You get a lot of clients through social media, referrals, and an email list. You might think you have a good amount of leads or everyone you can handle right now. When you scroll through social media and even see my posts, you might think, “Yea, that’s great for other people, but do I need a website for my business?”
The answer?
A resounding yes!
Unless you have a monopoly in what you do or you never want to grow your business beyond where you are right now, you need a website.
Even if you’re rocking sales with DMs and simple landing pages, you need a website that builds trust in your business.
Don’t believe me? I get it. I talk to people all day long who think they don’t need a website anymore.
But let me tell you – without one, you’re putting your business at risk.
Let’s break down the 4 big reasons you still need a website – even in 2024.
You Own Your Website
The most important reason you need a website?
It’s the only part of your marketing that you own.
You could be thinking “But I control my Instagram account and it does great!” Sure, that’s true. But what happens when you randomly lose access to that account and you have to start from scratch?
This isn’t just an Instagram thing either. I’ve heard horror stories from multiple people over the last 6 months especially that they had to start over on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and what-used-to-be Twitter because of some weird glitch. They either got hacked, got reported for something nonsensical, or just couldn’t get logged back in for one reason or another.
There’s 0 customer support for any of these platforms and no real way to get back in, so you have no choice but to say goodbye to thousands of followers and a dedicated audience and build from scratch.
You Need a Home Online You Control
You cannot put all of your eggs in the social media basket. What happens if you’re in the middle of launching a great new service or product and suddenly it’s just gone?
Let’s be real – the billionaires who own these platforms don’t care about you losing your account.
But when you have a website, you have a place on the internet that’s actually yours. You own it, control it, choose what it looks like, and you even get to take your customers through the journey you want them to take.
Even better – you can reach more than 2% of your raving fans when you create content on your website.
A Website is Your Base
I don’t think every brand-new business needs a website, but if you want to grow and scale your business you do.
Why?
Because your website is the base for your online business. It’s what you build everything else on.
Think of when you played with LEGO as a kid (or if you’re like me, last week). To build creations, you often need a base plate for your LEGO to rest on. You can build your bricks up as high as you like because you’ve locked them into a foundation.
That’s your website. You create a space online that’s 100% yours.
Then you get to build on top of that with other strategies like social media and email marketing.
But you start with the base first before you try to create something amazing or your business can tumble.
Your Small Business Website Builds Trust
Maybe you’re not worried about losing your Instagram account. You can just send an email to your list with the new account and build from scratch.
It’ll be good to weed out the people who no longer fit your audience, right?
If this is what you’re thinking as I talk about your website as the base of your business, then I’ve got some tough love for you.
A website builds trust with your audience.
When they see that you’ve invested maybe just some time and a bit of money into your business, you look more legitimate.
You’re not an Instagram account that could disappear tomorrow after they Venmo you $500.
You’ve planted your flag on the internet and staked this little corner for yourself.
Just merely having a website that looks half-decent can help to improve your online presence and sales.
But what about those people that get referred to you?
Referrals Check Your Website
Getting a ton of referrals and think they’ll never look at your website?
Wrong!
Think about the last time you asked friends and other professionals for a referral for your business. You probably got at least 2 or 3 people that you wanted to check out.
So how did you decide which of these professionals you were going to work with?
You looked into them. You checked their social, their reviews, and their website.
A website is the fastest place for someone to get to know you and what you do. In just a few minutes (or even seconds), they can tell whether or not you are going to be a good fit to work with them.
What’s the flip side of this?
When a referral can’t find your website, they might forget to look further into working with you all together.
After all, if they can’t find you online, are you really real?
A Small Business Website Can Bring People to You
Perhaps my favorite advantage of a website? When you have a website for your business it can bring people to you that are looking for exactly you to help them.
Now, I’ll remind clients that you can’t just build a website and expect it to deliver traffic. Keep in mind that there’s an estimated 1.13 billion websites on the internet.
That might intimidate you and make you think – so how can people find me in that mess?
Easy. Through SEO.
Search engine optimization is a powerful tool you can use to your advantage that allows you to get found on Google and other search engines. Considering that the top traffic source for all websites is organic search, this isn’t something you want to neglect.
Let’s talk about why that’s powerful. When someone is typing into Google, they’re looking for an answer to their problems right now.
That means that they’re far more likely to buy from you because they’re ready to buy. Research shows that B2B companies generate double the revenue from SEO and organic search than any other strategy.
If you want your website to bring in people while you sleep or are on vacation, you need to get serious about your SEO. The good news for you is that Lauren Gaggioli and I just revealed the SEO secrets that earn you revenue.
A lot of your SEO comes from how your website is built, but then you can create amazing content your customers and Google will love. Bringing more and more people to you.
The best part? Whatever you do for your SEO compounds over time. So any investment you make can pay you back for years.
Everything Goes Back to Your Website
Perhaps the most obvious reason you need a website – I’m not even sure how people make sales without one.
Let me explain.
You post a new service on Instagram. Where do people go to learn more about it? You don’t have a lot of space to talk about it on social, so are you talking about it over. and. over. again?
That can be annoying, especially since only something like 2% of the people who follow you will see your post. So you have to try and wedge everything into that one post for your message to come across.
Then you might have to get on a long discovery call with people who aren’t the right fit for your service because they had no way to weed themselves out.
The introvert in me is dying a bit just thinking about that.
Use Your Website to Sell
Your website should be a literal sales tool, so use it!
When you have a clearly defined sales page on your website for each of your services, you can do a lot less manual work.
Your potential customers can get directed to a page on your website where they get all of the details – including price – and then choose whether or not they’re the right fit to work with you.
Now, you can’t just throw content up there on a page; you need to craft a sales page that will convert. But once you have a formula locked in, that same page can sell your service over and over again, without you having to do anything at all.
Sound amazing?
It truly is!
Work Smarter, Not Harder with a Website
No one has an endless amount of time on our hands to sit on sales calls that go nowhere or mess with algorithms that change on the daily.
Stop trying to do everything through channels that were never meant to sell and instead, it’s time to think about creating a website that can be your home base online.
Or your base plate for the LEGO pieces that make up the rest of your business.
However nerdy you want to get with that.
The point is – stop renting your space online and let’s own it instead.
