People are shopping online now more than ever before. That reason by itself justifies having a flexible, affordable platform like a blog or website that you control, to sell products and services.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a post that was originally published in 2013, that has been updated with current content. The concepts are the same, but some of the references and technology have been updated to make it more relevant.
But if you're still not convinced, consider that if you're using a third party platform like Etsy, eBay, a company supplied website, social media sites, and even hosted site builders like Wix, Blogger, etc., you are handing control of your business over to other companies.
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You may be humming away, making lots of money and enjoying your success. And at any time, if you do something your platform or social media channels don't like or their business practices change, your success can be limited, restricted or even eliminated (shut down) at any time. These limitations happen all the time. Watch the short on the left to see an instance of how this can happen.
If you don't have an email list, and you're ready to build one, check out this page to take a free video course that shows you how to build your list.
Just keep in mind that you don't own your social media or hosted platforms, and the companies that own them can yank control away from you at any time by changing their rules, algorithm or a combination of both. Companies are in business to make money and they react to changes in the marketplace to maintain their position, not to help you stay in business.
Here, we'll cover some additional reasons why your business needs a blog or website that you own and control.
You Might Be Asking... What's the Big Deal?
The big deal is that the benefits of having a platform you own and control are endless.
The biggest benefit to having a site of your own is that it gives you control over the content you provide for your audience, control over the words, products, and services you offer. Control over your ability to interact with and build relationships (lead generation) with your audience.
Without an audience or the resulting relationships, who would you sell to? One of the biggest accomplishments for most business owners is when they build an audience of people they can talk to about their business.
What Steps Can You Take to Get Started?
We'll discuss what you need to build a self hosted WordPress site. And to sweeten the package, we have a deal (below) you can use to save $120.00 on your hosting plan and if you're comfortable downloading and uploading files and working online, we'll also show you how to get started building a blog with a free course.
If you're not comfortable building a site, no worries we will build one for you. So after reading this article, there will be nothing standing in the way of having your own platform that you can control to grow your business and take it to new heights.
Small businesses need a website because website traffic can increase online and offline purchases. If you think your business is doing just fine without a blog or mobile enabled website, we will discuss several reasons to make blogging part of your marketing toolkit.
One of the primary reasons your business needs a blog has to do with making it easy for potential customers to do business with you.
And let's make the distinction between using your company supplied website to earn and having a website or blog that you own and control.
Additionally, if you do something your advertising company doesn't like, they can terminate your relationship at any time. To learn more about how company supplied websites work, check out our article here. You can also read more about it under reason #1 below.
Competing in Today's Marketplace Goes Beyond Just Being Online
Another reason why your business needs a blog, is that purchasing goods and services online has become a common practice among people around the world. The pandemic made an online presence a necessity for many business owners.
Some consumers choose to make online purchases for convenience, others because of competitive pricing offered by some retail establishments. Without a blog or website you'll find it harder to reach this global audience.
Online buyers can also be influenced by a range of digital resources when shopping, such as branded emails and product reviews. Both emails and reviews can be accomplished with ease, when you have a blog.
Blogging is the perfect way to build a brand and learn skills that will enable you to work from any location for most any company, employer or yourself. Your blog can open the door to a world of opportunities to work from home.
Blogging Stats
In 2021, over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online, up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016.
47% of shoppers will look up the company’s website before making a purchase.
33% of consumers surveyed (Hubspot) said they read blogs to learn something new.
Think of how reaching even a small percentage of this global audience with your products and services would affect your earnings. A blog will enable your business to reach this audience with ease.
If the reasons above aren't enough to convince you to start a business website, here are seven more great reasons to start a business website.
Blogging gives business owners the ability to control their content and online presence.
To me, this is the best reason to have a blog or website. You need a platform that you own and control.
When you use your company supplied website as your only source of online revenue, you are putting all your eggs in your company's basket.
If something were to happen to the relationship you have with your company, their website and all your income generating abilities will be lost.
We would be remiss if we didn't remind you that your company supplied website belongs to your company. They own it, they control it.
When you send your customers to your company supplied website, you are building the brand of your company, and not building your own brand.
The benefit of building your own brand is that it that distinguishes you from all the other reps who are selling the same products and services as you.
When you're posting on other sites, like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc., or marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, Amazon, etc., those sites control your content.
They control who sees it, when it's shown, and if it's shown at all. If those sites change their policies (as they frequently do), or if they decide to shut down, all your content goes along with the company.
If you violate their policies they are frequently known to shut down your business with no notice and no warning. And if they shut you down, there may be no procedure for reinstating your site.
Many business owners take matters into their own hands when it comes to ensuring that they will be able to keep their business going, come hell or high water.
They rent server space from a hosting company, (two sites that I use are Hostgator and Bluehost) and they pay a small monthly or annual fee. Once they have their hosting in place, they install WordPress, a free, open source software that allows business owners to build websites.
With a self hosted WordPress blog, you can attract your own audience, grow your followers (with an email list that you own and control) and it all belongs to you.
If your site is shut down on a social media platform, or a marketplace, you can still do business using your blog and email list.
If there is an issue with your hosting provider you can migrate your blog to a new provider in an afternoon. You can use your email list to continue communicating with your audience about the changes, and never miss a beat.
Blogging helps you create an online presence that's not dictated by anyone else.
Blogging gives you the ability to reach a larger audience.
An online presence will enable you to create helpful, useful tips for local customers and extend your reach to a national and even worldwide audience. This additional reach has the potential to result in more leads and potential sales than what you would earn by meeting customers one on one.
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Blogging enables you to build relationships with existing and potential customers.
Did you know that it's harder to sell something to a new customer than it is to sell something to an existing customer?
Just think about it, an existing customer knows what it's like to work with you. If they have had a great experience, they will be willing to buy from you again... as long as you have maintained a positive relationship with them.
A new customer really doesn't know what to expect and may be reluctant to pull out their credit card to making a purchase with a business they have never worked with.
As a business owner, it's hard to juggle between trying to reach new customers while maintaining relationships with existing customers.
With a blog, you can enable features on your WordPress site that makes life easier for your prospects and customers to connect with your business.
For example, you can set your site up to generate leads that you can follow up with, set up sales, offer discounts, receive payments seamlessly, and give clients the ability to schedule appointments with easy to use tools, even when you're not physically present.
Don't Know Where to Start?
Convert more visitors into leads and leads into customers with an optimized WordPress site. Let us build one for you.
Blogging provides a platform that helps you establish yourself as an authority.
Your blog is the perfect place to show potential customers that you know what you're doing. Through your blog, you have the perfect place to create content about issues that affect your customers.
If it's relevant, you can add background information that tells visitors why you are uniquely qualified to help them with their challenges.
Showing behind the scenes views, displaying your results (finished product), performing video demonstrations or showing how you have solved a problem for a customer, helps your audience obtain the confidence and trust they need to consider making a purchase with your business.
Having a blog helps you compete against companies that have mobile friendly technology and apps.
Smooth responsiveness is a requirement for most online shoppers these days. Using WordPress.org (the self hosted version) enabled themes gives you the ability to scale down to smaller screens like phones and tablets. Major companies use websites and blogs that are responsive or mobile friendly.
Mobile technology allows users of phones and tablets to see your website content easily, without having to scroll around.
Have you ever tried scrolling around on your phone to find information? Another issues with sites that are not enabled for mobile is that it's impossible to read tiny print when the site is not optimized for mobile? It can be very frustrating. Mobile friendly sites use technology that compresses things down so that they look great on smaller screens.
Since research shows that 4 out of 5 consumers use phones to shop, this is really important.
Blogs and Online Technology Are Constantly Changing.
Of course you don't want your business to be left behind. But the reality is that if you don't have an online presence that you own and control, you will be left behind at some point.
Online trends have evolved to the point that everyone from teens to grandparents have phones and they are shopping, researching and checking their texts and emails at every opportunity.
They are also using more laptops, notebooks, and tablets to find service providers and information.
If your business doesn't have a blog or a mobile presence, you can't compete with someone whose blog content is ranking in search engines.
When people are looking for the products and services you provide, they are going to contact the companies that come up in Google and Bing search results.
If you don't have a blog, imagine how many potential customers you're losing on a daily basis? If you're utilizing a static website (or no website at all) with desktop technology, you may be in a better position than someone who has no website at all, but you're still using outdated methods to reach your audience.
A Blog Helps Business Owners Earn passively by helping them generate leads and sales.
Social media and internet channels are fueled by blogs to distribute up to the minute information in most every industry.
When you blog about topics that grab the attention of your audience, you invite them into your world. When they find content they are looking for, hopefully they'll hang around. The way to encourage them to hang around is my creating a lead generation system.
Without a blog, your content has no place to reside. You have no place to invite potential customers to see what you have to offer.
Without a blog, you're forced to post your content here and there, all over the place. You may not post anything which is even worse because no one will really know or understand what you do. Potential customers don't have a place to contact you or learn more about your company, products or services.
So lets think about it for a minute... If you're missing out on the social media conversation, you don't have a mobile enabled blog or website with current, up to date information, and you can't offer online deals or incentives because you're not on board with mobile technology, you're missing opportunities for additional sales.
When you think of the free exposure you can obtain with regular posts on a blog and social media sites, it's easy to see the benefits of having a blog. When you look further, you may find that you have lost customers, especially if you're not staying in front of them or connecting through other means.
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