Thinking of having an online presence?
Why not consider what the famous personalities of the Business world think?
Jeff Bezos – “It’s hard to find things that won’t sell online.”
“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.” – Bill Gates
In gist, they want businesses to have an online presence to be found on the internet.
The Internet is a world in itself, and your business is a tiny element of it. Making your business visible in the virtual world is like finding a pin in the stack of hay. You can’t make your business visible to your customer unless you are sparkly.
Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has tripled the importance of having an online presence.
Everyone is following the stay-at-home rule. Do you think you can earn your home with your business closed down?
How is your business sustaining the pandemic lockdown? How have you been selling your product?
We know it’s not easy to sustain a business.
But, what if you can run your business without anyone leaving their home? This is when the online presence comes into play.
Online presence means you allow your business to be visible to your target customer. Being visible means:
A. Be found
How often have you searched for a restaurant, or a store online, or on Google? And, how often do you end up going there?
Being online means people can find your product and the company. When they search for things, your company appears in the front. This is what an online presence contributes to your business. Then they buy your product. When they sense the product as reliable, they buy your product.
This is how things work nowadays. If you need anything, the first thing you do is Google it. But what if your business selling the same product is not visible to the searcher or customer online? Because of this, you can lose many customers, online and offline.
Thus, you must be there where your customers are, on the internet.
Choose to be found! Choose to be Online!
B. Brand Awareness
Brand awareness means people recognize and remember your product, logo, and your company.
Increase your brand awareness through the use of digital platforms. For example: use social media, create a website, post valuable and relevant content, and so on. You can also join a group or community having the same interest as you do. This helps people be more familiar with your brand. You can also opt-in for:
– Guest blogging
– Facebook and Instagram ads
– Influencer marketing
C. Brand Reputation
A presentable online appearance adds to your product’s reliability and credibility. Increasing credibility means a standard level of reputation in the industry. Enhance the brand reputation by;
– Encourage reviews and feedback from customers
– Participation in online conversation
– Address the client’s queries in no time.
– Use an automated responder depending on the marketing channel.
D. ROI
A digital marketing strategy is more cost-effective than any form of offline marketing.
Plus, the use of analytics to assess the data. This means having customer insight to understand their behavior and serve them well.
With these benefits in mind, you must be thinking of ways to make these happen. If you want to gain from your online presence, these are the key points you need to consider:
1. Be active
Many of us think that being online means having a social media account for your business. But this is not it.
Having an identity on digital platforms benefits many businesses. But what’s more beneficial is being active online. Active in the sense that you;
– Post about your product, offers, and customer engagement.
– Hear their queries and address them on time.
– Take part in a conversation or interaction with the user in the comment section, etc.
2. Influencer Marketing
It is about using influencers to market your product to the target customers on social media. Influencers have an audience who believe in them. It helps you to:
- Building trust and credibility of your brand.
- Save time and cost as the target audience is already present
- It is more focused that ensures the content is marketed to the same audience you want it to be marketed to.
3. Optimize your website
This point assumes that your business already has a website. Having a website makes your business look more credible, and professional.
But the important part is to optimize your website for better visibility. This helps the website to appear on the search engine result page.
Whenever people want something, they search on Google. As a business, your target is to make your website appear in front of your searcher. This has many benefits. Such as;
- Credibility
- Expand the market; as your site is visible to the world.
- Consumer insight by the use of analytic tools.
- Online customer service
- Growth opportunity for the company.
For this, you should consider on-site or off-site SEO. On-site SEO is about content, keyword research, and external and internal links.
Whereas, off-site SEO is more of a technical side of SEO like structuring URLs.
4. Creative Content
Content keeps your audience engaged with your brand. Creative content is a must for brand awareness, engagement, education, and reputation.
You can post images, videos, infographics, blogs, podcasts, and so on. But what’s important and common among these contents is that they must be creative and interactive. Make sure you provide something valuable to your audience.
Content attracts and retains an audience to your brand. By making your content of top-notch quality, you are showing your company is credible. It presents the authority of your company in the industry.
5. Relationship Management
Find a group or community on social media that shares the same interest as your brand does. That is in the same industry as you are. Be an active member of the group by providing valuable content. Engage with them, ask questions, leave feedback, and answer their queries.
Build strong relationships with these communities or groups on digital platforms. This way they will be more interested in what you are offering.
You can also opt-in for;
- Social listening; what people are talking about your brand, industry, and related topics.
- Consider customer feedback
- Offer rewards and incentives
- Share user-generated content(UGC)
6. Analyze your performance
Analyze the digital marketing performance of your company. Assessing helps to know the beneficial tactic that we can adopt. it helps to understand which tactic is working and which is not, and which one needs improvements. It also assists you to know how your website is performing.
You can use:
– Google Analytics
– Google Console
The analysis involves:
- Business and goals review
- Offline and online customers analysis of competitors
- Audience or customer insights
- Marketing channel or strategy recommendation.
There are some KPIs for measuring the digital marketing strategy of the company. Such as;
- Customer Retention rate
- Social Media Engagement
- Measure Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Traffic to the site
- Conversion Rate and so on.
An online presence is crucial for businesses to thrive in the post-COVID digital world. Benefits include increased brand awareness and reputation, as well as effective customer service. Influencer marketing, website optimization, creative content, and relationship management strategies can assist businesses in achieving these benefits by reaching their target audience, expanding their market, and building their brand reputation.
Don’t lose the opportunity the digital world has to provide.
Go Online To Go Farsight!