You would be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn’t have a website or aims to establish themselves an online presence these days. It’s almost like our whole lives are filtered through the internet these days and the companies who are winning are the ones who have mastered the art of influencing people through their computers, phones and other devices.
Brands get limited facetime with their customers at the moment as everyone is fighting for that online space. People are flicking through their social media feeds and searching on Google faster than they ever have, so to capture their attention requires a real level of skill, dedication and planning.
If you’re not yet online, you need to be as it’s where the magic is happening for so many brands. It gives you a control over your whole marketing plan like nothing the world has ever seen before and gets your product or service in front of millions at the click of a button. Clearly there is more to it than that, but understanding that you can be truly successful in business through building your online presence should give you some real confidence and peace of mind that your efforts are going to be rewarded.
So What Are The 4 Crucial Steps To Build A Strong Online Presence?
Maybe you are a complete newbie with online marketing or perhaps you are a little more experienced, either way there are some core aspects of building an online presence which should never be overlooked.
Truly Define Your Brand
Without knowing what you sell, what you stand for and who your potential customers are, how are you ever going to build an online presence? Think about your favourite brands. When you go onto their website or Instagram account, you know instantly what they’re about and their brand is consistent right? So the first thing you need to do is align everything you’re trying to do with your brand and create an actionable plan to convey that out to the world. Some handy tips would be:
- Ensuring you have copies of all your logos and sub logos to have on every piece of marketing you release or anything related to your brand so everything is recognisable to people
- Defining exactly what your brand colours are and keeping them safe somewhere, accessible to everyone who works on your team to ensure your brand is being correctly conveyed
- Having a strict rule book about the do’s and don’ts that every member of your team needs to follow when carry out marketing activities such as working on your website or scheduling social media content
Make Sure Your Channels Are Linked
Building a strong online presence will come through understanding that people are on a variety of different platforms at once. Some insightful online marketing research has shown that some users prefer Twitter over Instagram and others may use either and are active on Facebook. Ensuring that you are everywhere will help to capture people’s attention as best you can. Make a list of all the top platforms and make sure you have an active account with each and schedule content for each platform so it is all consistent.
Be Consistent
This is super important due to how busy the online space is and how hard it is becoming for brands to really get in front of their target audience. If you only post once or twice a week, are people really going to remember you and think to use your service or buy your product when they need it? Your content plan and the execution of that plan is going to be a real deal breaker when it comes to building an online presence and winning market share.
Engage With Your Audience
There’s no point in going through the whole process of aligning your brand, linking your channels and being consistent with your content if you are not actively interacting with your customers. People will always have questions and queries and if you are new to the online space, it can be hard to build trust and loyalty before people part with their hard-earned cash. Make sure you are checking your social media accounts and customer service emails regularly as you could have the opportunity to sell your product or service if someone shows an interest.
There is no better time than now to focus on building your online presence and really delving deep into how success in this area can successfully impact your business. Get motivated, get involved and you will learn as you go.
