More than half of the global population are active internet users. As a business owner, you need to keep track of your online presence to stay afloat, let alone remain competitive in the market and discover where the vast majority of your potential customers are.
Online presence is the existence of an entity – a person or a business – that can be found through an online search and is built, nurtured and curated by contents and activities through digital and social media accounts, interactions and social impressions, and any relevant information about your brand.
There’s no skirting around having a strong online presence since it helps reinforce your brand, connect with your customers, and make it easier to market your business and sell your products, so you really have to invest in improving it. Improving your presence online doesn’t have to be a herculean task but rather a series of simple, strategic steps that, when done right, can multiply your reach exponentially and establish your brand and business.
Simple, Sneaky Ways to Have a Strong Presence Online
Building an online presence goes far beyond setting up a website that contains the name and contact details of your brand.
Build Your Brand
You will see the word brand peppered in this writuep dozens of times, and that’s just it: branding is everything! And brand value all comes down to distinction – your ability to make it stand out in the industry.
You have to be able to think of better ways to introduce your brand without compromising its consistency across all the digital platforms, letting your brand remain intact. It is also important to understand where your brand falls on the value scale as well as the factors affecting it, so you can be able to continually adapt and adjust your marketing approach as needed.
Brand equity is the perception you cultivate in the mind of your customers in line with the products and services you offered. It’s the customer’s perception of the brand and their experience with it. To have a strong online presence, you need to increase your ability to strongly build the value of your brand and effectively connect with your audience.
Use SEO to Bump Up Searchability
With the inevitable changes in algorithms, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best tactics in strengthening your brand’s online presence, making your business rank high in search engines.
There are over 3.5 billion searches a day conducted on Google. People often rely on search engines to look for products and find relevant services. It’s one of the reasons why engaging in SEO is advisable for most businesses brand. Thus, having a strong SEO strategy boosts your credibility among consumers and ensures that you are hitting your target market.
SEO goes beyond using hashtags and catchy headlines. It’s about using your content and tweaking sections of your digital platform. Using images also help boost searchability, and backlinking from other verified websites back to yours gets you huge brownie points, SEO-wise. SEO is a beast in itself and deserves a lengthier, more extensive discussion, which we will be featuring in succeeding blogs (stay tuned!).
Get Client Reviews and Testimonials
With the growing number of online platforms, customers can share their experience and feedback on the products and services they have acquired withn just a few clicks. Customer review is so powerful that it influences existing and potential customers’ preference and behavior. It also impacts how businesses can improve their products and services or strengthen their brand’s credibility.
Reviews and testimonials are a great way to provide your brand with valuable market research and help you to better understand the insights and needs of your customers. It also allows businesses to monitor customer satisfaction and easily addresses any problems that are brought up in the review. The social proof in reviews provides your customers with the information they need to make purchasing decisions with greater confidence – resulting in an increase in your sales.
Stay Updated and Use Appropriate Tools
Technology indeed has and is continuously changing the way businesses operate and has undeniably made its impact on digital marketing. It’s essential for brand owners to keep on learning, researching and keep on top of social media trends. It will get your brand introduced to a ton of active internet users which can also be your potential customers. Take TikTok for instance. While most people might think that it’s only good for dancing and creating memes, it’s actually a great selling tool. Influencers and digital marketers create TikTok challenges as the initial stage of their marketing funnel.
As powerful as social media is for marketing, like any tool, it has to be weilded properly and tactically to reach potential and existing customers. And within social media are numerous tools that boost engagement and analyze social impressions to let businesses know if their campaigns are actually converting consumers or improving their brand’s presence, value and reach.
Apply these tips and get started
Establish a strong social media presence, develop meaningful relationships online, increase positive social impressions, and ultimately solidify your online presence through applying these four tips. Be savvy in creating and sharing valuable SEO-enhanced content, harness the power of customer feedback, and stay updated to keep with the ever-changing digital marketing world.