Your website is the most important marketing tool for your business.

Your website lives in the virtual world the way a brick and mortar building sits on land in the real world. It's your online flagship that works for you around the clock. It needs to be as professional online as your place of business would be when a customer walks through your doors.

Posting fresh, shareable content attracts visitors to your website and inspires them to take action such as buying your products or services. It creates an active digital footprint of your history on the web that shows up when someone searches for what you offer.

Don't be mistaken that having a website is all you need.

Your website should be actively building your customer base and creating a healthy email list of people who want to get updates, discounts, and news from your business.

The same can be said of social media platforms like Facebook. If you're active on Facebook but you don't share content from your website or send traffic from Facebook to your website, you're missing out.

Do you really want to build your online presence on a platform that you have no control over?

Suppose Facebook shuts down your page, or your account gets hacked. How will you contact or communicate with any of your audience? They could be gone, in a flash. Not so, if you have built your mailing list by collecting subscribers on your website. See where this is leading?

If you invested all of your marketing effort posting photos and content directly to Facebook and add nothing to your website, you're risking your digital history. A website gets backed up. All of your content can be stored in a zip file and restore your website if necessary.

Your website and digital marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly

Digital marketing allows brands to build real relationships and connect their products with their ideal customers. Before the internet, it would be expensive to advertise on the radio, TV, or print media. Now with some creativity, brands can produce cost effective shareable content across multiple platforms on social media. This relates directly to the success of your business.

On social media, when a consumer interacts with a brand, they are doing so in front of their friends and it spreads. More people are participating online and it gives your business the ability to be recognized, trusted and liked in larger numbers. By bridging the gap between your brand and your audience, you can get feedback and build solid relationships with your ideal customers.

Digital Strategy

While the online marketplace offers easier access to consumers, it’s a noisy place in a world where attention spans are short. People have more choices and can select their own experiences.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the audience you want to reach on social media?
• What social networks are they using?
• Where do they spend most of their time?
• What do you hope to achieve on social media?
• Are your goals and expectations realistic?
• How can your business add value to their experience on social media?
• What are the resources (time, money, etc) you need to invest in setting up, polishing, and growing your presence on social media?
• Is this something you can do or do you need to outsource the work?

Is your content remarkable, attention earning, and shareable?

Are you sharing content that speaks directly to the type of audience you want to work with, sell products to, or join your organization?

If you’re motivated, digital media gives the small businesses the same opportunity to reach an audience as the bigger brands. A digital strategy is the plan of action to the brand experiences and offerings across media channels, collecting and activating consumer relationships in order to accomplish an actionable and measurable objective.

While a good website is one of the most important online tools for businesses, it is imperative that all businesses understand how digital marketing plays a role in getting traffic and attracting the ideal audience who are going to become customers.

Your business deserves the value that you're willing to invest. We've put together several packages for digital marketing from beginner to advanced.