Work has become more remote in the past few years, and this trend may continue despite the lifting of regulations. Many businesses have opted to keep their workforce working from home to save on overhead now that they know it works, and the employees seem to enjoy the freedom, flexibility, and time-saving lack of commute of remote work. Additionally, for those who are in business for themselves, the popularity of online business is growing. If your business has traditionally served customers in person, it may have recently suffered from decreased customer traffic, your inability to provide in-person services due to health concerns, or government-mandated restrictions on activity. When relevant, building a website and an online presence can provide more business and online community. Read more to learn how to take your traditional business online.
Why Go Online?
Before deciding how to move your business online, first consider your business model and customer base. Retailers, service-based businesses, non-profits, and schools, operate vastly differently and will gain unique benefits from moving online because there is a much greater audience of potential customers or donors at your finger-tips. Some businesses that are in-person services such as massage therapy or other hands-on jobs like auto mechanic jobs will benefit from online marketing and sites, even though there will always be a hybrid of in-person work and online presence required in these types of businesses.
Having an online presence is essential when it comes to building a brand, increasing credibility, and managing your reputation. Sharing customer reviews and engaging with your audience on social media will develop new business prospects who can learn about what you have to offer. Regardless of which sector you operate in, adapting your marketing strategy to combine both online and offline methods can help you seize the opportunities presented by the ever-growing digital world audience.
Getting Started
When it’s time to take your business online, your first idea may be to build a website. Websites are a common way to gain an online presence for your business. The site is your online business card; it’s your digital real estate with which you can do whatever you’d like to portray your business. On your site, you can feature your business products and services, post videos and pictures, share your company story, sell items or services using tools, and make it easy for customers to contact you or post reviews. For certain industries, it may be best to look for developers with specific skills. For example, if you are looking to set up an e-commerce site, you’ll want a developer with experience in online store platforms including Shopify, Magento, or Woocommerce.
Make sure your website is optimized for mobile users, as more customers than ever before are using their mobile devices to research and shop. Keep every update optimized for the best mobile view, including mobile payments if applicable. It’s essential for your user’s experience. While a website can be effective for your online presence, it’s important to remember it’s not the only option.
Other Platforms
A business profile on Google can help you get new local customers, stand out and connect with customers with a free profile.
Social media platforms allow two-way interactions that can help your business be discovered by new customers while building community with existing customers. These platforms complement your other online platforms by letting you post timely updates and interact with customers to demonstrate third party validation via the public interactions your fans and customers have with your business. You can encourage people to share your posts with others, and you can also read comments to learn more about your customers’ and prospects’ needs.
Some of the most popular platforms to build a profile on to create a presence to advertise your business online are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. Encourage customers to provide you feedback in a space where you can respond and control the narrative. Positive online reviews are a valuable asset to every business, whether you run a salon or a farm.
To show up on Google maps, make sure you create a Google Business Listings page and fill in all information about your business including the hours of operation and your website in the fields as accurately as possible. This will showcase your legitimacy and boost your chances of local customers finding you and/or seeing and clicking through to your website.
Hire a Professional to Increase SEO Ranking
While most businesses understand the importance of having a website, it’s vital to make sure that site is optimized to make your presence as visible as possible on the various search engines.
When hiring someone who can implement search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) for your business, you should consider hiring a freelancer or a web studio. It’s often cheaper than you might think to find someone to fit your needs. It will cost less than the time you will spend mastering these skills yourself.
A smart SEO strategy will take advantage of gaps in the content of the competition, and including key elements of technical SEO can be a really cost-effective way to increase traffic to your site by helping you show up in the top search engine results.
One good place to start is by doing some keyword research. This means gathering a database of current popular keywords related to your brand that your target audience might be searching for. One of the key data points here is “search volume”, a metric used to outline how many monthly searches occur for specific keywords, which can then be filtered by region and device, among other qualifiers. When creating your list, focus on mid-level and long-tail keyword strings that aren’t swamped by the competition like the top-ranked words. This will help you stand out.
A business’ successful online presence can be defined by how easy it is to find the business when searching for relevant keywords online (SEO). It is also defined by how many virtual ‘touchpoints’ a customer can interact with to find out more about your brand, products, and services, which make you far more ‘discoverable’ to prospects.
When you’re writing your website copy or listing products, use relevant keywords from the list that customers might be using to find a business like yours. Be specific and know your target market: read How to Identify Your Target Market.
When taking your business online, it’s important to evaluate what your reasons are for going online, who your target audience is, and how you’ll reach them. Try different methods and practice a bit to find out what works for you so that you can create the perfect online environment to encourage your prospects to become more than just customers; you want them to become fans. Read the book Superfans: The East Way to Stand out, Grow Your Tribe and Build a Successful Business. Subscribe for more business, sales, and investing posts. Have a lovely day!
