Why have a website when you have Social Media and marketplaces?
This question now arises more and more, especially in the minds of entrepreneurs who are just starting a new business. We can now easily find pretty much all information about a company or a product on their Social Media pages and even engage with them directly. It all seems convenient, fast and rather budget-friendly, unless you go overboard with too many paid adds and expensive content licenses. But is this a viable approach that you should consider? Well, it could be. For a short term or at the beginning of your business endeavor, when you want to test the market’s reaction to your products or services, the communities you can reach on social media platforms can definitely help. Also, if you are happy with a very small scale business that grabs customers every now and then, you can save your money and keep on posting.
On the long term, however, if you plan to grow past the level of a “door-to-door” sales operation, you should look into how the online mechanisms function and what is the actual role of a website.
Understanding how online marketing works
Some of us have gotten so used to the ‘world wide web’ and we don’t even bother anymore to think how we ended up one click away from buying the exact product we wanted right now. But that is the result of properly implemented online marketing strategies that can be very easy to understand if we compare the systems with what happens in real life. Let’s say that we have a town’s market full of people wondering around, talking to each other and looking to buy or sell things. In this market, we also want to sell something and earn money. Regardless of what our product or service is, the main rules apply: we need to grab people’s attention, show them what we have to offer and persuade them to buy. We can start drawing attention by shouting our offer, raising our product or hand in the air or wearing a colorful shirt with a funny message on it that would get people curious about our goods. If we see someone looking at us, we engage in a dialog and hopefully we get to make a sale. Just like any business now on Social Media, right?
But if this way of doing business is not very satisfying and people are showing real interest in what we have to offer, then the logical thing to do is to set up a stand or, better yet, a shop where potential customers can see all that we have to offer, in detail and make it easy for them to choose and buy more things they need from us. This way, we will of course stand out from the rest of the sellers and reoccurring customers will know exactly where to go when they’ll want some more. The same things happen in the online spectrum which is why I find it very useful to understand at least the basics of the online marketing funnel.
Online platforms are just like the real-life markets. People hang around there following their diverse interests and we want to use our accounts and pages to grab their attention and show them what we have to offer. Knowing how to do that is a very valuable skill these days! But if we want to set up a strong online business model, then it becomes mandatory to have a custom built website that not only provides all the information about our products and services but it also guides the visitor along the sales process by placing crucial calls to action that will, in the end, close the sale or generate a highly qualified lead. You can find out more about how a website should work in our article here and you can consult our subscription plans to see for yourself if it is an investment worth considering.
What about e-shops vs. Marketplaces?
Today, marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, Emag and other industry-focused platforms provide a great opportunity to promote and sell your products and again, to some extent, it could be enough to earn a living and even get a substantial income but if you plan on growing a solid online business, you will need a strong foundation based on a web store that you own and that can provide you with both flexibility and complete control over how you present, promote, sell and service your products.
It makes total sense, however, to take full advantage of these marketplaces by integrating your e-shop with them when possible. That way, you will maintain your independent business while benefiting of their enormous reach, SEO power and customer base, in exchange of their commission, of course.
Before you think that building your own online store will be a heavy burden, especially at the beginning, make sure you check out our e-commerce plans in order to get a realistic view on the actual investment and the benefits it can generate for you.
Latest comments