This is a common misconception.
You don't need a website if you're not selling anything, but that doesn't mean you can't have one. A website can be used for many different purposes, like promoting your brand or sharing your message with the world, and it's worth investing in even if you don’t intend on making any money from it.
A website is more than just a fancy brochure - it's an important marketing tool that helps to establish credibility before you've even made contact with potential customers.
You can create accounts on multiple social media websites and get people following if you post interesting content with something that resonates with your target audience.
Of course, sharing content is not a one-time thing. You need to post on social media regularly in order to keep your followers engaged. If you are an expert in a niche, this should be easy because you will have plenty of things to share. But if you are just starting out, it may be difficult to find topics for your followers and customers to share.
This is naturally time consuming and in most cases will not make you any money unless you are an affiliate marketer with links to porducts that earn you a commission. Even then, having a big enough audience is the only way to make this strategy pay, and a lot of marketers end up paying for ads from Facebook, Youtube, Instagram etc - which can end up being very costly.
Also don’t forget, some of these social channels only allow for a tiny amount of content and media so getting the content spot on is crucial.
There are many benefits to having a website, for example, you can protect sensitive content, and you can control who gets access to it.
If you don't have a website where your readers can find information about you then it's time to start thinking about one. You don't need to be actively updating it every day in order for it to work, bt people can visit your site at their leisure looking for updates and information that they need instead of trawling through masses of content that appears on Social Media channels.
You probably don’t need a website if your business is very specific to a small area. However, a website can offer you more opportunities. I would also suggest under these circumstances, that if you do not have a budget for a website, you should definitely make sure that your Google My Business page is 100% optimised for your business because that can bring in a lot of phone calls if used correctly and will normally appear close to the top of the Google results.
Having a well optimised GMB page is a must for every business because it is like a well ranked calling card that holds info that people will be searching for such as contact details and opening hours.
It should also be used like a small blog by posting something of interest once a week and all of the above is free.
If you want me to set up your GMB page then please get in touch using the form below.
Social media is a powerful avenue to promote your business and showcase your products.
Many younger people are spending less time on websites as they are focusing more on social media channels where they can interact with their friends.
For some businesses, it's enough just to have an Instagram or Facebook page and not a website at all, but it really depends on who your audience is. I believe that if you are targeting young people then this would work better than if you want to target older people who are less likely to buy from you on Social Media and more likely to buy from a professional website.
There is no substitute for the user-friendly interface of a website that acts as a portal for everything related to your business. It's also easier to establish credibility with potential customers than on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram account.
This is fair enough. However, please make sure that your website is
Mobile friendly
Has SSL installed for security
Takes only a second or so to load pages
Is hosted on a decent server (typical cost per month approx £10)
Hiring a web designer can seem expensive, if you are a small start-up or an individual you may not be able to afford it. There are ways you can build your own website without the help of a web designer but it may end up not doing the job you want it to.
If you have any kind of marketing budget then we suggest you think carefully about how it is allocated and see if there might be a portion of it you can use to get your website off the ground.
If you are looking for an affordable option to hiring a web design professional, then of course we recommend our own services and you can get a free quote by sending us a message using the form below.
Our prices start at £395.00 - there will always be annual renewals for domain and hosting but you will never be charged for annual renewals for the licences on the software we use.
You can use social media and email marketing to get some of the same benefits of having a website. You will need to have a larger following to make it work for you and post to all your accounts every day with something topical, interesting and engaging.
Social media and email marketing are both affordable and scalable, and provide a solid platform for customer engagement. With email marketing you need to understand that if you have a list of 10,000 customers, only around 1500 will open the email and a few hundred might click any links you send. Scale that up to 100,000 customers and it looks pretty enticing but scale it down to a list of 1000 and it looks like a waste of time.
The fact that all your competitors have websites is the very reason that you should also have one.
A website is only a lost cause if it is built and optimised badly. Any chance of building credibility would then be lost.
These days, it's all about using the content that gives your site the best chance of being found among the other many others, and for smaller local firms it is vital not to be invisible on Google. Remember, there are more Google searches for local products and services than there are Social media searches.
Putting in time and effort to make your website stand out from the crowd is not the only job of a web designer/developer. We also need to use cutting edge SEO techniques to make sure that your content is seen by those who are already searching for what you have to offer.
Do people no longer think of websites as the main way to do find the products and services they want?
Has the global pandemic not radically altered the perceptions of the public regarding online shopping?
You prefer to believe that they would rather just visit your store and you don’t need a website at all. You see the benefits of this are saving time, money, and resources which can be put into other aspects of your business.
Only time will tell, if you still think the same way in another couple of years then I guess you will not be investing in a website so I wish you the best of luck - seriously.