Can you book clients or sell your products from social media? Yes! It’s a great place to start or to use if you’re testing the waters for a new idea, but your business definitely needs a website.

Look professional

Just after college I moved to Seattle, during the dotcom boom of the late 90s. My friends and I decided we wanted to go some place new to eat, so I choose a restaurant because of it’s website. It had great photos, information, the menu… everything we’d expect today, but this was not very common at the time. Well, it turned out the website was way better than the food, and my friends laughed when they found out I chose it based on it’s pretty website.

Today, though, it’s expected that businesses have a website, with easy access to quick information. When I google a business and the Website link on google is missing, it makes me question their legitimacy, and likely choose someone else to do business with.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands of dollars and have a website custom designed. With SquareSpace (and some other platforms but they are my favorite for DIY) you can put together a template website yourself to at least get started. You likely later want to bring a designer in once you have a good feel for your brand, or need your website to do more, but to start having a simple website at least gives you that credibility.

It’s yours to control

You get to choose the style, the message and your content. You can use your website to walk potential clients through what you want them to see. If you choose a platform that you can edit (even my WordPress clients learn how to be able to quickly edit the basic items on their websites) you can easily change your pricing, services and update your availability.

Social media changes on a whim

Without naming names, I think we all know our favorite photo sharing social media that no longer likes photos! In 2022, they changed their algorithm so that short form video is the priority. If this was your only place to share your business, it leaves you having to really mix things up on short notice. If you have a website, there’s still another place for your clients to go to learn about your services. It’s again about control, and having ownership of your content.

Get noticed on Google

SEO still matters. Search engines are now only one of many ways to get noticed, but it’s still important. A website helps you start to establish your place with the search engines. I’m not saying that you’ll create a website and instantly get found, but it’s the first step. Then you can choose how much of a priority learning SEO or budgeting for an expert is for your business.

Create an email list

Yes, you can create an email list without a website. You can signup for my list right from FloDesk, my email list provider, but no one is going to find it this way. If you have a website, you can offer a free opt in to entice people to signup for your email list, and have the signup strategically placed throughout.

Why an email list? This might be it’s own complete topic but in short it lets you have a way to reach your audience. If you have a large following on Instagram and everyone moves to Tiktok, you’ve lost your way to reach people. While we all get too much email, marketing studies still show email marketing as the most effective tool.

One of my motivations in life and in business is to simplify. I see a website as your cozy little cottage on the internet. Okay, perhaps I’m still dreaming of a little beach bungalow and not letting summer go…

Really it’s a place that’s home for your brand. Your social channels can feed into it. You can connect your email list and CRM (Dubsado, Honeybook, ect) to it for leads. It all connects. I realize it may sound complicated to get this all setup but once you have it all together, it will simplify running a business, and hopefully bring a little bit of ease to your life.

Have a new website project in mind or just need a refresh? Book a call.