If you’ve been thinking about increasing your online presence, then you’re already on the right track. We live in an age where anything we want is right there at our fingertips, literally!  Smart devices have completely transformed the way consumers interact with businesses, in a good way, especially for small businesses.

What is Online Presence?

Online presence is best described as the existence of a business found via an online search. For example, a company’s website, social media, or even a listing in a directory. However, if you’re not quite the tech-savvy geek, then building your presence can seem tedious and time-consuming. But trust me, investing in your online presence will yield AWESOME results, because it will make it easier for potential customers to find you, where they will learn more about the services and products you have to offer.  

So here are our 3 benefits to why you must invest in digital presence – if you want your business to succeed online!

1. A good website offers an incredible return on investment

Nowadays, most people are digitally engaged, and if your small business doesn’t have a strong online presence, then you’re missing out on a massive pool of potential leads. However, a major issue among most businesses is that they invest far too much on social media and online ads before getting the basic requirements of their website right.

When I say basics, I mean an efficient website with a clear digital strategy. A good website should have strong branding that instantly creates a sense of trust and credibility with visitors. A pretty site is great to look at but if there’s no thought behind it, then it won’t convert visitors into sales, and spending money on ads and social media will be a waste of resources. A digital strategy helps us to focus on attracting the right people to the site while in the process, making sure that it stands out from thousands of competitors online.

Creating a website that’s aligned with your branding and requirements can be a bit expensive, especially if you’re working with professionals, but thanks to the increased instant asset write-off from $25,000 to $30,000 for small and medium-sized businesses, you can build a website that looks like a million dollars, and deliver the immediate trust and credibility that helps win customers. Not to mention the fact that your website now acts as an effective customer acquisition tool.

2. Reach larger audiences

Once you have your basics covered, it’s time to start thinking about your advertising. How far will a newspaper ad get you these days? Probably just your neighborhood, if you’re lucky, your state. However, if you revert to advertising online,  you’ll no longer be limited to the number of people who buy the local paper.  With online, you will have powerful marketing tools like social media, to help you reach thousands of consumers for a fraction of the cost.

Advertising is all about reaching people where they hang out and talking to them about things that interest them.  Targeted ads on say Facebook, for example, allow you to show ads to a specific group of people, segmented by either location, demographics or interests. With competition coming from all sides, this lets you create better ads based on website data to get a higher return on investment.

But when it comes to using social media, this can be quite complicated if you’re new to online advertising. Most people assume that the more Likes and Shares they get, the better it is for the business. And while increasing engagement is great, what we should be aiming for are converting the right customers at the right time. This is the only way to convert leads that into sales. Fine tuning ads for leads requires knowledge and a digital strategy that is specifically created to attract the right customers.

3. Building your brand’s value will be much easier

We all know that ‘brand building’ is just a fancy term for saying ‘creating consumer trust in your business’.  But there’s definitely a lot of truth in that. The more consumers engaged with your business and have a pleasant experience, the more you build your brand’ and create trust and credibility.  

Investing in your online presence provides visitors an agreeable platform that allows them to interact with you. So think about your current website – does it have a good hero banner? A caption that focuses on the customer and sub-caption that explains your business solutions? Have you created an environment that reinforces trust signals like testimonials, product/ service reviews, and brand certification?

If you already have an established website but you’re still struggling to convert your website visitors into sales, then do consider getting some expert advice to achieve the kind of success possible with a good digital strategy.

A website is crucial if you need to drive your traffic from your social media. Social media platforms aren’t sufficient today. You need a home base that allows your customers to further explore and learn about your offerings. This will increase immediate trust and credibility in your business by providing them with useful, comprehensive information. Who wouldn’t love great credible content for free? With this, you’ll definitely win your consumers and turn them into loyal customers.

Conclusion

As the world evolves digitally, it’s important for small businesses to focus on building a strong online presence. And since there’s no hard and fast rule to building your brand’s online presence, start with a basic website that represents your brand correctly. Then, play around with the features, use different types of ads to target consumers, and then see what works best for you and your business.

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