Does a business need a website?

My company, LexBlog, is going to find out as we move to a blog, as opposed to a website, for our Internet presence.

I’ve been asking the website question as to LexBlog’s Internet presence for the last year. So has my COO, Garry Vander Voort. We’ve both been blogging for a long time and believe a blog may do everything a website would do for us and more.

So last week we met as a group and decided that LexBlog would move to a blog as our web presence for now, as opposed to having a website. I pushed pretty hard for a number of reasons.

  • Every company talks of being real, genuine and authentic. We all know that is what customers, prospective customers and the influencers (bloggers, association leaders, reporters) are after. It’s how we build trust. But how many websites are real and authentic? They’re advertising and most people do not trust advertising. A recent white paper from Avvo said less than one-third of Millennials are influenced by a website in their decision on who to hire as a lawyer.
  • Websites are a suck of time. I hear all the time that a law firm or company is working on its website. Every couple years, including at LexBlog, companies talk of upgrading their website. A huge amount of time goes into it. Once a website is done, if ever, marketing talks of drawing traffic to the website. Time is spent on trying to draw traffic, sometimes money is spent. Why? Does traffic to a website mean more revenue for most companies?
  • Your company is your people. Nothing more. Nothing less. Your team members need to grow as people, they need to build a name so they can go on and do great things. Your team members need to get known by your customers, prospective customers and the influencers of those two. Your team members sharing what they are learning internally and by following others in a real and vulnerable way attracts a following and an interest. Garry’s sharing his work, research and decisions on putting our health insurance benefits together is interesting stuff. Our CTO, Joshua Lynch’s sharing insight and research on a security matter is good stuff. By sharing other’s posts online and engaging the source, my team members build a network and build a name for themselves.
  • LexBlog is selling a blog publishing software product that is everything a lawyer or organization needs to make a name for themselves and grow their business. It’s odd if we don’t blog as a lead. We built our company with a blog. I like returning to our roots.

Just as a blog has sections about the publisher, what the publisher does/sells, and how to get hold of the publisher’s company, we’ll do the same with LexBlog. All the information about what our product, the plans offered, our people etc will be part of the blog.

It will be an evolution in stages. Stay tuned and I welcome your thoughts.