While the world has shifted to a digital sphere, there’s still a place for the ‘old’ types of businesses: those that provide a physical product or service. Maintaining an online footprint is a must for those businesses since prospective customers will almost certainly do some research online before purchasing a product or availing service from a business.
What Is An Online Presence?
Simply put, it’s the act of creating a presence – or an impression – on the Internet through various digital platforms. This can be done through organic search engine optimization (SEO), where the business’ website will appear in the organic results of a keyword search, social media, and email marketing.
Reputation management is also a key element of online presence since customers and stakeholders can have an opinion about your company, which may not be favorable. To avoid tarnishing your business’ image, you must be careful about what you put out there, whether it’s in the form of a web page, tweet, or Facebook post.
Why Is Having A Strong Online Presence Important?
First, it can provide prospective customers with important information about your business.
Second, it can help attract new customers.
Third, it can help build trust with previous customers. Fourth, it can be used to gauge the public’s opinion about your company.
Finally, a strong online presence can help establish your business as a thought leader in your industry. With so much to consider, it’s no wonder that many business owners are hectic, running behind, and feeling overwhelmed.
That’s why we’ve put together this extensive guide, which is intended to help you make sense of the complicated world of online presence and create a solid SEO strategy that will drive potential customers to your website.
How To Create A Positive Online Presence?
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Build A Compelling Website
The first step to creating a positive online presence is to build a compelling website. You may have heard of landing pages, which are online brochures that aim to convert website visitors into paying customers.
A well-designed landing page will smoothly guide the visitor through the sales process and build trust and credibility. At the same time, marketing and advertising materials will explain your product or service and its benefits to potential customers.
A landing page is simply a single page on your website that serves as the entrance point to the rest of the site. Think of Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube for examples of beautifully designed landing pages.
However, your website isn’t the only place you need to aim for your content. Other platforms like social media, forums and blogs can also help you reach your audience. To form a consistent brand voice and establish yourself as an expert in your industry, consider creating some content that is specifically aimed at new or potential customers.
For example, if you are an advisor for growing businesses, then your blog content should reflect that expertise. You may use social media to engage with customers if you run a retail store. The key is finding the platforms that align with your target audience and researching industry experts to develop content they will value and benefit from.
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Establish Yourself As An Industry Expert
Once you have a compelling website, the next step is to build your expert status in your industry. The more you contribute to the industry, the more experts you will become. Start by sharing educational content on your website, blog, or social media.
Eventually, you will develop the trust of your readers, followers, and customers, leading them to purchase your products or seek your advice.
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Measure The Performance Of Your Online Marketing Efforts
To determine the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts, you need to measure the performance of your various channels and the responses they receive. You can measure the performance of your website with analytics tools like Google Analytics, which can be found in Google’s free tools section.
You can also use tools like HubSpot or Mailchimp to track the performance of your email marketing campaigns.
Depending on how you set up your Google Analytics account, you may be able to view a variety of metrics, including traffic, leads, and conversions. To view these metrics, you must first be signed into your Google Analytics account and then click on “Components” in the sidebar, followed by “Destinations and Paths.”
From there, you can see the individual paths and pages that led to each conversion. For example, if you run a blog post about international travel, you may see that a significant amount of the site’s traffic came from outside of the U.S., where the blog post was originally published.
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Make The Right Decision
Your target audience can easily become confused with all the information available online, especially when searching for relevant products and services. To make the right decision, you need to set a clear budget, determine the amount of time you have to spend before getting results and choose a plan of attack.
If you want to become the go-to source for information about your industry, you need to establish your credentials and expertise by creating high-quality content that is regularly published. Regular blogging, for example, can help build credibility and authority while providing you with fresh content to share on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
As your business grows, you will gain more experience, and you will be able to make the right decision for your company’s specific needs. But, until then, you need to take the time to research the various options available to you and decide which one will help you reach your goals most efficiently.
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Social media is always accessible
With so many people constantly logging on and using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s never been easier to reach an audience and engage with them. If you want to succeed in business, you’ve got to be on social media.
Establishing an online presence isn’t as challenging as you’d think. All you need is a decent website — preferably a free platform like WordPress — and an Instagram account. From there, you can easily post articles, photos, and videos on both platforms.
With so many people switching to digital forms of communication, businesses that don’t have an online presence can easily become obsolete. So it’s important to establish a presence as soon as possible.
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Curate Content That Makes People Interested
To create an online presence that people want to visit and engage with, you need to have relevant and interesting content. With so much content being created and shared online every day, it can be difficult to break through to potential customers and engage them in a conversation.
To create interest and draw people in, you want to develop content that solves a specific problem or offers a novel approach to an old one. This content should be backed up by expert knowledge and real-life examples you encounter daily.
When developing content for your business, make sure to consider what stage of the buyer’s journey you are at and what pain point you are trying to address with your content.
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Avoid Clichés And Overused Words
While it’s important to provide valuable information to your readers, you should never sacrifice originality for conciseness. Instead of using overused words and clichés, which may seem more appealing to a reader but will likely annoy your audience, develop creative content that is both concise and informative. Doing so will prove that you are both an expert and a creative problem solver, which will draw potential customers to your business.
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Establish A Social Media Strategy
The first step to creating an effective online presence for your business is establishing a social media strategy. Just because you have a business page on social media does not mean you need to flock to the platforms with the largest audiences and most loyal followings.
Instead, look at the demographics and psychographics of your ideal customer and develop content that will appeal to them. Once you have established a strategy, make sure to review it regularly and tweak it as needed.
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Regular Content Is Key
Keeping up with all the trends and staying fresh on new information is difficult. Especially when you are operating as a business, with so much on your to-do list already, you can make content more engaging and less bland by interspersing it with other content, such as videos, infographics, or articles.
Regular content is important because it keeps your audience coming back for more. Even if you have developed excellent informative and entertaining content, if you don’t engage with your audience regularly, they may never discover you.
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Make Sure Your Bio Is Up To Date
If you are using social media to market your business, you should always update your personal bio with your business’s name and contact details. This will ensure that your audience knows where to find you and your business should they need your help.
You should also regularly review and update your business bio, adding new details about your services and why you are the best person for the job. Since people rely heavily on social media to find businesses they can trust, make sure you give them confidence in your brand by presenting it as a reliable and ethical business.
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Keep Your Updates Short And Sweet
Long posts won’t get you very far on social media. Your audience will have more than enough difficulty staying engaged with content that is cluttered with long blocks of text and complex sentences.
Keep your updates brief and sweet to please your audience while also keeping your readers interested. This will make it easier for them to engage with your content and ensure you don’t overstay your welcome on their social media platforms.
Take Action Now To Build A Positive Online Presence
In today’s world, the line between work and play is blurred. With social distancing becoming a way of life and increasingly businesses closing down, being connected online is more important now than ever before.
This is especially true for businesses that can use social media to gain support, interest, and customers from across the globe. As a business, it’s important to establish a social media presence that will engage potential customers and create a positive experience for them.
