Today there are a lot more platforms than there ever were at the start of 2000s. Back there were only few options you had if you wanted an online presence. You could have a website, be on an industry business directory, or post to industry forums. Today you have a crap ton of options on how to get your brand and business out there online. Today you can still have a website, use social media, create videos on YouTube, and have written content on other businesses blogs. The question people are starting to ask as more of these platforms become pillars in modern marketing. Do I need a website in 2017? Well the short answer is, yes. The long answer is a lot more in depth on why you should.
A Website is Home Base
When websites were first used for businesses the idea was to just have a place for people to find your contact info. Then it changes to add info on the business about products and services they offered. After that another change happened to websites. It started becoming more personal and business blogs started to pick up around this time. The fact that websites can not only change and adapt through all the changes that customers and consumers are asking for shows how flexible it can be. Websites can change and adapt faster than any other platform and it will always be that way.
A website in 2017 should be your home base for all of your content. A wbsite should not only have pages that try to inform visitors to your site about your product and services. It should also include content that will help tell your story and answer a lot of your customers questions. You are going to need to have a blog or a content marketing strategy, whatever you want to call it. This is a topic for another post. You are going to need a place to keep all of this content you are going to be creating. You could use social media platforms or other people’s blogs but then you are at the disposal of someone else’s platform. That is not a win/win for anyone. You need to make your corner on the internet that is a hub for all this content and you should still keep pushing it out on these platforms to drive traffic to your site.
Control How your Brand Looks
People are starting to just have a Facebook page and using that for their business as a website. This is taking a lot of faith and risk in a platform that is not yours. First of you will never fully be able to make the platform look like how you want. This means that part of the look of your brand is not in your hands. This means that you can not fully allow people to relate to your brand and be able to notice your brand right off the gate.
With a website you can make sure that every visitor knows exactly where they are and what they are willing to expect. You need to make a consistent design language that anyone can relate and understand that it is your brand. This helps with making sure no matter what people can relate your brand and get bring more brand awareness.
Giving faith to a Platform
When you use another platform as your main way of having an online presence you are taking a big jump of faith. The thing that people have learned about these platforms today is that they can go away at anytime. People who are currently using Facebook pages as a main or their only online presence are playing a big risk. Facebook one day could just get rid of business pages or could just go under. That then means that you are out of a web presence completely. You need a website to make sure that you can have a presence no matter what. That is where a website comes in hand. It makes sure that no matter what you still can have a hub for all of your content.
