
Okay, how about if your decision is NO to the website yet. Well, Social Media is ready to rescue you when it comes to digital presence.
Building a website can cost you some amount in your budget. Yes, that’s true. But at least Social Media presence is your best alternative. With that, let me share with you also what you do on Social Media so that your branding or business can be visibly catchy.
- Decide your best platforms. You can choose among Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Tiktok, and the rest of the platforms that you want to be present. Make sure that you know how to manipulate your chosen platforms.
- Believe in the power of words. Your friends and families can help you out with that.
- Be consistent in posting your content. The same is through with having a website, you need to make updates on your social media pages.
- The advantage of scheduling content ahead. Unlike on a website, you can have a month’s of advanced scheduled posts or even a year’s of advanced posts on your social media pages.
Whether you want to have a website, or social media pages, or both, free or not, you need to be consistent with your content and be creative.
If consistency and building one is your problem, there are a lot of professionals out there who can be of great help in helping you out build your start-up business. Our team is here to help you.
We Design Digital Strategies for your Business and Ministries. Helping Christian and Women Entrepreneurs design online presence and manage digital strategies for growth of business and ministries through Web Design and Digital Business solutions.
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