What if I Don't Want a Website Straightaway?

Today, in 3 minutes or less, you’ll learn:    

1. Three great ways to create an online presence without building an entire website  
2. You can be online in just a few hours  
3. You don’t need a lot of money to get started 

I have recently been working with mums just starting their online businesses. They are keen to get going and establish some form of online presence. However, they need more time to prepare for the money and time commitment involved in setting up and maintaining a more comprehensive website presence. In today's newsletter, I want to share the top three recommendations I have been sharing with them to start online before you commit to a complete website.  

Option 1: Facebook Business Page  

A Facebook Business page is excellent. It is quick and easy to set up and can help you get the word out quickly about what you are offering. To create a Business Page, you must start from your personal account. A business page enables you to promote yourself to a broader public audience rather than just a select group of family and friends you are connected to in your personal account.  

I like a Facebook business page for the following reasons: 

• It doesn't cost you anything to make a start.  
• There are a lot of helpful tutorials online about how to set it up, including Facebook's online help pages.  
• You can share many essential details about your business, including contact details, business hours, location and products/services sold.  
• Once you have set it up, you can share it easily with your existing personal network to help you get the word out and encourage your family and friends to share information about your business with their networks.  
• A cover photo and profile picture can easily be created in Canva to meet the specifications required by Facebook (and there are many templates you can choose from on Canva to help with this).  
• You can create a call to action button, which enables people to contact you quickly through the channel you choose, including email, phone, Messenger or WhatsApp.  
• Customers can leave reviews to help you build trust with your audience and encourage new customers to reach out to you.  
• You can post straightaway about offers and events or share resources and content.  

Be sure to go through your privacy settings and ensure you are happy with the default options given. Setting up two-factor authentication is also important to consider to protect you from someone accessing your account. 

Option 2: Instagram and Linktree 

I also encourage mums to consider setting up a Business Instagram account. An Instagram account is free to set up and can be a great marketing tool, enabling you to reach a large audience. If you are considering a Facebook business page, this can make a lot of sense because they are owned by one company – Meta. Instagram posts can automatically be shared to your Facebook feed, reducing your workload immensely and enabling you to reach audiences on both platforms. You can also access the Meta business suite, where you can see all engagement and messages on both accounts and quickly respond to your audience from a central point. This business suite is also where you will run paid Facebook and Instagram advertising if you wish to later.  

When posting on Instagram, you have one outbound link in your profile, often called a bio link. A company called Linktree offers a fantastic option to have this link lead to a page hosted by them and customised by you. On this page, you can share whatever information you would like about yourself. Linktree enables you to share web links with your audience to pages such as contact forms, resources, landing pages, surveys and forms.

Here is an example of a Linktree page from a businesswoman I follow, Lisa Messenger:

A free version of Linktree is available. However, plans ranging up to $37AUD/month give you many more features and customisation. 

Option 3: Flodesk 

I also plant the seed with mums about the importance of collecting email addresses, even right from the start of their business. Customers will help you build a mailing list if they want to stay connected with you – perhaps you offered a free resource, a future discount, or a special offer in exchange for their email address. Building a mailing list of people you can contact reduces your reliance on social media (where changes can happen quickly) and helps keep customers in your world.  

Flodesk is a fantastic option to investigate because it enables you to build a mailing list and send emails to your audience. It also allows you to create landing pages to give the links to your audience. Such landing pages include sales pages and forms hosted by them and customised by you. Unlike some email programs, it is not capped, so you can send unlimited emails and have an unlimited number of people on your mailing list for 35 USD/month. Note that you can create a free ‘Link in Bio’ page with them and that there are also options for e-commerce (selling your product or service online and collecting payments) for 24 USD/month. Flodesk is easy to use and has some beautiful templates you can use.  

I hope this has given you some helpful food for thought and shown you that there are options before you look at the more expensive and time-consuming options of setting up a website. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions, and I can offer further suggestions or advice.