Should You Invest in Social Media or Your Website?

Over the past few months, we have attended many networking events and trade shows, to understand the digital needs of small business owners. When we come to the topic of websites, there has been a common theme, where small business owners have admitted that they are prioritising their social media, and pretty much abandoning their websites.

Their reasoning? Social media is where they get the most enquiries. Social media is where they get the most clients. They don't get many clients through their website anyway.

Does that sound like you? Or are you deciding whether you should be investing in social media or your website? Read on to find out our take on this hot topic!

The Benefits of Social Media

We have always advocated for social media. Social media is one of the best forms of marketing out there. Here are some of the great benefits of social media.

• It's free - social media accounts are free to set up, making them an easy marketing channel to use.

• It's popular - all the key social media platforms have plenty of users already, meaning you can easily reach a wide audience who are seeking good content.

• It's widely used - not only does social media have a wide audience, it has a wide engaged audience. According to Statistica, users spent an average of 2 hours 23 minutes on social media. It's a common way to pass time, so social media is a live and active marketing channel.

• It's visual - most platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest are very visual platforms, with photos and videos being the key mediums shared. This means information is easily absorbed by the user, as the brain processed images up to 60,000 times faster than words,

• It's a community - social media is a form of UGC, which stands for User Generated Content. This is content that is created by users, to market and influence other users to purchase or use the brand's products or services. Essentially, it's word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the strongest methods of marketing.

The Cons of Social Media

Social media is great, and one of the best tools of marketing, which is why so many people and businesses use it. But it does have its limitations.

• It's saturated - because of the above reasons, every single brand has at least one social media account, with most having accounts across all the popular platforms. This makes it hard for your business to stand out.

• It's tough - social media used to be quite straightforward. Nowadays, it's all about algorithms and hooks. It's hard to reach a wide audience, unless you invest in paid ads. Which then means your social media is no longer free...

• It's top-funnel - social media is all about raising brand awareness, and is at the top of the Marketing Funnel. (If you're unfamiliar with this, here's our blog post explaning the Marketing Funnel). This means it is not geared towards conversion, which is when you turn your visitors to engaged (i.e. paying) customers and clients. Therefore, you can have thousands of social media impressions, but it doesn't necessarily translate into thousands of sales.

• It's not where conversion happens - according to the Marketing Funnel, the top is not where conversion happens. The top is where attraction happens, where you attract people to your business. But if you want to turn those impressions into revenue, it doesn't occur on social media. Think about your recent purchases: where did you click the purchase button? On the Instagram app? Or on an external webpage that your Instagram app sent you to?

The Marketing Funnel is a funnel for a reason: you start with a wide audience with various levels of intention to engage, and then you hopefully move some people further down the funnel, until you are left with those who are intent on purchasing. You can read more about the Marketing Funnel on our blog. So while Social Media is one of the best top-funnel marketing channels, it is not where the conversion happens.

So where does the conversion happen? What is the best bottom-funnel channel nowadays?

Enter... Your Website

Firstly, let's make it clear that your website doesn't have to be your own actual website. If you have an Amazon or Etsy storefront, they can be considered your website. All of them are essentially your web presence outside of the popular social media platforms.

Websites are at the bottom of the Marketing Funnel. Websites are where your customers come to view more about your products, learn more about your business, and make a transaction or send an enquiry, depending on your type of business. Websites are what convince the casual browser to trust your business. After all, in the digital world, customers can't enter your store. They can't speak to you face-to-face. So your website needs to tell them everything they need to know about you, and to earn their trust to spend money with you, or to work with you.

The Digital Ecosystem

So back to the question: should you invest in your social media or your website? If you haven't guessed by now, our advice would be both! This is not a cop-out answer; it is the honest digital truth.

Imagine your social media is like your shop window, and your website is your store. If you had a beautiful shop window, but your store was messy and unorganised, would your customers be able to find what they're looking for? Would they trust your business? Therefore, if you spend all your time on your social media, but your website, the point of conversion and transaction, is not optimised or well-designed, it can put potential customers off, not just from using your services, but from ever trusting your business in the future.

Similarly, if you have the world's most organised and high-tech store, but your shop window is messy and unattractive, it will be difficult to convince casual visitors from stepping into your store to use your business. So if you have a well-designed website, if you don't have social media, it can be hard to attract new customers.

If you had to pick one, your website is the way to go. Because your website is the final stop where people learn more about your business. Your website is where customers are able to purchase your products, or send enquiries about your service. Your website is the final hurdle between browsing and converting. Good web design can help attract visitors to compensate for the lack of social media (though not fully).

If you need help with your website, or you want to give your old, neglected website a makeover and redesign, get in touch to see how we can help you transform your website into a converting, optimised and accessible website, and realise your digital potential.