If you’ve set up shop on Etsy or Society6, you might wonder if you should have a website too, especially if you’re new to online business. In today’s video, I run through several reasons why I believe having a website will help you to sell your products and services online.
You can check that video out below:
Reason #1 – Your website will act as a 24/7 salesperson for your business
When you have a site, you need to set it up strategically and use it to do the selling for you. By having a strategy in place, it can work for you around the clock no matter where you are or what you’re doing. If you’re painting in your studio, you can still bring money in because you have your website working for you even when you’re not at your computer.
Reason #2 – You will cut down on the number of emails that you send to potential clients and customers
I’m not saying this because I’m a web designer, I’m saying this because it’s true. By strategically setting your website up to capture leads and also inform potential customers and clients of your sales process, you’re saving yourself from the headache of constant back-and-forth emails with potential customers.
Will they still email you? Sure. But you can answer one quick question and also link your F.A.Q. Page in that one email. You can even take this one step further and set this up as an email template that you just copy and paste so you can save yourself more time.
I love that I’m not receiving questions from potential clients or customers every single day. It frees me up to do other things that I love to do.
Reason #3 – You can create a system and funnel to move people through your sales process
One thing that I LOVE chatting with my consulting clients about is how they plan to get people to purchase their products or services. A lot of times, my clients are stumped on how to do this very thing. They know that they need to have a website, a blog, and an email marketing provider, but they’re unsure of how to make them work all together.
The fact is that you need to focus on forming a system for receiving sales and also an email funnel to move your potential customers and clients through the sales process.
If you’re struggling with this end of things, I’d be glad to work through this with you in my hour consult package.
Reason #4 – Your website allows you to share photos and visuals that you might be constrained to share on other platforms
One of the main frustrations that I see in my clients who are moving from Etsy or another online platform to a website of their own is that they’re constrained by the functionality and look of the platform. If you want complete control over how everything looks on your site, it will be good for you to have your own website.
Reason #5 – Your website will strengthen your Brand (especially your Brand goals and mission)
When someone navigates to a shop on Etsy, they might be poking around your shop, but they won’t see your fonts and colors for the most part. If you have your own site, you are in full control over the fonts and colors that you use. This allows you to strengthen your visual Brand.
You can also add pages that support your overall mission and goals. If you want to have a page that shares where you like to donate money from the profits you make, you can dedicate an entire page to this goal.
Reason #6 – Finally, your site helps you to promote the things that you have to offer
You can strategize what you post to your blog and other pages of your website to drive people to the items that you sell. I’m a big believer in making your site do the work for you, so my primary promotion strategy comes from posting a weekly blog post (and recently a weekly video). Then I take the things that I post, and I share them across social media.
Everything somehow always points back to a freebie, product, or service that I offer. (I have strategy involved, and I’ll share more on this in an upcoming blog post).
So that’s it! If you’re on the fence about whether or not you need to have a website for your online business, I hope these six things have helped to convince you.
Of course, you don’t need to jump in and spend $2,000+ right away if you don’t have the money.
You can start out on Etsy and figure out a plan to build your website when you’re ready. Or you can put up a landing page and then create a site around that one page.
Whether you DIY your site, to begin with, hire someone like me to help hold your hand through the process, or hire a designer to design your site from scratch, you might need a website to support your long-term business goals and dreams.
