Colleagues, I would like to share some thoughts regarding the issues of attracting clients (patients) from the network or social networks

This little reflection piece is related to one fairly frequent question my colleagues receive from potential customers who are evaluating the purchase and launch of their website. 

It usually sounds something like this: “Why would I spend money and develop/buy a website if you don't guarantee an immediate and tangible flow of visitors (i.e. customers)? It is more profitable for me to keep a page in [followed by the name of the social network.social network or messenger] and pay for its promotion, than it is unclear how many customers to expect from the site (and with what result)”

That is, in short, the dilemma voiced by clients is as follows:

“Paying for a website and it's unclear how many customers (and when) it will bring us” 

or 

“Pay for the promotion of your page and immediately get customers ($)?”

It would seem that from the point of view of operational economics, everything is quite obvious and there are no two options for the “right” answer. Of course, it is more profitable to pay for promotion (it can be contextual advertising, paid posts in visited communities and groups, buying traffic from banners, etc.) and get the result here and now (in the form of customers and live money).

But I would like to draw your attention to this issue from a different angle.: 

By itself, the acquisition / development of a website, of course, will not immediately give you a stream of customers (as well as the creation of a social media page itself.networks) and this is obvious. It is a mistake, in principle, to ask the question in this way: “The cost of a website or the cost of advertising promotion?”. 

Because a website (or some kind of landing page on the same social networks), even if it is beautifully designed and has a lot of features and functionality, cannot attract visitors by itself. Because it is just the end point (of course not) in the marketing funnel, the task of which is to hook and bring your potential customers to you. 

On the second scale, in this matter, I would place the Content. 

That is, the question should sound something like this: “Spend on content creation or on advertising campaigns?”)

Or maybe from a slightly different perspective: “How is it more effective to attract potential customers in the short and long term?” 

And here, I usually suggest that my colleagues make the following recommendation to our clients and partners:

Divide the funds for the promotion conditionally into 2 types: short-term and long-term according to the type of return. And invest in both of these areas, as both work, albeit on slightly different principles. Exactly, 

1) invest in advertising campaigns to attract your potential customers, get touches and leads (sales) immediately, and 

2) constantly invest in your unique content, which will gradually create organic, free content for you (of course not) the flow of visitors

To simplify it a bit, it's about like a question to which there is no single universal answer: “Which is better for housing - renting or building your own house?”

Renting (in our case, buying advertising activity) will immediately give you the opportunity to live and enjoy all the amenities of paid housing (receive customers and cash flow almost immediately). However, you need to pay constantly and without delay. Plus, the cost of rent can increase significantly if there are more people willing to live in your area (competitors, that is). Well, if you stop the rent payments (the cost of advertising campaigns), immediate eviction will follow (so to speak, the end of sales)

Building (spending on creating useful and unique content of your own) is certainly a long time, not cheap, and it's still a long way from owning your own home, but ... the process is underway, and gradually, you're getting closer to the fact that the built housing (array (necessarily useful and unique!) content) will give you the opportunity to live, without dependence on “landlords" and the need for constant high costs. An organic (search) flow of visitors, recommendations from your readers, subscribers, and an expert image of your company will give you the opportunity to get more loyal customers, even without constant (or no) expenses for advertising campaigns. And believe me, it can work for a very long time afterwards!

Well, the question is “Do I need a website to attract customers, or is a social media page enough?networks?”perhaps it is necessary to consider from the point of view of several other aspects, such as: 

Why do you need a website or a page? Only attraction and sale? Do you need information services and support services for your customers (and not just new ones)? Where is it more convenient to structure and store information? Should it be indexed well in search engines? Do you need the functionality of some kind of unique interaction with visitors, integration with information systems or applications? Are there any legal requirements in these matters and what are they? Etc.

And this is the topic of a separate article.

So, my short summary: to the question “website or advertising promotion?I would answer like this: “advertising promotion and work on creating your own unique content (which is most likely to work best with your good website)”

All the best to everyone, don't get sick, create good services, services, and good sales!

PS [for the medical field]: By the way, launching an effective, working website for a medical organization or doctor is now much faster, easier and much cheaper than you can imagine. 

If you are interested in how to create a working, multifunctional website in a day or two and absolutely accessible to any organization on a budget, please contact us and I think your question will be solved in the best way.