As social media platforms emerged and grew in popularity over the last decade, business owners and marketers have clamored to leverage them in an effort to connect with their target audiences, and ultimately, transform them into loyal fans and customers. It’s a great and beautiful thing, but what many didn’t realize is that they started to go too far. And by too far we mean that marketers and business owners began to focus so much on social media that they neglected – or failed to launch – their own websites.

Do you fall into this camp? If your answer is yes, we’d like to present you with three reasons your business needs to have a website and not rely on social media for your entire digital presence.

1. Social Media is Complementary, not Solitary

While social media is a great compliment to your total online presence, it is not a platform you can control. The algorithms change regularly, making it harder for businesses to connect to their audience. And future changes are hard to predict, which means you’re left uncertain about how visible your business may be down the road.

In addition, recent studies have shown declining numbers for social media use.  In 2018, 50 million fewer hours were spent on Facebook than in 2017. Meanwhile, the volume of Google searches grows by approximately 10% each year.

Ideally, you should use social media to drive traffic to your website not rely on being found on social media.  Which brings up another interesting scenario.  Your social media profile is only accessible to those who have accounts.  Imagine a consumer has searched and found your business only to be forced login to the social media account in order to view anything relevant, and account they may have not logged into in months and cannot remember their password.  What do you think will happen?

2. Consumers rely on websites

Consumers have come to expect that they will be able find and interact with your business online. 97% of consumers rely on finding and researching a business or product online and 75% of people judge a business’ credibility based on its online presence and this significantly impacts their buying decision.   Having an SEO optimized website, increases your chance of being put in front of your ideal audience.

Websites benefit all industries today and all business sizes.  In Connected Small Business in the United States, Deloitte’s analysis found that small businesses which are digitally advanced:

• Earned two times as much revenue per employee
• Experienced revenue growth over the previous year that was nearly four times as high
• Were almost three times as likely to be creating jobs over the previous year
• Had an average employment growth rate that was more than six times as high

3. Having a website will save you time

Your website is meant to speak for you, sharing the information about your brand, what you do and how you do it. It should answer all the initial common questions a consumer may have and inquire about.  Freeing you up to only spend time with those who have moved in the quality lead category and less time on the information seekers.  And it is there to answer and provide information to the public 24/7!  Your site does not have to be complex; it should be visually appealing (remember those 75% of judgy people), and must answer the questions:

• Who are you?
• What service or product to you offer?
• How can you be contacted?

We live in a time of instant information, meaning these questions should be apparent and clearly represented.  You want to ensure those qualified leads have can contact you easily.

So as the saying goes, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.  Use social media to enhance your online presence.  Share valuable information to your social media platforms, and engage with your audience there. But remember at the end of the day your website is your only real online marketing collateral you own, and is the only digital marketing element you control fully.