As a business owner, the last thing you might want to snooze on is creating your space on the world wide web. Social media is here to stay and will be around longer than we think. As much as there’s an influx of businesses into the online space, social media seems to be the only tool being maximized, at least to an extent. Other platforms like emails and owned websites don’t have so much representation like social media and it’s definitely a point of concern.
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According to Pixolabo, less than 64% of small businesses have a website. Also, 35% of them claim their business is too small to have a website. The average user spends 2mins 17seconds on a website, a good number if you ask me compared to social content that can be scrolled through in seconds.
If you don’t own a channel yet, you might want to consider it.
A famous business coach will always say, “Social media is a rented platform”. Yes, quite funny, but it’s rented. The one thing you own is an account, it could be hacked by scammers or even disabled totally by the platform itself.
Social media is great, there is so much interaction and responsiveness, but you also need to find a channel that could help you access your audience anytime you want.
No matter how much profit you make for your business through social media, you don’t pay the platform in any way except if you’re looking to run adverts or subscribe to a premium version (which rarely happens). You have the right to do whatever you wish, and so do they; even when it is detrimental to you.
Let’s talk about a few of these owned channels, shall we?
This is definitely a favourite! I can bet you still use the same email account since you opened it, even if it was 10 years ago. The beauty of emails is that you get to lock in your audience for life except they undo it themselves. It’s not as responsive as social media but if you could hack your copywriting strategy well, you’ll be reaching for the stars.
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One of the best things to do through email marketing is that you could segment your audience depending on their preference and send them different emails, you can schedule your emails for later, you get to include every information you want and lots more!
It’s usually not completely free but you can choose to start for free. Subsequently, as your subscribers increase, you’d need to invest some cash
Email marketing platforms that do this include SendinPulse, MailChimp, SendFox, Mailerlite, Convertkit, Flodesk, Aweber, and so much more.
You’d agree with me that there’s nothing as fulfilling as yourname.com or yourbusinessname.com. A website is a set of related web pages identified by a domain name, it is a quick way to communicate the entirety of your business to your audience, all they need to do is click! Great right?
You can list your opening hours, contact information, product images, business location(s), publish blog posts and a whole lot more! Just the way you can make a purchase on jumia.com, konga.com, people can do the same for your business too! Cool or No?
Platforms that could help you host your website include Bluehost, Namecheap, GoDaddy, Domain.com, HostGator, Hostinger etc
You might want to contact a web designer to help navigate your way around, trust me, it’s a good investment.
Online businesses that invest in acquiring owned audiences will always have an edge over competition that don’t, because it is their platform. Your customers are able to communicate with you on a platform outside social media and in any case you lose social media, you don’t have to return to square one.
Featured Image Source: Forbes
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