If you are a business owner and you feel you’ve stepped ahead of the game by getting yourself a Facebook Page for your business- that’s great! BUT, is it enough? Are you serving your clients and audience to its full potential through your Facebook Page? The answer is NO.
You may have asked yourself this question before, “I use Facebook, so why do I need a website?” We are here to tell you the 10 reasons why you need a website and the benefits it will reap for you and your audience!
1. Facebook is Not a Website – It’s a Marketing Tool
Facebook is not a great place to do all of your business. It is a great way to get the word out about a deal you might be having, or a great place to announce that you’re launching a new product.
However, using Facebook as your one stop shop for all of your business and products can get messy, especially for your clients.
Being a client or a customer on Facebook can be frustrating because there are so many things getting in our way as we scroll, or as we search. So many things want our attention at once and it can be hard to stay focused on what we were originally looking for. On top of that, if someone is trying to find a specific post of yours, it could take them a long time to find. In this day and age, customers want to find you quickly and easily. If it takes more than 5 minutes to find you or find a post of yours, they’ll simply leave.
2. The Majority of People Will Look for Your Website First to See if You’re Legit
When people go online to look for a business, they don’t look at Facebook first- they look on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any of the other search engines to find your website. If they are unable to find you at your own, specific website, it is another opportunity for them to move on and find someone else to give their business to.
Studies show that 51% of people will go to a website before calling you, and 25% of people will look for you on social media. The difference is significant and can be the difference between success and failure for you.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we are not saying that you should abandon your Facebook page completely. It is still a valuable marketing tool and a great way to connect with your target audience, however, to be seen as a serious and valuable business, you need a website in addition to your Facebook page. Having both working together can increase your business numbers tremendously.
3. Facebook Algorithms vs. Website Keywords
When a potential customer is looking for you on Facebook, the algorithm works in such a way that it will pull up the top result based on what that person likes or possibly would like. This person could still find you through the Facebook search engine, but it could take them a long time OR they could find a similar business run by someone else and decide to go in that direction.
The best way for them to find you on Facebook is by typing in your specific page name. If they don’t know what your page name is, there is a slim chance that they are going to find you.
Websites however, are much different. Websites use key words or phrases that you can look up to find what you are looking for. Sure, you can still type in the specific name of the business, but that will not be the only way you can be found online.
Let’s say for example that you own a bakery in Mesa, Arizona. Instead of having to specifically search, “Mackenzie’s Fabulous Bakery and Café” you can just search “bakeries near me” or “Mesa AZ bakery” or even just “bakery”. Search engines will usually show you the things that are in your area first.
Having a good keyword strategy will help you to climb to the top of the search results and gain a lot of online traffic right to you.
4. Customers Fall Down the “Rabbit Hole”
How many times have you gotten on to Facebook for something specific and then immediately became distracted by a notification or a post? Before you know it, you are looking at posts and videos that are completely unrelated to your initial purpose of logging on to Facebook. Let me elaborate in my own experience:
One day, I wanted to get onto Facebook to find a post that I wanted to show my mom. I logged in and immediately saw that I had a notification.
I clicked my notification and see that one of my friends had liked and commented on a post of mine. So I went to my post, liked her comment, then commented back. I click back on to my homepage to find the search bar, but I am distracted again, this time with a post from an old friend at the top of my page. I look at the post, like it, and then naturally I begin to scroll. I pass by videos, memes, and pictures that keep me from my original purpose.
At this point, I have completely forgotten why I am on Facebook, and now I am looking at a video made by someone in China on how to make an 8 foot cake shaped like a wedding dress. I have no idea how I got here, but now I’m here and it has become the center of my attention.
20 or 30 minutes later, I exit out of Facebook only realize that I haven’t found the post I was originally looking for to show to my mom. This is the rabbit hole to avoid.
Now, this might sound kind of silly, but it is a true story and I am sure that many people have this happen to them ALL THE TIME. If you are relying solely on Facebook as a way for visitors to find you, there is a very high chance that they will fall down this rabbit hole and completely forget about you.
It is much easier to keep your visitors engaged with you on your own website. It is harder for them to get distracted from you when they are on a page that helps guide them to the product or content they are looking for.
5. Lower Selling Fees
A lot of clients want to sell on Facebook not just their own website. But did you know Facebook and Instagram want to charge you 5% of your sale? When you are already running ads to get customers to see your products on Facebook and then you have to pay selling fees almost 2x higher than you would on your website you can see how sellers get aggravated and actual stop selling directly on Facebook!
On your own website you will spend about 2-3% per transaction depending on your merchant account. Stripe or PayPal are very common merchant platforms and they charge a flat 2.9% + $.30/transaction. If you are selling high ticket items, the difference back in your pocket each year can be significant selling on your own site instead of Facebook!
6. It is Easier to Sell from a Website or Landing Page than on Facebook
Selling on Facebook can become very messy very fast, for you and for your potential client. Like we have mentioned in our earlier tips, it is very difficult to navigate a business page on Facebook, especially if you are looking for something specific on that page.
Selling on a website is easier for both the client and the business owner because it is very easy to do and requires very little effort on both ends. On your website you can clearly lead people to checkout from a landing page, on Facebook – not so much! Again you can use Facebook to advertise but have an easier way for them to checkout on your website.
7. Facebook is Harder to Navigate for Visitors
Navigating a business page on Facebook can be a difficult task, even for those who may be regulars on your page. Imagine how hard it is for someone who has become recently interested in your company to navigate your page, or even find you on Facebook.
Navigating on a website on the other hand, is much simpler and much more organized to use. You can easily lead your audience to your blog, contact info, homepage, podcast, or whatever it is you are trying to put out there!
8. It’s Easier to Contact You on a Website
Contact Information is necessary in pretty much any business. No contacting anyone, no business. Getting contact information on a website is extremely easy.
Many websites have their phone number and email in the top or bottom right/left hand corner of every page on their website and if they do not have it there, they usually have an entire page for exchanging contact information. Once information is exchanged, it notifies the business owner and work can get started.
On Facebook, the usual way to contact someone is through Direct Messaging. If someone wants to message you about a question they may have, they can send you a message, but unless they’re your Facebook friend, you will not receive a noticeable notification. To accept message requests from someone you do not know, you would need to go into your messaging app and look under a hard to find, small-printed category called “Message Requests.” They do not make it easy for you to notice when someone you don’t know has messaged you.
If you are a business page on Facebook, unless you are using the business page app you may see the notification once but not find it again! So you have to be checking your inbox religiously to see notifications.
9. You Can Focus on Email Marketing List Building
Email Marketing is a great tool to connect to your audience more directly and keep their focus on you. Most websites have an email newsletter that people can sign up for to receive notifications or business updates. This is a great way to make sure that your customers are seeing what is important and not worry about them becoming distracted with other things on Facebook.
We want to stress again, it is not bad to have a Facebook business page for gathering traffic and engagements, but it is much more effective to email market directly to them. This way, your posts will not be relying on fate or chance to be seen by your target audience. You can send these important updates right to them.
10. You Own Your Audience, Facebook doesn’t
Having your own website for your business means that you are totally in charge of what your audience sees and not Facebook.
You don’t have to worry about ads, videos, posts or anything else getting in the way of your product. You don’t have to worry if Facebook is working today, or will all your images be broken. And if you are a products person, or someone who gives away free things, you won’t have to worry about being in Facebook jail regularly to share what you have to offer! Facebook owns your audience and heaven forbid they don’t like you, your account (and all your followers) would be gone. Not so with a Website, you control the content, you can build an email list from visitors and get them back with offers, blogs and other information on your website. It’s kind of like printing your own money when you fully use your website to its full potential!
We hope these tips help you see the value of a website vs. just using social media.
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Remember these online marketing channels go hand in hand to help expand your reach online but social media shouldn’t be your only means of advertising your business online.
Go out there today and use these 10 tips to the fullest! For more tips and tricks on online marketing, check out some of our other blogs!
