[00:14]
Darren Jamieson: You don’t need a website to run your business. You don’t need a website to be a business owner. You don’t need a website to get clients into your business.
Now, no, I’ve not completely lost my mind. That’s something I saw somebody post in a business Facebook group a couple of weeks ago. They said you don’t need a website for your business because they were advocating what they do — which was something to do with funnels or lead management, or something like that.
[00:51]
They said, “You don’t need a website to promote your business. I deleted my website a while ago and it’s not affected me. I get loads of business via word of mouth and referrals from existing clients.”
They went on to say how successful their business was and how their website wasn’t doing anything, so it just wasn’t necessary at all. A website, they said, is just something you send people to so they can see what you do — therefore, you don’t need one. It’s a waste of money.
[01:26]
And then loads of people commented on it, saying, “Yeah, you’re right, you don’t need a website for your business. I got rid of mine years ago — it never did anything. All my business comes through social media, or through referrals, or through networking like BNI meetings, or through phone calls, magazine advertising, whatever it may be.”
Everybody was piling in, saying, “You don’t need a website.”
[02:00]
And quite frankly, I’m really pleased they were. I’m genuinely pleased they were — and anyone listening to this who isn’t a client of ours, no, you don’t need a website. Go and delete your website. It’s absolutely fine, because if you do that, it’s going to make our job a lot easier.
If you delete your website because you don’t need one, or never create one in the first place, it’s going to make life easier for digital marketing agencies like us by removing some competition. So, yes — go ahead and get rid of your website!
[02:35]
However… if you actually want people — your ideal target clients and customers — to find you, even if they don’t know who you are, even if they haven’t met one of your current clients or customers to refer you, then you might want to have a website.
A website allows people who are searching for solutions to the problems that you solve to find you. And if you don’t have a website, if you’re not producing content about those problems, then they’re not going to find you. They’re going to find your competitor.
[03:15]
If you’re quite happy for your ideal clients and customers — who have never heard of you — to find your competitors instead, then fine, delete your website. It doesn’t matter.
But that’s what’s going to happen. Obviously, if you’re not there to be found, they’ll go to someone else.
You might say, “Ah, it’s all right, I get all my clients from Facebook. I don’t need a website.”
[03:49]
Well, that’s brilliant — congratulations. That’s fantastic. Bully for you.
However, just a thought — if all of your clients come from Facebook, and all your business relies on your Facebook page, you don’t own that. Mark Zuckerberg owns that. He can change everything about Facebook in an instant.
He can take away access to your page. He can block you from Facebook entirely. He can change how your page appears in people’s feeds so that they no longer see your posts. If you’re using a personal profile for business, he can restrict that. You don’t own your Facebook page.
[04:21]
You don’t own your Instagram — Mark Zuckerberg owns that too. You don’t own your TikTok — that’s owned in China. You don’t own your X, or Twitter — Elon owns that. You don’t own your LinkedIn profile — Microsoft owns that, and we all know how reliable they are.
The only thing that you own, that you have control over, is your website.
[05:03]
I’ll say that again because it’s important: the only thing that you own, that you have control over, is your website.
So if you rely entirely on social media for your business — tough. When that goes down, when you get blocked, or when the algorithm changes and you stop getting leads, you’ll wish you had a website.
Yes, you could use paid advertising, but do you really want to keep paying for ads on Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn? That’s expensive — no matter how good you are at it, it’s still expensive.
[05:50]
Or, would you prefer what we had recently?
We had an enquiry from someone who wanted tailored news feeds for their gaming website. And we know a lot about gaming, because — I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before — I used to be the web designer at GAME. We’ve also built websites in the gaming industry, including for Sony and PlayStation.
[06:24]
Anyway, they were searching for “tailored news feeds for gaming websites” and found a piece of content on our website written back in 2010.
I’m recording this in January 2024 — fourteen years later. They found it in Google because it was exactly what they were looking for.
They came through to Engage Web and messaged us: “Could you produce some tailored news feeds for our gaming website?”
Well, yes, we could — and we’re now talking to them about that.
[07:30]
That’s the kind of enquiry you get from having a website. It’s the kind you won’t get through Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram — and it’s on a platform that you own.
So yes — delete your website, get rid of it. You don’t need it to run a business. But you do need it to run a successful, scalable business.
Referral marketing and word of mouth are great, don’t get me wrong — if your clients recommend you, that’s brilliant. It means you’re doing a great job.
[08:11]
But that only allows you to grow so far. It’s not scalable.
If people can find you online, even though you’ve never met them before, that is scalable — and that can only be done through a website.
Thank you very much for listening. I hope you found that useful, and I’ll catch you on the next podcast.
