Occasionally I\u2019ll run across an individual that asks me one specific question or just puts it in the form of a statement. That question or statement generally sounds like this: \u201cDo you really need a website today? I mean I have a Facebook\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t need a website\u201d. Generally the people saying these things have limited knowledge about Digital Marketing and that\u2019s ok! I\u2019m assuming that may even be why some people are reading this blog. I want to address this mentality by explaining how I view Social Media, Websites, and an entire Digital Marketing process. There are quite a few aspects to Digital Marketing and all<\/strong> of them work together<\/strong> to accomplish the same overall goal of getting your brand, message, products, and services out there to the general public. Let\u2019s dive in to a little bit more detail by talking about websites and how I believe they function best.<\/p>\n Generally speaking your website is an online representation of your business just as your brick and mortar location is a physical representation of your business. If you wouldn\u2019t have trash laying around, broken signs, or various other issues plaguing your businesses physical location why would you want a subpar website representing your business? You don\u2019t want the website to load slow, images to look bad, content to contain errors, or the design to be off putting.<\/p>\n The above issues would be the equivalent of your physical location having broken light bulbs, holes in the wall, a falling sign, or just being generally dirty. No one wants to go to a hole in the wall location and no one will want to use a crappy website. If you\u2019re already wanting to create a website then that is great, but please take the time and effort to do it properly or to hire someone that can do it properly.<\/p>\n Now you might ask why cant your Social Media be an online representation of your business. Of course your Social Media pages will represent you, but think about how you use Social Media personally when you happen to be on it. How often do you find yourself looking deeply into one businesses page on Facebook unless that is your only option? Do you surf every post by one business to see what they are doing or check Facebook to find out store hours, pricing, or other pertinent information?<\/p>\n You may do these things on occasion, but for the majority of people we simply \u201cGoogle\u201d the name of the business or our question in general. This is especially true when we see an ad for something. About half of the time we do a Google search for the business to check its legitimacy.<\/p>\n Sometimes depending on where you are searching from if a Facebook page is the first thing to pop up I bet you\u2019ll scroll a bit on the first search results page to see if you can find a website. Why do you think that is? Personally I believe it\u2019s because you know that if there is a website then it most likely will have the answer to the question you have and if the website is good then it will be more easier for you than checking the Social Media page.<\/p>\n I like to think of my Website as a hub for all that is my business. I can write these blogs that people may refer to or read through, post new projects I\u2019m working on, update my contact information, change my store hours, or update photos and imagery all in one convenient place where everyone knows they can find that information. Another key thing you may want your website to do, depending upon your business model, is convert potential clients into real clients.<\/p>\n There are various ways to achieve conversion goals with Calls To Action (CTA) like a 50% deal with a button leading consumers to where they can move forward with the deal. You can also just share information, which is what I mainly focus on. By sharing my knowledge I am giving away FREE information, but willing to bet that in the end most people want to focus on their business and specifically the parts they love.<\/p>\nWhat Is A Website?<\/h5>\n
Social Media<\/h5>\n
Online Hub<\/h5>\n