I always get asked the question, is social media the only thing I need to sustain my marketing online? Is the rest really all that necessary? Yes and no. 

Yes if you are in the initial months of your business. Making the leap into your new biz is hard and often times transitioning into other avenues is out of the budget in both time and money.

I know what it is like to get the wheels in motion, and wow are we lucky these days. A business can be set up with a simple Instagram account and a couple of beautifully curated posts. 

But for the rest of us, the answer is most definitely no. Here is why. 

You don’t own social media, and the control is entirely in someone else’s hands. 

Social media is a great tool, but it is just that, a tool. We cannot guarantee that we will always have access or that it will work in our favor. Being a slave to the algorithm isn’t something new to social media. 

The algorithm is a tool social media uses to decide which posts their users will view. 

Instagram has been testing algorithm changes the past couple of months, while Facebook has been focused on personal connections before business connections for quite a while. 

Zuckerberg even announced in 2018 that Facebook users should “expect to see more from friends, family, and groups” and less from “businesses, brands, and media.”

Bringing me to my next point…

Only 4% of your audience actually stop to read your posts.

That is the stats for Instagram, but for Facebook and Twitter, it is much less at 0.1%. 

On social media, you are constantly at war with other accounts for attention, so having the ability to attract your followers away from the apps and to other channels, truly brings you ahead of the game. 

Your return on investment (ROI) is much higher when you explore the other options and use cohesively with your social media.  

Now I could write my opinion for hours but let me show you the stats. 

Email Marketing

Did you know, that email is the most effective way to market with companies estimating a $38 ROI for every $1 spent? That is a crazy 3,800% ROI, making it the most profitable option available. 

Websites

 According to Google’s data, 50% of consumers who conduct local searches, visit the store within 24 hours and 20% make purchases. 

Also, did you know, of the businesses that have websites, 69% of them have sales between $1M to $2.49M. 

Conclusion

The data is all there, using other marketing strategies combined with social media is crucial to your businesses growth. 

 Exploring the other options gives you full control of your businesses marketing, less competition, and the statistic clearly show much higher returns on ROI.