Now some people don’t thing it’s important to set up a website right away. I mean after all, you can just create a free account on social media to start your business, right?
Well, yes, you CAN create a social media account for free. But SHOULD you? My opinion? No, you shouldn’t. Because there are a few problems with this route to starting an online business.
So let’s go through some of those problems and why it’ll be harder for you in the long run to start your online business with just a social media account.
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Table of Contents
- 8 Reasons Why Having a Website is Better Than Social Media
- Do I need social media to run an online business?
- Should I Use Organic or Paid Marketing?
- Why a Website is So Important
8 Reasons Why Having a Website is Better Than Social Media
1. You don’t own your following on social media
Social media platforms are designed to keep you on the platform. That means if you create an account on TikTok, the whole goal of the app is to keep your audience on TikTok. They don’t want you to send your audience to your own website. Why? Because it’s their audience. You’re just doing all the work to build an audience for them.
2. Lowered Organic Reach
The more creators on the TikTok app for example, the more TikTok grows. And we’ve seen time and time again. As social platforms increase in size, so more and more people join, those platforms decrease the organic (free) reach of its users. That means as time goes on and the app grows in popularity, your organic reach decreases, so you’re only reaching a small portion of your own audience with each post. This is currently happening with TikTok. Many creators are seeing less and less reach with each new algorithm change.
And this is exactly how Facebook and Instagram worked as well. It’s the cost of creating that “free” social media account to grow what you believe to be “your” audience. It isn’t your audience at all.
It’s the audience of the social platform that you’re on, and you’re stuck with any changes that platform decides to make. Even if it makes your reach low or nearly zero. And here your reach means how many people you potentially get in front of each time you publish or post your content.
3. Lowered Organic Reach Increases Paid Ad Usage
Each time you post content on social media, you’re only reaching a small portion of your audience. You’ve probably noticed this time and again, but especially when social platforms decide to make algorithm changes. Your content doesn’t reach everyone in your follower list, so it’s getting seen less and less over time.
That is until you start promoting with paid ads. Social platforms make money by getting you hooked with free or organic reach that’s easy to use. It’s easy to grow your audience. Then they slowly decrease your reach to your own audience and make you pay to get your content seen.
This is why it’s so important to have your audience on a platform that you own and can control. Your website and email list is the only way to do that. Think of your website as your brick and mortar store. Your goal is send everyone you get in front of to your website or email, whether it’s paid advertising or free.
4. Email Marketing has a much higher ROI
Growing your email list is one of the most valuable things you do for your online business. It’s like a loyalty rewards system for a retail shop. Think about you favorite stores that you shop at. Do you have a rewards account with them? Maybe you’re part of a VIP group on Facebook for discounts. Or maybe you’re on their email list to be the first to know about new sales. Your email list is how you take a visitor from a one time visit to a top-paying customer.
Once a visitor lands on your website, the whole goal is to get them on your email list. This is because email has one the highest ROI (return on investment) in all of online marketing. According to a study by Campaign Monitor, for every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return. That’s a 4400% return on investment. Social media just doesn’t provide that kind of ROI.
5. Gaining Online Credibility
Another reason it’s important to create your website first before trying to grow on social media is credibility. The first thing most people do when researching a business is look for its website.
A website shows professionalism and a commitment to your business. Show your audience that you are in it for the long haul. You aren’t going to up and quit making content and helping them. And showcase your credentials so they can trust that you know what you’re talking about. Trust that you’re someone to even listen to in the first place.
So make sure they can find you, which leads me to my next point: organic traffic. If you’re just getting started, check out this article The 3 Things You Actually Need to Start a Website.
6. Organic Website Traffic
Without a website, you’re losing out on so much organic traffic that you could be building up over time. Organic traffic is the free, unpaid traffic that you get from your content online.
By creating content consistently you’re giving Google’s algorithm (and any other search engine) a reason to show your website in Search Engine Results Pages. The page that comes up when you search on Google. And by the way, consistency is what it means to you. What can you sustainably keep up with while not reaching burn out?
Don’t listen to everyone shouting online about creating content seven times per day. If you can create quality content twice a week, do that. But never create content for a schedule rather than thinking about what you can actually handle. Because you’ll give up and quit creating content. And that isn’t the way to help your audience learn from you or buy from you.
7. You’re Creating Evergreen Content
By creating organic content, you’re letting Google (and your audience) know that you’re a relevant source for the information that you’re consistently putting out.
This type of content and traffic is evergreen, meaning you can hit publish on a blog post on your website and see traffic coming in from that post for months, even years down the road. The same is true with podcasts or YouTube videos. These channels are evergreen and allow you to create and get more results out of one piece of content.
It’s how you work more efficiently as a solo mompreneur. Learn how to create evergreen content.
You no longer rely on constant social media posts 4 or 5 times a day just to keep the algorithm happy. You can create content and let that content work harder, so you don’t have to.
Learn about more Types of Content Marketing, so you can choose the best types for you as the creator and for your audience.
8. You Own It
If you haven’t learned from this article already, my main thing about creating content is that it’s very important to have something you own. Your options are a full website, one-page landing page, or an email account with the option for a landing page(s). Dive a little deeper into these three options for the design of your website.
Do I need social media to run an online business?
Social media isn’t a necessity. If you like social media and you’re a consumer yourself. Meaning, if you’re a big Instagram fan and you use it already on the personal side, then it might be a great fit for your business. It just depends whether or not your audience is on Instagram.
But if you hate all social media channels. You don’t like constantly or even just consitently creating new weekly content, then social media might n ot be the right fit. Also, if you don’t like being on camera. Then you might not like social media as it’s so heavily relying on video content these days. Especially for traditional social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, and even Facebook.
There are other channels that you can utilize if social media isn’t your thing. Like for instance, blogging, Pinterest, or longer YouTube videos. All of these options help to create evergreen content that drives traffic for your business long after you actually create it.
Should I Use Organic or Paid Marketing?
To be honest, it isn’t an either or situation. Organic marketing (free or unpaid marketing) and Paid marketing (ads and sponsorships) work together and complement each other for an overall marketing strategy. But when you’re first starting out, I believe organic marketing is best to start with.
My reasoning for this opinion is based on well over a decade of marketing experience. I was working in marketing when social media was a brand new, infant thought. Businesses were just seeing the rewards that social media could give them.
And I’ve watched as each new social media platform used the exact same tactics to grow and then eventually charge lots of money to it’s users.
Related Article: Marketing Showdown: Organic vs. Paid Content Strategies for Solopreneurs
Why a Website is So Important
Your website is how you’re found from organic searches online. You optimize your website and create content around specific topics to ensure you’re showing up when someone searches for the products or services that you provide.
That’s why it’s so important to create content strategically. And to perform keyword research with your strategy in mind.
But the most important aspect of creating your first website, is to simply start. Get that first page created. I know it seems scary at first because it’s new, and you’re not sure what to do or who to listen to. But starting your online business with the right foundation will help you grow more in the long run.
You can always add social media to your content strategy later, but social media should be the gasoline to your already burning fire. Without your business, your offers, and setting up a way to grow your own audience, you don’t have a fire to add gasoline to. At that point, you’re growing an audience for the social platform, not for y-o-u. AND you’re running the risk of growing an audience without a way to monetize that audience.
You monetize your audience by getting them off of the social media platform and onto something you own. This includes your website or email list where you can sell or have affiliate links to make commissions from. So start your online business with a solid foundation and get your website ready to attract your ideal customers like a magnet. And you don’t need a full website with multiple pages. You can start with a one page landing page.
Related Article: The 3 Things You Actually Need to Start a Website
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