Websites vs. Social Media
A debate in marketing is the topic of social media vs. website: can your social media account replace your website in 2023?
Social media is an excellent marketing tool. It helps you reach new audiences, build a community around your brand, grow relationships, and share valuable content. Social media accounts provide a platform where your business is seen and heard and you can grow a successful brand for your online business. But is a social media account all that your business needs, or is there value in a website that social media cannot provide?
In this post, we are going to discuss some of the most important reasons why your business still needs a website and how websites will set you up to build a successful online platform.
The Benefits of a Website
Credibility
One of the main reasons you should have a website is to increase your organization’s credibility. Chances are several providers are offering a similar service/ product to yours. One way you could stand out is by having a website that looks good and communicates quality information to your customers. Without a website, or a bad quality one, people may question your legitimacy as a business. Having a website is an opportunity to make a great first impression and give people comfort that you’re a real business.
Leads
One of the most intriguing reasons to have a website is that it can increase your chances of getting leads. Once people find you online and become interested in your product or service, they’ll know how to contact you for more information which will allow you to increase your sales. Even though websites have a cost, when used correctly, they have a positive ROI and could become a powerful asset.
Organic Traffic
Once you have an SEO-Optimized website, you have a chance of showing up in Google search results. This will give you the opportunity to increase your customer base.
24/7 Online Presence
One of the major advantages of having a website is that it is accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even during non-business hours, customers can access your website and avail of your services or get the information they need, which is one of the key elements of the importance of a website in the business. The website is always at work to ensure that customers who come in are always served in the comfort of their homes.
24/7 Customer Support
Providing customer support is a tough job for any business. However, providing customer support online is easier and more cost-efficient than hiring personnel to provide support. This is where the importance of having a website becomes clear as customer support through a website can be provided in various ways: FAQs and Chatbots.
Tracking
Tracking is one of the beneficial features of building a website. You’ll be able to see what your audience searches for and pay special attention to your website so you could self-adjust to your customer’s needs. Here are some tools to help you:
Google Ads
Google Ads can make a company more successful if the campaign is implemented correctly.
The marketing world has changed dramatically in recent years, and Google Ads is one of the platforms driving this transformation. Google Ads is one of the most effective methods of paid online advertising.
Google Ads allows businesses to reach anyone who uses Google to search for information, products, and services online. When used properly, Google Ads has the potential to send you large numbers of people who want exactly what you have to offer. Suppose you don’t currently have a Google Ads account for your business or you don’t use your Google Ads account to its full potential. In that case, you should seriously consider taking full advantage of this platform or contact The Los Angeles Media Factory for guidance.
Through Google Ads, you pay only for actual, measurable results, such as website clicks and business calls. This structure is known as a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. You can set a monthly Google Ads campaign ad-spend cap that Google will automatically follow, and you can choose to make your target audience global or local.
CRM Software
CRM software gathers customer interactions in one central place to improve customer experience and satisfaction.
CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” a software that helps businesses manage, track and organize their relationships with customers. A CRM can help you store customer data such as user behavior, how long a customer has been with your business, purchase records, and notes on sales interactions, which you can use to optimize your sales and marketing processes and improve customer service across your organization.
A CRM tool can help you streamline your sales process, build a sales pipeline, automate key tasks and analyze all of your sales data in one centralized place, potentially increasing sales and productivity. Hubspot is a great, free, and accessible CMR software to get started.
Google Business Profile
Google has easily maintained its top spot as the most popular search engine in the world, holding over 75% of the search market share, and it’s only increasing.
Creating a Google Business Profile is a way to increase visibility and increase your chance to pop up in search results. With a Business Profile, you can maintain a clear image of your business by posting photos to showcase your products/services, input your availability and contact information, and attract new customers interested in what you have to offer.
If people want to find out additional information about your business, and your new hours, or want to contact you about a few questions they had about you, you can bet they probably aren’t going to crack open the Yellow Pages. Instead, they’re going to Google your business’s name and check the right-hand panel for the information they need. If it’s not there, they might look elsewhere.
What a Bad Web Design Could Do To My Business
Even for a well-designed website, your bounce rate—the portion of visitors leaving after seeing one website page—can be up to 40%. If your website design is not so good? Watch out. There are six things bad websites have in common. A cluttered layout, hidden navigation menu, lack of color contrast, non-responsive design, and inconsistent typefaces are a few hallmarks of bad website design. Still, the main issue with sites with poor design is a lack of user-centricity.
Loss of a Lead
Visitors come to your website to make a purchase, learn about your product, sign up for a newsletter, or apply for a job. Bad website design is likely to blame if they have difficulty accomplishing any of these tasks. Bad usability websites could cause significant frustration and even mean your visitors will exit quickly.
Question Legitimacy
A poorly designed website may pop the question of whether or not your business is “legit” and have people question if it’s a scam. Answering phone and facetime calls is a waste of time that could’ve been used for something more productive. People will create assumptions about your product based on your website. If you have a bad website people will question the quality of your products and leave to go to your competitors.
What Now?
Website design and development is a complex process. Don’t leave it up to someone who doesn’t understand your business needs. We can provide you with a website that will help your company get found on search engines, increase sales and increase brand awareness. Reach out to The Los Angeles Media Factory, so we could help you construct a website that’ll reflect the personality, quality, and services your business has to offer.
