5 Reasons Why Your Business Website Matters More Than Ever
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It’s hard to go anywhere these days without seeing enthusiastic requests to connect with brands. From local businesses to Fortune 50 companies, businesses everywhere are embracing the social media revolution to build stronger consumer relationships and tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
Outdated and Tired
However, in the race to master new social media tools, brands often leave one critical online presence behind: their websites.
Marketing budgets, copywriting, graphic design, and online efforts increasingly focus on the social media explosion. In the process, many company websites have become outdated and tired. In some cases, websites are missing altogether as small businesses increasingly opt for the simplicity and zero-dollar price tag of setting up a Facebook page in lieu of a website.
Yet websites are still critical -- maybe more now than ever. After all, social media efforts like Twitter campaigns end up driving traffic somewhere, right? And why build a beautiful and savvy Facebook presence that funnels consumers to a boring, inaccurate website?
The Numbers Say Websites Still Matter
If you’re looking for proof that the website hasn’t become a brand’s technological dinosaur, an August 2011 GlobalWebIndex report found that more than 60 percent of U.S. Internet users visited a brand’s website in the previous month. Compare that to just 22 percent who visited a branded social networking page (such as a brand’s Facebook page).
Websites matter. Here are the key reasons why you need to pay attention to yours:
1. All social roads lead to your website. If you’re a business, every YouTube video, Tweet, Facebook update, and blog post your create should have a single goal: Convince readers or viewers to take some kind of action (buy something, make a call, sign up, etc.) These types of direct actions (aka the outright sales pitch) are going to take place on your website. So you need to think of your website as the last, and most important, step in closing the sale or driving whatever type of action you’re after.
2. Your website is permanent. Social networks and tools come and go. Remember Friendster? MySpace gave way to Facebook. And Google+ has now arrived on the scene. There will always be social media tools, but the popularity of specific tools will change over the years. Your website, however, is here to stay.
3. You have control over your website. With your website, you are in complete control. You determine the navigation; you define the page structure; and you create the look and feel. With social media accounts and pages, you’re at the mercy of the site. While Facebook, for example, does offer some customization and tab options, your creativity, branding, and user experience will always be limited in some way by the social network. On top of this, Facebook or other sites can always choose to change the look of their site or their policies -- and your opinion won’t be considered.
4. Only your website can convey detailed information. Websites remain critical interaction points where interested visitors can learn all the details of your products or services. When it comes to information, the same level of complexity and breadth of information simply cannot be matched on Facebook tabs or a YouTube profile. If customers are looking for product specifications, need to learn more about a doctor’s specialties, or want to see a restaurant’s full menu, they’ll go to the website.
5. Your website pulls everything together. In the days of multi-channel digital marketing, it’s all too easy to end up sending mixed messages. The website can serve as a central reference point that sets the tone and content of the brand message for all other channels to follow.
Of course, I’m not suggesting any business should ignore their social presence and social marketing campaigns. But we need to realize that the company website is uniquely valuable and integral to social media efforts. Facebook and Twitter can be powerful satellites of your company’s website, but they should never replace it.
Nellie Akalp is the CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing service. To find out more about her, get exclusive discounts, and great giveaways ‘LIKE’ the CorpNet.com Facebook page or Follow her on Twitter @CorpNetNellie.
