The center of your online marketing efforts is your business website. This is true whether you are marketing a product or a service. As a service provider, it’s imperative that you create a website that gives your ideal clients the information they need to make a decision to go the next step whether that’s purchasing your services or joining your email list to get more information. Everything starts and ends with your website. It’s the center of all your marketing activities.
Top Reasons Why Your Website is Important
There are many reasons a service website is important. Before setting up yours let’s go over the top reasons why your service business website is vital to your business. In fact, the more successful your website the more successful your business will be.
- They Are Cost Effective – It doesn’t have to cost a lot to build a basic website. You can pay someone to build it for under $2500 dollars, even as low as $1000 dollars and it should work perfectly fine. Don’t over think it, and create only what you need. Of course, the person who creates the site should know something about and use common SEO practices so your site can get found.
- They Are Available 24/7 – Your website will always be on. If you set it up right, it will work for you qualifying new clients automatically. Each part of your website will work in concert to bring leads into your marketing funnel.
- Nothing is More Convenient – Your website is probably one of the more convenient forms of marketing ever invented. People don’t have to get on the phone to talk to you, or email you or anything to find out what they need to know.
- They Improve Credibility – A great way to show your expertise is via the information on your website such as your blog, articles, and other information that you include on your website. It helps your audience get to know you and determine if you’re a fit.
- Websites are Easier to Market – When you have a good website you can use it to market your services twenty-four-seven. You’ll be proud to tell people about your website and your business if you like it.
- You Can Make More Connections – Using your website, you can create an automatic system to draw in people to join your email list, follow you on social media, and more. Making connections is one of the most important factors in developing more business.
- Your Website Will Improve Sales – Because of making more connections with people who already realize that you are smart and skilled due to reading your website, you’ll also increase your sales exponentially.
If you want to create a marketing plan that is effective, works automatically for you, and gets results your website is the answer. Create the best website you can afford with the right features and you’ll end up creating an automatic marketing system that gets great results.
Why You Need Self-Hosted WordPress
In order to create the best marketing solution in your website it’s highly recommended that you use self-hosted WordPress. You can find a lot of information about self-hosted WordPress by going to WordPress.org to learn more. This is different from WordPress.com. WordPress.com runs on the power of the WordPress platform, but it’s not the same thing. Be sure to understand that difference.
WordPress is free, easy, and there are a lot of contractors out there that you can hire to help you with using WordPress to build a website that works for you and not against you. In addition, unlike online builders that host your website for you, you own your creation. No one can take ownership of it but you. That is important.
- Design Your Own Look – You can make your WordPress website look any way you want it to by using a theme and altering it or by creating your own themes. The sky is really the limit when it comes to making a WordPress website look great.
- Increase Functionality with Plugins – A plugin for WordPress is like a little program that you install to your WordPress site, literally in just a couple of clicks, that gives it more functionality. For example, a plugin will give you the ability to create an email form, or even create a membership website or a shopping cart.
- Make Changes to the Code – You can customize your WordPress website by making changes to the code of your WordPress website. This is usually done by using a different Theme or by making your own theme if you’re well versed in PHP and CSS.
- Ability to Monetize – If you don’t self-host your website, then you’ll have to follow the terms of service associated with the website builder that you use. This can limit your ability to monetize your website if you determine that you want to.
- Almost Anyone Can Do It – Honestly, if you can use your banks online website then you can also use WordPress. It’s simple to use, intuitive, and there are a lot of lessons available to learn how to use it on the WordPress.org website.
- It’s Inexpensive – If you use a free theme that, and do it yourself, the only charge you’ll have is for your domain name, and hosting. A domain costs about $10.00 and hosting can be had for as low as $5.00 per month. The only other cost is your time.
WordPress is not hard to use, and if you want to learn it yourself you can. Even if you don’t want to learn, hiring someone isn’t expensive because so many people know how to use it and make good websites. You will be able to take over your website just by learning a few things to keep it going.