Almost every business today has a website and an online presence. While online is the way to go, simply having a website or a profile on social media isn’t enough to get to your target audience or make your business known. When executed properly, your online presence can see the business and brand grow significantly. Many business owners aren’t however conversant with online marketing and how to get their businesses known. Outlined below are a few tips and steps to take to boost your business’ online presence.
1. Know Your Target Audience
Identifying and knowing your target audience is the first step to a successful marketing campaign. With an idea of who your target audience is, you can then start formulating ways and strategies on how to find and reach out to them. With a bit of research (by conducting customer surveys, analyzing demographics, and watching online trends), you can get all the information you need to come up with an effective online marketing strategy. Start by creating one or more detailed customer profiles to ensure you have the right info and audience.
2. Tap Into SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is without a doubt among the most powerful and effective ways to promote your business online. It entails sharing helpful content consistently and efficiently following strategic guidelines to help your target audience find you. One of the advantages of tapping into SEO is the fact it will remain relevant for many years to come. There are many ways to optimize and implement SEO services, such as uploading engaging video content, using high-quality images, and sharing informative articles and blogs. You however might want to familiarize yourself with the various SEO techniques and strategies to make the most out of it. This is especially important with keyword research, content creation and sharing. Luckily, there are numerous tutorials and tools you can use to master keyword research and optimization.
3. Use The Social Media
Billions of users log on to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other networking platforms per day. a good percentage of these users are your target audience and potential customers. Promoting your business on these platforms is one of the best ways to boost your online presence and visibility. You can do this by creating a profile on most of these platforms, then upload and share informative and captivating content to grow a following. Consistency is however key to attracting and growing a following on social media. You also need to be active here to create and develop a lasting relationship with your audience and followers.
4. Consider Online Advertising Campaigns
Online advertising, e.g., PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a marketing strategy that enables companies and businesses to have their adverts displayed to specific users in response to their keyword searches on, say, search engines. Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Microsoft Ads are some of the best examples and most popular platforms used for digital ads.
Pay Per Click advertising can be used alongside other marketing strategies to help boost online visibility and outreach to potential clients and customers. One of the advantages of PPC is that you only pay for impressions, usually with a high success rate. These digital platforms will only display the ads to potential audiences, not just anyone online. However, you can improve your click-through rate by using keywords optimized for your business, e.g., garage door repair.
It’s worth noting that Search Ads are quite different from social media PPC, a reason you want to pick the most appropriate one. You could also run display ads to create awareness of your product, brand, or business. Display Ads are more like regular billboards but on the digital platform. If this seems too complicated, you can then partner with a digital marketing company such as Awebco to set up and run PPC advertising campaigns.
5. Update Your Website Content Regularly
There is more to running a business online than creating a website alone. You need to ensure the content published on all pages is not only accurate but also up to date. Any articles and blogs posted about a product or service will also need to be updated to coincide with the current market trends. Updating your website regularly will help keep the target audience interested as no one wants to come back to the same old page repeatedly. You can also use fresh updates to give the website a new look and feel and publish more interesting content.
6. Create an Email List
Email marketing is crucial for both small and established businesses. You however need to have a genuine email list for this marketing strategy to be feasible. This will make it possible to send newsletters, promotions, deals, and other perks to your email subscribers. Since no one will be willing to share their email address with you out of the blue, some creativity can get you some. You could start by offering incentives, such as offering a bonus or gift for their email address or ask interested persons to sign up for your newsletter. When you are managing personal data you must ensure that your cybersecurity solutions are in place to protect your data from cyber attacks or breaches.
Sending thousands of personalized emails to all subscribers can be a challenge and time-consuming. However, you could automate the process using a reliable web-based marketing tool, such as ActiveCampaign, to send out these emails. ActiveCampaign serves as an email marketing and customer relations manager (CRM) Software.
ActiveCampaign email marketing software is an easy-to-use tool that any business can use. It comes with multiple features that enable clients to create successful automated email marketing campaigns. No technical knowledge is required to install and use the software. As an added advantage, ActiveCampaign has an easy-to-use intuitive interface that can be customized to suit your various needs. The interface features all the tools you’d ever need to run a successful email marketing campaign.
7. Consider Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the most preferred online marketing strategies today. It involves using a well-known individual (influencer) with thousands or even millions of followers to mention and promote your product. Depending on your target audience, you can use a micro-influencer (with a few thousand followers) to promote your product or company or a more popular one with millions of followers to achieve even better results.
Influencers boast thousands of loyal followers, most of whom will take seriously whatever they say or promote. Simply mentioning or recommending your product to their followers could see a surge in traffic on your website and even sales. Depending on the influencer, you can either pay them or give them samples of products you are looking to promote.
8. Make Your Business A Brand
Creating a brand out of your business can go a long way in boosting your online presence and command. Although you might not know this, a brand is more than just a catchphrase, business name, or logo; it is something people can relate to. It represents what people feel or see your business based on what you offer. You can therefore build a brand by establishing a voice or style unique to you. This is what comes to mind when people think about your company or products. It can be anything from font styles, logo, colors, tone, and messaging, among other factors.