Websites Vs Social Media. Which One Should I Use For My Trade And Construction Company?
The big question.
We get asked this all the time.
Website or Social Media.
Which one should I focus on for my Trade and Construction brand and marketing?
Because time and money aren’t endless.
Boy, do we wish they were.
And both play such a huge part in marketing for most businesses nowadays.
It's a toughie.
But to help you work this out, we’ve put together a list of pros and cons for each.
Very likely to include a fair few points you would never have thought of.
So in case you’ve been banging your head against a (very well rendered) brick wall, we’ve done all the thinking for you.
Because we’re good like that.
1. What is the cost difference between websites and social media for my Trade and Construction marketing?
🟡 WEBSITES
The cost for websites varies massively.
There are several ways you can go about this:
🛠 You can use online website builders where you can set up an account then design and create the website yourself (on relatively easy websites) for £150 a year or so.
Think of this like renting a room at your mate’s.
Great to have somewhere nice to stay and use of the living room, kitchen etc.
But you can’t make the place your own as it doesn’t belong to you.
So, you’re limited in what you can so.
Much like your abilities on these online platforms if tech isn’t your thing.
Or.
🛠 You can buddy up with a website company who can do all the work for you and use their own templates (called themes in the web world).
Think of this like renting a house.
You have your own space. Great.
And to a degree you can arrange the rooms how you please.
But you still have restrictions with your landlord.
So can’t go adding extensions or lofts as you please.
It's a big step up from renting a room but there are still parts that will hold you back.
Or.
Like we do for our Trade and Construction clients…
🛠 You can work with a branding agency who build your website from scratch to make it totally bespoke to your business needs.
A great bespoke website build can start from around £2k.
This is like building a house from the ground up.
You get to decide how many rooms and floors your house will have.
Colour the walls however you like.
With options to extend in the future as and when you please…
As you go up the ‘ladder’ to owning more and more of the property, of course the cost will increase.
Same thing with your website.
The more your Trade and Construction business grows and has needs that outgrow online website platforms and themes, the higher your website costs will be to design and build, but the website should work to help your business function more effectively.
Because you are creating something specifically for YOUR business with greater design, more technical development and a hands-on, done for you service.
You also have to buy your domain names – e.g. www.buildyourtrade.com (which usually start from around £9.99 for .co.uk addresses with an annual renewal) and also annual website hosting (the place the website sits on the internet) – which could be around £15 a month.
Whichever option you take, owning and running a website is going to cost you something.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
Well, this one is of the biggest perks.
Social Media is pretty much free.
For the most part.
Unless you start pumping in money for ads.
But that’s a totally different ball game that we won’t focus on here.
With all the big players – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn – you can quickly and easily set yourself up a business profile at no cost.
And have a space online you can direct customers to, to leave reviews, see photos and videos of your work and elevate your business and brand.
Essentially, you can set up an online presence and have somewhere to direct folk to without costing a single penny.
🏆 WINNER: SOCIAL MEDIA
2. How easy is it to get people to visit my Trade and Construction website vs my social media pages?
🟡 WEBSITES
Hard work.
A lot of Trade and Construction companies are under the misconception that as soon as you have an all signing, all dancing website built, you’re going to have millions of hits every month with people finding you on Google.
❌ Not going to happen.
Competition online is fierce. 🔥
There are companies out there paying thousands of pounds every month to get themselves to the top of Google.
But we don’t all have Sultan-sized wallets to do that.
No siree.
Though this shouldn’t stop us from having a website in the first place.
To direct customers to.
To get the best understanding of how our Trade and Construction business is the perfect choice for them (our ideal client).
So for small-midsized Trade and Construction businesses, it’s about using our marketing cleverly.
To steer folk to our website in other ways.
By making sure we’re promoting our website on the likes of our…
🚚 Vehicles.
🛑 Signage.
📰 Print Work.
✅ And to make sure that when customers do visit our trade and construction website, they are met with great content in the form of text, images and videos that spark their interest, keep them looking around and encourage them to get in touch with us.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
Slightly easier.
But stay with me, as it’s certainly not a bed of roses. 🌹
There are tonnes of people on social media everyday already.
Checking their profiles, interacting with friends, scrolling the feeds.
Unlike your website.
So to be in the place hundreds, thousands, even millions of people already are, can feel like there is a better chance your business might be seen by them.
When you set up a Facebook Business Profile for example, you set it up off the back of your personal account.
Right?
So once the business account is set up, you actually have the luxury of ‘inviting all your Facebook friends’ to LIKE the page.
This is quite an easy way to start getting eyeballs on your business.
And FOLLOWERS.
But what is good to remember is that the number of FOLLOWERS is just a vanity metric.
And these are likely people who already know you.
💰 At the end of the day, it’s not about how many of those FOLLOWERS you have on your Trade and Construction Social Media pages, but how many of those turn to enquiries and paying customers.
So having 1000 FOLLOWERS on your page which consists solely of your entire big fat Greek family supporting you – but who aren’t your ideal client, isn’t going to necessarily help you build your business.
If all your friends and family invite their friends and family to LIKE and FOLLOW your page, and their friends and family don’t know of you yet and consist of your Ideal Client, then yes – you have a chance of starting to build up an audience of new people that may well be interested in what you have to offer.
But scoring on social media has become tougher and tougher over the years.
As more competition has reared its head on there – just like on Google – and our good old pals Mark Zuckerberg and the likes enjoy keeping us on our toes and making it harder and harder for us to be seen.
Unless we start paying them for ads.
Which of course makes sense.
As they are a business don’t forget.
But showing up consistency on your page and in Groups on the platforms where your Ideal Clients spend time, can spark conversations to be had much easier which could lead to growing your audience and building your business.
If you want a bit more on how to nail it in Facebook groups, then you might want to check this out.
⚠️ But be warned.
It takes consistency and a lot of time.
🏆 WINNER: UNDECIDED
3. What is the difference when it comes to reviews for my Trade and Construction marketing on my website vs social media?
🟡 WEBSITES
This one is pretty simple.
Let’s start with the downside.
For reviews to feature on your website, you have to put them there yourself.
Be them text, images or video.
You need to go in manually (or ask your website designers to do it for you) to add reviews to your pages.
Or they simply won’t show up.
There are some fancy tools in existence whereby you can direct clients to a page that they can leave you a review and then they pop up when visitors go to different pages of your website – but these can be a distraction and off brand.
And pricey.
But for the vast majority, you have to collect your own reviews and manually manage them getting onto your website.
🍒 Though you can cherry pick your best reviews to use on your website.
AND you can put your show-stopping, money making reviews in pride of place where they will get the most eyeballs – such as your homepage design.
⭐️ PRO TIP - If you want tips on how to get more reviews for your Trade and Construction business then check this out.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
This is one of our favourite features with certain social media platforms.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Google My Business.
The ability to send your clients to a page where they can leave a review from their own profile.
Great way to validate your business and quash worries that the reviews aren’t genuine.
For game-changing tweaks to validate your Trade and Construction reviews in other ways, then check this out.
Nothing builds a Trade and Construction brand like happy clients telling us how you solved their problems and made their business or lives better.
✅ Easy to do.
✅ Free.
✅ Quick for other potential customers to find the review tab and look through.
So reviews can be mounting up at any time.
It's one of the best features all these social media geniuses came up with in our humble opinion.
⬇️ DOWNSIDE.
You have pretty much zero control over NEGATIVE reviews.
Anyone can leave one.
Genuine or otherwise.
And how reviews work is that to prove they are in the hands of the people that leave them, and not by the businesses that own the page, you can’t just ‘delete’ a negative review.
You can report them to the likes of Facebook etc.
But it can take weeks/months to get sorted.
If even at all.
That one negative review can bring your business brand down faster than you can say Bosch.
Check this out if you need some help dealing with a negative social media review for your Trade and Construction business?
🏆 WINNER: UNDECIDED.
4. How much control do I have over my Trade and Construction website vs my social pages marketing?
🟡 WEBSITES
Depends on how your website is built.
If you are using one of those ‘do-it-yourself’ website platforms like SquareSpace or Wix, then you have a small amount of control.
You can go in at any time and make changes.
As you are a paying customer there are certain terms these companies adhere to, but it is still good to remember that they are a business too.
And if for whatever reason their business goes under, your website could disappear faster than the apprentice come 5pm.
And all that hard work you put into uploading content onto that site disappears with it.
Disaster.
It would be rare for the likes of the SquareSpace or Wix big-boys to go under, but good to be aware that it is a possibility.
If you are using a branding company like ours – where we design and build your website from scratch – then there is a lot more control at hand.
We take regular back-ups of our Trade and Construction client websites and of course all the content is created by us.
And backed up regularly.
So we have everything saved.
Plus, we won’t make any changes unless we have had a discussion with our clients first.
So no unwanted surprises.
As all the code is also built by us, should we ever decide to up and emigrate to a Caribbean island and sail off into the sunset, we can pass all the logins over to our client who can enlist the help of another trusted company to manage it for them.
So effectively, they should never ‘lose’ their website or its content.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
This is huge.
❌ You don’t own any social media platforms.
Remember this.
And as you probably already know, these guys can change what they like, when they like, how they like.
They could all turn off BUSINESS PROFILES tomorrow.
They could delete every Group in existence.
And all the content you’ve worked so hard for disappears.
For many Trade and Construction companies, you guys are building content ON the platforms themselves.
Think about LIVE videos, some of the graphics or taking photos directly on these platforms to then post.
None of which you back up and save anywhere.
So when those platforms change things up or cease to exist – often that you won’t even get any notice for – all that content disappears for good.
Meaning you can’t even reuse it elsewhere.
Find out why relying on social media alone for your Trade and Construction marketing is the most dangerous decision you can make here.
🏆 WINNER: WEBSITES.
5. Which is faster to update for my Trade and Construction marketing, my website or my social media pages?
🟡 WEBSITES
Pretty obvious with this one.
You’re going to have to log in to your account if you are using a website builder.
If your website is being managed by company like ours, then there may well be parts you can update yourself – like adding images – but for any bigger kind of changes you’ll likely need to speak with the company who manage your website for you.
The beauty being that you discuss with your experts what you are thinking and they will feedback if it will benefit your website or not.
Rather than you going ahead and adding or changing things that actually will put your ideal clients off.
Then they will get on and do it all for you.
At an agreed cost, of course.
Though likely they will need to book in the work amongst the workload they have.
Even if you have access to update certain parts of your website yourself it will be better to sit down properly – at a computer – to do this.
So you will need to make time to do it.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
If you are managing your own social media, then the beauty is that you can pretty much go in at any time and update it.
Via your phone.
This is what social media has been designed for.
To be in the moment.
So that you can capture photos or videos on site.
Or when meeting a new client.
Or when introducing a new team member.
In a matter of minutes you can create a dynamic post – be it text, image or video – on your phone and get this out to your audience instantly.
Good stuff.
🏆 WINNER: SOCIAL MEDIA.
6. Which one is best to hold client attention and aid conversion for my Trade and Construction marketing, my website or social media pages?
🟡 WEBSITES
Think about it.
Once a customer has reached your website, the entire focus is on you and your business.
There are no other distractions here.
❌ No adverts popping up from competitor Trade and Construction businesses.
❌ No photos of Trevor’s holiday snaps.
❌ No polls asking what Netflix series you’re watching right now.
The space is completely yours.
For you to show off to the fullest.
And upsell all of your Trade and Construction services, and your services alone.
You will hold the customer’s attention for as long as the content you are showing on there is what they want, the website loads fast and you make it easy to move them to a next step – i.e. an enquiry.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
Disaster zone.
When it comes to holding attention that is.
Because you are up against
❌ Adverts popping up from competitor Trade and Construction businesses.
❌ Photos of Trevor’s holiday snaps.
❌ Polls asking what Netflix series you’re watching right now.
So even if you have caught someone’s eye on social all it takes is for a new message or notification to pop up and the person is whisked away from your post or page – possibly for hours – only to forget they were looking you up in the first place.
By which time, some other Trade and Construction company may have caught their eye.
It’s a really tough gig to try to keep a customer’s full focus on your business.
That’s why it’s so important for you to show up regularly and consistency on social media.
It's the only way you’re going to get noticed.
So that even if in split seconds they start to familiarise themselves with your brand, by the time they are ready to buy they will have come across you multiple times.
If you’re only showing up once in a blue moon on social, it’s never going to work.
🏆 WINNER: WEBSITES.
7. Which do I have more protection with for my Trade and Construction marketing, my website or social media pages?
🟡 WEBSITES
Online Website Builders.
You pay for this.
And they will more than likely have a support team.
So should you forget login details or believe you’ve been hacked, there is someone at the end of a phone (or email at least) to work with you to get this sorted.
This might not move as fast as you hope – if the company have thousands of clients that is – but at least you will move forward.
Similarly, if your website is built and managed by a branding agency like ours, you have the reassurance that your development team all have access and control of logins too.
So should you forget your login details here or believe you’ve been hacked, again, you have a team at the end of the phone to work with you on sorting this.
And a physical, trusted person who will sort this out for you as part of the web design service – where you will likely be treated as a priority because bespoke agencies don’t have thousands of clients on their books.
Another benefit from custom built websites and why you pay a premium for this level of service.
For protection in the future.
🟡 SOCIAL MEDIA
As we mentioned earlier.
You do not own any of these social media platforms.
You’re using rented land my friend.
Nor do you pay to use them.
So when you get ‘locked out’ or ‘hacked,’ trying to contact the platforms so you can re-access your pages could take days, weeks or even months.
Which can have devastating effects on your business.
⭐️ PRO TIP – To avoid losing total access to your business page, consider making someone else you trust an admin of your Trade and Construction page.
That way, if you do get locked out of your account, at least someone else can still access your page and remove anything that’s been posted unwanted, or at least help keep you visible by taking over your posting.
🏆 WINNER: WEBSITES.
CONCLUSION.
Which is best for my Trade and Construction marketing – websites or social media?
The BEST solution in our opinion…
Is to have a website for your Trade and Construction business.
Ideally a custom built websites for all of the design flexibility, tech, control and protection benefits that come with it.
And to use Social Media as a means of building hype to your Trade and Construction business.
Pointing customers to visit your website from your social media pages for more information nice they’ve started seeing you regularly popping up on these platforms with value added posts.
⚠️ NEVER to rely on social media alone to market your Trade and Construction business – purely because you’re building on renting land.
⬇️ Websites Vs Social Media. Which One Should I Use For My Trade And Construction Company Rundown:
1. 🏆 Cost: SOCIAL MEDIA
2. 🏆 Attracting visitors: UNDECIDED
3. 🏆 Reviews: UNDECIDED
4. 🏆 Amount of control: WEBSITES
5. 🏆 Faster to update: SOCIAL MEDIA
6. 🏆 Hold client attention and help conversion: WEBSITES
7. 🏆 Best protection: WEBSITES
🛠 Need a little more help nailing your Website And Social Media For your Trades and Construction Marketing?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with all things online marketing.
Got 3 minutes?
Take our Trades Quiz to discover how you score with all things ‘Off The Tools’.
We have heaps of tips, tricks, and hacks for your Trade and Construction business in our cheat sheets, videos and ideas waiting for you on the other side… i.e., your results page.
So, you can improve your score. And NAIL your Trade and Construction business.
Nice.