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In the era of the digital revolution, a company’s online presence is crucial to its success. The rise of social media has brought the need for creating an online image that people would like to follow. You don’t even need an actual office to start a business; many of today’s successful companies were created at home.
If having a Facebook or an Instagram account was optional a few years ago, things have changed now, so this has become a mandatory part of a company’s digital marketing strategy. Business happens online, and not being present there means missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Before creating any kind of strategy, you should know that your online presence is everything about you on the internet. All your social media profiles and the content of your website. All these identities need to be aligned, following your business goals.
Another thing you should know is that building an online presence isn’t just something that gets done in a night. It’s actually very time-consuming and requires a lot of effort. Results don’t come right away. Sometimes it takes months, even years to meet your goals. However, you can’t exist as a business without it. So, the earlier you start working on it, the more benefit you’ll see eventually.
Here are some tips on how to improve your online presence:
1. Its majesty – UX
You can have the best content in the world, but if your website isn’t user-friendly, no one will actually read it. Users are selfish. They only think about themselves. They don’t have a lot of patience, so if you don’t give them what they want in a few seconds, they’ll pass on to the next one who can.
In fact, Kissmetrics stats say that 47% of website visitors expect it to load in less than 2 seconds, and 40% of them leave the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Moreover, Tagman claims that every one-second delay means a 7% loss in conversions.
UX is also a very high priority when it comes to search engines (read: Google). If users leave your website because they can’t find what they’re looking for, Google won’t give you the top SEO position.
Your website should be a place where things are easy to find. Study your data and find out what is it that your visitors are looking for the most. Use heat maps to see how they are using your site and always know what to improve first.
2. Focus on your best products
Visitors are also lazy. This means that if they don’t find what they want within three clicks, they won’t bother anymore. That’s why your best products, or the ones you want to sell the most, should be the ones that are most visible on your website. Moreover, those are the ones you should be promoting the most through your social media channels and your content marketing.
According to E-consultancy, 83% of online buyers need some support during their buyer journey. This means that making decisions is kind of hard for shoppers. What is more, a large percentage of online shoppers are millennials, who do not always know what they want, so showing them your premium offer might be one of the best business decisions you’ve made.
3. Email marketing
Today, around 91% of consumers check their emails every day. Moreover, McKinsey claims that email is much more effective in closing sales than social media. Email is a tool that allows you to personalize your approach and create a tailor-made landing page that will be adjusted to that particular customer’s needs. Knowing that today’s marketing is all about personalization, this is a channel you don’t want to ignore.
For example, you could create an email campaign for new subscribers, welcoming them to the community and showing them your best stuff. People who left items in their carts and didn’t buy could get reminder emails, while customers who hadn’t been on your website for a while could be brought back with a “we miss you” email.
4. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to get your name out there. However, readers notice when it’s done just for links and not for the content itself. That’s why you need to be careful and create high-quality content that will catch their attention.
Becoming a contributor to a prominent website that gets more visitors than yours can do a lot to improve your branding. Great content will bring you a lot of new users and follows on social media.
5. Engage with your followers
Just sharing stuff on social media won’t do it. There’s nothing worse than a brand that doesn’t answer to comments, especially when it comes to constructive criticism.
Start with sharing relevant content. Make sure people are getting some valuable information, and not just any content. Answering to comments is a must. Every answer needs to be polite and in the same tone.
Offer a reward for users who create content connected to your brand and share it. Show appreciation for people who like your brand. Starting conversations and commenting on posts are also good ways to get noticed.
6. Optimize for mobile
None of the above are relevant if your website isn’t mobile-optimized. Statista data confirms that in the first quarter of 2019, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 48.7% of global website traffic. Moreover, the number of smartphone users is constantly growing, which means that mobile visits are also going to grow.
This is another important factor that Google takes into consideration, so you must have a mobile-optimized website if you want a high SEO ranking.
Working on your online presence can be very challenging, especially if you’re building it from scratch. Before doing anything online, you should define how you want your brand to be seen through the eyes of your customers. Set your tone and goals, and define a strategy.
However, be realistic. Know your abilities and your resources. Be careful about the effort you put on this process and be patient. If you’re doing things right, results will come eventually.
