“I have a Facebook Page..Why do I need a business website?”

We get asked this a lot. And we get it. Especially when you’re a small business owner, and every penny counts, the option of having a totally free online presence via a Facebook Business Page is appealing. After all, why should I pay for a website? A designer? Hosting? Domain name? Maintenance plan, etc.? I could get my name out there for free! The truth is it’s just not the same. I have put together 7 reasons why you shouldn’t replace having a business website with simply a Facebook Business Page:

  1. Too much noise on Facebook
  2. You don’t own your tribe
  3. Limited customizability
  4. Not all of your ideal customers use Facebook
  5. Limited SEO capabilties
  6. Competition is fierce
  7. The What-If factor

1. Too much noise on Facebook

If you’re anything like me, you get distracted on any kind of social media platform. Lets take the best case scenario: you brought the customer onto your Facebook Business Page. You’ve posted all of this great content, trying to nurture your target audience, and low and behold! Your potential customer gets a ding! Notification! That little red badge is so small but so appealing to click on! And there goes your guy/gal. And believe me, they are not going to remember to return back to your page once they found out that cousin Samantha finally got engaged. Its a long and drawn out spiral from there.

2. You don’t own your own tribe

Your biggest wealth is your following. Let me specify..Your biggest wealth is YOUR following. That’s right, on Facebook, they may have liked your page, but you don’t own that lead. You don’t have a consensually opted in email address in hand, through which you can nurture your customers until they are ready to purchase your product/service. Not to mention the loads of benefits of email marketing such as tagging leads into different groups to nurture them based on classifications, which is totally unavailable with Facebook posts on your page. It’s a shot in the dark, hoping that something sticks to someone.

3. Limited customizability

Facebook has many of its own advantages, and you can create a business presence on the platform, but unfortunately, every business is going to do so and therefore it is much harder to stand out. There are only so many options for customizing the look and feel of your business page on Facebook. While yes, they allow for uploading photos, link, cover photos, profile photo, about section, etc., there is only so much you can do with the cards dealt to you. When I build websites for our clients, I integrate a look and feel into their site that will leave their consumer with a memorable impression. The ability to design and craft the user experience is much more available on a business website, the options are limitless.

4. Not all of your ideal customers on using Facebook

While yes, most people have facebook nowadays, you have to still consider your target market very carefully ot figure out where you have your highest, most dense amount of them. If you are trying to cater to a much younger crowd, well then, in mid 2020 many have already shifted their focus to other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. A recent poll shows that in 2020 only about 68% of U.S. adults are on facebook. That’s 32% of business that you could be leaving on the table! Say you make $100k/year…well now you made $68k. While social media marketing is very important to the growth and success of your business, having a business website that is catered towards your ideal customers is vital. It can help you offset that constant search for the latest platform that hosts most of your customers.

5. Limited SEO Capabilities

Imagine this: you need a plumber to install a new bathtub in your bathroom after your old one broke. What’s the first thing you do? That’s right, you go to your good friend Google and perform a quick search. I don’t believe most people would perform that search on Facebook, am I right? While yes, Facebook pages do rank in Google, you don’t have the ability to implement an SEO strategy that is filled with target specific industry keywords and backlinks to your content. Generally the only way people will go to your page on Facebook is mostly if they know of your brand already.

6. Competition is fierce

I’ll let you in on a small secret most people don’t really know about: Everything you do online leaves a trail behind you. Facebook is FULL of business just like yours. One feature that Facebook has is marketing to ‘look alike crowds’. Meaning, your customers will be marketed to by other similar companies on Facebook merely because they entered your business page. And now it is know in the Facebook algorithm that they are ‘interested’ in services like yours. Suddenly you can find yourself in a pool of 50 other sharks trying to bait your customers with shinier and brighter offers than what you currently have.

7. Lastly, the What-If factor

I know you’ve probably heard this before, but it is still very much applicable and let me explain with a personal example. What if facebook shuts down tomorrow? Or If Facebook decides to close your account? Or Facebook changes it policies that directly affect you?, etc. The list goes on. When you don’t have your own business website, you are dependent on many factors that are no longer in your control. I have personally experienced this now. One of my biggest marketing channels is TikTok. As some of you may have heard already, in mid 2020 Tiktok keeps threatening to get banned in the U.S. and has already been banned in several big countries due to various data management issues. Of course, I am left scratching my head thinking, “Why did I put in all this effort to cultivate such a large following on TikTok? Luckily I have been also cultivating my brand through my website, and gathering smart business owners like yourself to follow my company. I think I have proved my point.

Conclusion

Should you stop giving so much love and attention to your Facebook page? Absolutely not! Facebook is an amazing place to grow your audience and cultivate your following. However it won’t give optimal results if used on its own. You should be using your Facebook page as more of a tool to bring people to your website, where you have much more control over guiding your customers to your desired outcome. One where you can build up a lead-list that you own. You don’t need a heavily designed, stunning website. But at least one that is user-friendly, clear, and optimized for search-engines.

Here at 1Bar Design, one of our pillars is crafting sites that are not only beautiful and strategic, but also ones that Google will most definitely not frown upon. Contact us to get the ball rolling on building your website to grow your business.

Here’s a classic conversation I’ll have with my clients about 1-2 months after we launched their website. Generally, as a result of their checking out new upgrades on their competitor’s sites:

Client: “Hey Solomon, I see [competitor company] has a blog on their website. Do you think I should have one too?”

Me: “I say an emphatic yes. But it depends on how committed you’ll be to writing and posting articles to that blog consistently.”

Client scratches their head thinking to themselves whether it’s worth the effort.

In order to give you some clarity, here’s WHY it is absolutely worth it for every business owner to invest some of their efforts into having a blog on their business website:

  1. Soups up your site for search engines
  2. Boosts your authority
  3. Provides you with tools for prospecting
  4. Strategically placed CTA’s
  5. Platform to connect with your true audience.
  6. Opportunity to expand on certain elements of your business

Soups up your website for search engines

In order to show yourself and your business as an authoritative entity to search engines, you need to be able to show that you know the answer to any question asked in your field of business.

A great strategy to do that is to publish consistent articles that address specific questions that pertain to your business.

In essence, you’re not only clarifying ambiguities, but you are doing so by using long tail keywords.

For example: If you sell travel insurance.

You would likely be tempted to settle for a general keyword that all insurance companies use: “travel insurance”.

But imagine you wrote an article on “Things to keep in mind when buying travel insurance” – you can include a plethora of combinations that will form long tail keywords such as “Compare travel insurance plans online for coverage” and “best ways to maximize your coverage is to buy travel insurance that…”.

You hit the subject from multiple different angles, search engines would prioritize showing your site over other competitors who haven’t shown their expertise like you.

According to Hubspot, websites that have consistent blog posts see a whopping 55% increase in traffic!

Boosts your authority

Often times, when visitors land on your website, it is their first impression of your company.

They know nothing about you, so the first impression is key.

Amongst other strategies, one of the best would be to display your expertise up front.

This can be achieved by showing a few sample articles from your blog on your homepage.

Generally these articles should be covering your target markets most frequently asked questions.

If you can immediately answer them, you are now seen as the expert and your company has now gotten a step closer to building that know-like-trust factor customers need to do business with you.

Provides you with tools for prospecting

Prospecting is never easy.

But, one thing that will definitely make it easier is coming to the battle prepared.

Have your arsenal fully loaded with the resources you need when cold reaching out to prospects.

Specifically, I’m talking about blog articles that are geared directly at answering your potential clients questions before they even ask them.

Figure out exactly what your ideal client is struggling with.

Make a list of about 5 – 10 struggles.

Write knockout articles to solve these struggles, providing them with free advice.

Now that you have these heavy cannons, go out there and talk to people. Network. The second the pain points surface themselves, either from you unearthing them, or your prospect sharing their own struggles, you drop an article bomb on them.

Now step away and watch them come back for more.

Strategically placed calls to action (CTA’s)

Once you write articles that answer all aspects of your leads’ questions, you now have the perfect opportunity to drop a call to action. A call to action is what transfers a potential client from passively interested into actively pursuing.

If someone reads your articles all the way through this means one of 3 things:

  1. They are really interested in the subject of the article
  2. They are genuinely interested in your business and are going through your articles to gain more insight on you.
  3. They are your mom and proud of you for any content that you publish.

In the event that we are not dealing with #3, it would be a really good idea to place a call to action in your blog articles somewhere towards the end, to nudge them in the right direction. They’ve gotten this far already, give them a button to click. You will only see more business for it.

And by the way:

You know you want to click it…

Platform to connect with your true audience

In order to connect to your audience, you need to have the ability to interact with them.

It may be tempting to expect to be able to interact with your tribe via social media, and while that may be the case at times, it’s not the quality of conversation that you’d like to have.

Oftentimes, when someone comments on your post on Facebook, it’s not because they intentionally went to your business page, read your post and then interacted.

Rather Facebook’s algorithm served your post to their newsfeed at that moment in time, and they happen to see it and leave a comment in passing.

Commenting in passing with 101 other distractions cannot be compared to blog article readers interacting with your post via the comments section.

Firstly, they are there intentionally.

They are ready to read, and learn more about the headline subject which will yield ultimately to a much higher level of feedback.

You can gain insight on who your tribe is through these sorts of correspondences, and adjust your offering accordingly.

Opportunity to expand on certain elements of your business

When describing your services and products throughout your website, there is a fine line to strike between too much detail and just enough. Often it’s tempting to share everything at once, but at that point you are taking away real estate from showing the benefits to the customer. Feature-stuffing is an easy rabbit hole to fall into, but it is inevitable that at times, you just gotta do it. For those moments, when you need to go feature-deep, blog articles are your savior. You can go as deep as you need, and the search engines will only reward you for the product-specific keywords you use. In the same vain, you can also use blog articles to discuss things like processes, timelines, sop’s, etc. Show how the gears turn within your company. Give some context to what you do. Search engines as well as people love this sort of content.

Consistency Over All

What is important to remember when it comes to leading a successful blog is that consistency is king.

Whether you’re writing for search engines to pick up on your content, or for people to learn more about your company, consistency is your holy grail.

Releasing a blog article once in 6 months won’t bring you much benefit.

There is no need to shell out 10,000 word articles, but any sort of valuable ideas you can contribute over 300 words are worth publishing into an article on your website.

If you are struggling with finding topics to write about I suggest reaching out to your clients, perhaps past clients you’ve worked with and see what they are struggling with.

This will give you a solid starting point, and believe me, ideas inspire each other as you’re writing.

Ready to build a purposeful website with a blog functionality you can use to grow your business? Click below to view our website design + strategy packages and start a conversation about your project today.

If you are ready to build a beautiful website with a blog to grow your business, reach out to us to start your project today.

It’s a scary time for everyone. We are in the midst of a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the world is expected to continue to function somehow from within the isolation of everyone’s homes. Regardless if you are a bakery, a medical clinic, or a law practice, every brick and mortar location has had to unexpectedly close their doors for an indefinite amount of time, until further notice.

First thing’s first: relax. This is only temporary. While the coronavirus may have put a pause on your office hours, this doesn’t mean that you sit home and pass time with worry and nothing else.

Sure the coronavirus has had a negative impact on the world, but it is our responsibility to find the silver lining, and believe it or not, there are plenty.

This is a perfect time to clean up your marketing strategy, and there are plenty of things you can do from the comforts of your own homes.

Don’t forget, you are not the only ones camped out at home, scrolling through your social media feed, reading blog posts, you found this one after all. Everyone is! The demographic you are targeting is out there almost guaranteed to be online and this is your chance to get yourself in front of them!

You must use this time wisely and clean up your marketing strategy.

Your Marketing To Do List:

Ready?

1) Clean Up Your Content

Use this chance to do an audit on your content. Are your articles driving your message through to your target audience? By the way do you even know who your target audience really is? Are you emails guiding the user towards conversion and are they timed correctly? There is really a lot to think about here. I recommend starting small. Set one content objective and tackle it. At the very least, produce new, fresh content and get it posted. If you’ve done that already, create some new posts, and schedule them to post in the future. This will free you up to get good work done when this coronavirus crisis is over with. 

2) Audit Your Website

Along the same lines as above, make sure that your website is truly telling your brand’s story. Check your web analytics to make sure that performance is on par with where it should be. (If you’re scratching your head about that last analytics part…guess what – set up analytics! If you’re wondering how to do that, get in touch with me, I can help you out.) This may even be the golden opportunity to give a fresh feel to your online presence and fully modernize and redesign your website. If these seem like overly daunting tasks, you can at the very least audit your homepage or your landing page to make sure it is delivering customer conversions to your door.

If you would like a free video audit of your website, let me know, and I will gladly review your website in a short 5 minute video.

3) Rethink Your Email Campaigns

Email marketing has proven time and time again to be an unbelievably effective marketing method. With a well thought out email sequence, you can convert a countless number of viewers. If you are wondering where to start with your email strategy, here is a great article from Hubspot that covers most of what you need to know.

Speaking of email marketing, revisit your lead magnets to make sure they are effectively building your email lists. If you are wondering what a lead magnet is, that is a sure sign that its time to include one on your Landing page and your Homepage. A lead magnet is something that incentivizes your viewer to give you their contact information in exchange for something of value that you provide them with. This may be a free ebook that may help them, access to a webinar that solves a challenge they may be facing, or anything else that will capture your market. Figure out what your customer’s common challenge is that you can solve and capitalize on that.

4) Video Marketing Is King

We live in the golden era of screens. If no one can find you on any screens yet, you are not reaching as many people as you could be. It is no secret that video marketing is one of the most effective types of marketing nowadays. Especially during this unexpected coronavirus outbreak, you need to be able to stand out in your audience’s already crowded feed. The best way to do that is through use of video.

Ideas of video marketing may include:

– Youtube channel videos

– Webinars

– Customer testimonial videos

– Social Media Video Ads

– Recorded Interviews with other industry experts

There are hundreds of other ways that you can create content through video. If you are still looking for ideas for video marketing, here is a great list of ideas to get inspired.

Think Longterm….We Will Recover From This!

It is easy to sit back and mope about how much revenue we’re loosing, but the smart business owners are using this time wisely. They are searching for marketing guidelines such as this one and dominating their marketing game. Be proactive about your business. These are only four out of hundreds of other things you can do while in isolation in your home.

Many businesses are tempted to suddenly take the desperation method and slash prices and offer blowout deals, but this is actually not the right approach. Don’t set yourself up for having to recover from this coronavirus crisis. Instead, position yourself to hit the ground running when we all get back to our pre-virus grind. Come in proud that you didn’t waste your #CoronaBreak and that you kept your digital game stronger than ever.

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