6 Excellent Reasons to Own a Website

A website is essential for any business that wants an effective, quality online presence. Notice how every large company has one. With the exponential growth of the various social networks, a false perception was created — especially among small or early-stage businesses — that a page on a social network works as a substitute for a website. This is a rather mistaken view. In an effective digital marketing strategy, a website acts in a way that complements social networks. The opposite could also be said: that a website does not replace the role of social networks. The marketing team should master the distinctive resources offered by each of these channels and make the best possible use of them within their campaigns.

With that in mind, here are 6 excellent reasons that make a website a fundamental piece within an effective digital marketing strategy:

1) Websites offer customized experiences for your customers

Building a website allows distinctive brand elements — such as fonts, color palettes and more — to be part of the customer’s sensory experience, shaped through the layout proposed by the designer. Depending on the level of the development team, it is also possible to implement interactions and animations, making communication more dynamic and unique.

Some say it is possible to offer an equivalent brand experience through a well-crafted Instagram feed, but it is not the same thing. Social networks also allow, to a lesser degree, the customer to identify with the brand’s composition; however, limitations such as the restricted spaces for posts, caption templates, the way the algorithm works and the like restrict the customer’s experiences with the brand.

The lack of flexibility for customization also becomes evident when a company wants to implement a section of products and services offered and cannot provide its audience with options such as filter or search functions on social network platforms. A feed is not the most suitable way to present these types of information, especially if your company has a wide variety of products and services. In today’s world, consumers, in general, are not willing to spend effort to find information. Customers expect to receive information promptly or in an easy, convenient way. The lack of appropriate resources can turn into a difficulty when looking for a product or service, opening space for competitors.

2) Websites allow full availability of your business’s products and services

With a website available 24 hours a day, your customers will be able to access it at any time, regardless of the hour at which they are browsing. This is especially important in an increasingly globalized and heterogeneous world, where your audience may be in different time zones and have different consumption habits, routines and work schedules.

In general, it is unfeasible to rely on individual service for any conversion process in the digital environment, whether in the sale of products in an online store or in registering a lead on a landing page. If the intention is to scale the business, it is essential that customers can complete the purchase or registration independently, at any time, securely, directly on the company’s website. It is also extremely important to have your business’s main information presented in an intuitive, understandable and organized way within the site to reduce service costs. This optimizes the customer service process as a whole.

It is very costly, regardless of the size of the company, to have a support team available 24 hours a day. Therefore, if a business aims to optimize costs, it is necessary to implement tools and strategies that optimize this process. A website allows a variety of solutions that can be implemented to optimize the service process. Some examples are creating forms that filter user information and distribute it to the responsible department, or installing a chatbot, a computer program designed to make service easier by simulating a human conversation. They are designed to interact with users in simple language, allowing people to obtain information or carry out tasks through a conversation.

3) Websites make it easier for your audience to find your business

What good is it for your business to have an innovative product or provide a fantastic service if your audience cannot find it on the internet?

Having an online presence is crucial for any business. The internet has become an indispensable tool nowadays, and a large share of consumers search online for information about products and services before making a purchase. When we talk about searching for information on the internet, we immediately think of Google, the world’s leading search engine. Here, I reinforce once again the necessity of having your own website to develop a solid digital strategy. Restricting yourself to creating profiles on social networks neglects the path users take through search engines such as Google. One might argue that the Instagram link and other networks appear in search results, but what if the user does not know the company’s name? When your target audience types a description of a product or service, does your company appear in the search engine results?

There is a methodology responsible for optimizing a site’s content so that it appears in search results for specific terms related to your business. SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of techniques and strategies used to improve a site’s visibility in search engine results. Google establishes a series of criteria and guidelines to evaluate and, consequently, define the order in which sites appear in search results. The more a site appears at the top of the results, the better its ranking. Learn more about SEO in this article.

4) Websites generate an abundance of data to improve your company

Within an increasingly competitive market, using data for decision-making in a business becomes increasingly valued. There is no more room for guesswork: data-driven marketing arises precisely from this premise, an approach that uses data and analysis to understand and meet customers’ needs in a more precise and personalized way.

The amount of data that can be analyzed from a website is significantly greater compared to what social network platforms make available to their users. Web data analysis, or web analytics, is the process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data from a site’s users with the goal of understanding and improving overall performance. Web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics and Hotjar, allow in-depth analyses of the actions users take within a site.

For example, in an online store it is undoubtedly very useful to have information such as the origin of the customer’s access, the path they took within the site, the time spent on each page, the payment method, the value and the delivery location. With this information available, the marketing team can make decisions assertively and strategically, based on the information inferred from site visits.

5) Websites are fundamental pieces in an effective digital marketing plan

There are different formats of digital marketing campaigns that are carried out throughout the consumer’s journey. In most of these formats, a website will be an indispensable component. As mentioned earlier, a website acts in tune with social networks in marketing strategies. For example, after carrying out an action on a site to collect contacts for email marketing campaigns, it is possible for that same list to be reused to create a lookalike audience within Facebook. You can check what a lookalike audience is in the brickweb.io glossary.

Other effective examples are search engine campaigns, in which you pay an amount for specific terms to appear at the top of search results, and remarketing campaigns, in which ads are directed at users who have already visited the site.

6) Websites are high-value investments

By this point it should already be clear how important having your own website is for any business, and how social network pages are not free substitutes.

Two decades ago, investing in a professional website was truly costly and only large companies could do it with quality. Nowadays, with the emergence of tools such as WordPress, the investment value has dropped considerably for creating a highly professional website. Notice that the term used is “investment” and not “cost.” When companies realize the amount of value generated by a professional website, they consider it a high-value investment (when the gain obtained is greater than the cost incurred).

So, do you still have doubts about the importance of a professional website? Shall we generate value for your business? brickweb.io has been developing websites and applications for businesses across many market niches for more than 8 years and can certainly help your company. Get in touch by clicking here.