In this blog post I share my perspective on the much debated question “do you need a website as a solopreneur building a brand on social media?” The short answer is yes, however, I believe there should be an evolution of your online presence as you build your brand. Read on to learn what I suggest for each phase of your journey as a solopreneur.
Getting Started with the Basics
When you are first starting your business on social media, you need to ensure you have a solid infrastructure in place so you can book calls and collect payment from potential clients. However, I do not believe you need to have a fancy website perfectly branded, because to be honest, the beginning phases are all about trial and error. You’re entering a new landscape and need to test the waters before investing too much. You never know how things will land when you test your messaging and positioning in the market place. It might be a hit right out of the gate, or it may need some tweaking. If you invest too much into a website during this phase, it could end up being a waste of time, money & energy. To avoid that, I recommend starting off with the basics: Calendly and Stripe.
Calendly and Stripe
Starting off with Calendly and Stripe allows you to direct interested buyers to book a discovery call or make a payment for one of your services. It is also extremely easy to integrate the two platforms if you’d like your potential buyers to pay upon booking a call. On the flip side, if you want to schedule a call before collecting the payment, you can always share a Stripe link after your discovery call for the client to make their purchase.
If you go this route, you can also include a description of your product or service within the Calendly link so buyers can read through your sales copy and make a decision on whether or not they’d like to make a purchase. Below I have included an example of how I have integrated Stripe and Calendly for one of my offers, but I recommend including more strategic sales copy to the left of the calendar. Mine does not include this since I use WordPress for my sales pages. This combination is the least expensive option you can get, with a year of Calendly access costing ~$50, and Stripe only taking 2.9% of each purchase (which is honestly the standard cost of doing business).
So, if you’re testing the waters and don’t want to put too much money into a website this is the way to go.
Expanding Your Content Strategy
Now, once you are more established, have found your brand voice and know exactly how you want to position yourself in the market place, I strongly believe you should begin to build an online presence OFF of social media. Social media is a great place to build community, find leads and share your work with people, but it is not sustainable to rely solely on social media. This can lead to constantly fighting the algorithm and not really owning your presence online. When you have a comprehensive website built, you don’t need to worry about losing your entire business if social media were to go away AND it helps you build additional credibility.
If you really want to become well-known in the online space, you need to diversify your content streams to hit people from different angles. Think about it, the people you admire and look up to most likely have a podcast, blog or YouTube channel aside from short-form content platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Publishing long-form content, and having a professional website to host it, allows you to get all of your ideas out in a comprehensive manner and shows your audience you are truly an expert in your field.
Once you’re ready for this step in your business, I’d recommend going with WordPress to build your website.
WordPress
I personally use and recommend WordPress if you are looking to expand your content strategy and want to own your own slice of the internet. 43% of all websites worldwide use WordPress for a reason. It has several plugins and you can really do so much with it. However, I will admit there is a bit of a learning curve to using WordPress, but it’s totally doable and worth it. Like anything you set out to learn, you will need to start out as a beginner to get to a comfortable space using WordPress. If you are willing to be patient and take time to learn the ropes, I assure you, you will be a pro in no time. And not to mention there are TONS of free resources on YouTube to help you trouble shoot any errors or confusion that come up along the way.
For instance, this video breaks down the exact steps you need to take to build your website. If you watch and follow along, I have no doubt you will be successful in building the website of your dreams. And, if you’re just really against building a website on your own, you can easily go to Fiverr and pay someone ~$150 to build it for you. You would just need to have the content drafted out to help them plug in the necessary information.
In total, running a WordPress website costs ~$250 per year, depending on the plans you choose to go with. I know that may seem like a lot if you are a new business owner, but in reality it is much cheaper than some other options such as ClickFunnels which we will talk about next.
Time to Scale
Now, once your content strategy is in place and you’re crushing all of your goals for organic marketing (hell yeah!), you may be looking to scale your business with paid ads. When using paid ads, you want to make sure the link you are directing cold leads to is strategically built to guide the buyer to a purchase, which ClickFunnels is great for.
ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is specifically designed to make selling easy. It does not offer as many integrations as WordPress and does not have the same level of SEO, but it helps automate the buying journey. This is not to say you cannot create landing pages and funnels in WordPress, but ClickFunnels really does simplify it.
The reason I suggest this order is because you really want to build brand awareness and grow organically before looking to scale your business. Building brand awareness allows your audience to get to know you and view you as an expert, while ClickFunnels really simplifies selling on a larger scale. ClickFunnels is also on the pricer end at $97 a month for the basic package, which is much more than spending ~$250 a year on WordPress. If you choose to use both WordPress and ClickFunnels, WordPress should be used primarily as your blogging site and you can embed links on your website to direct buyers to your optimized ClickFunnels sales pages.
In summary, the choice is yours when it comes to how you’d like to handle your online presence, but I believe there is a time and place for each of these platforms and it depends on your hunger and desire to learn how they all work. If you just want to sell your services and don’t want to spend time learning WordPress and the different plugins that come with it, and you don’t mind spending $97 a month, ClickFunnels may be for you. However, if you are focused on building credibility and a sustainable brand online, I suggest starting out with the basics, graduating to WordpPress and then deciding if ClickFunnels is really worth the cost for you.
I hope this post was helpful and I wish you all the best on your entrepreneurial journey!
Love & light 🙏🏻✨💓
Amanda
