When it comes to building your brand, increasing your credibility, and managing your reputation, having an online presence is one of the most impactful assets you could invest in! If you’re not active online, sharing customer reviews, and engaging with your audience on social media, your new business prospects will find it very difficult to learn about what you have to offer.
Regardless of your industry, combining your online and offline marketing strategies can help you capitalize on opportunities presented by our ever-changing digital world.
What Precisely Is An Online Presence?
The measure of a company’s online presence lies in how easily it can be found when searching for related keywords online or by how many virtual ‘touchpoints’ a customer can interact with to learn more about your brand, products, and services. That being said, if your business has a strong online presence, it will be easily found on the internet and social media, making you far more discoverable to potential new clients.
In their most basic form, having a website and being active on relevant social media platforms are both essential. Similarly, creating a Google Business Listing can display your contact information quickly and encourage people to visit your website when they search online.
This highly effective digital marketing service can deliver the most impact for your business when it is professionally managed for SEO compliance, content creation, and managed for accuracy. Learn more about how your Online Capital Group can help.
This was especially important for many businesses during Covid-19 when they couldn’t rely on their physical space to find and retain new customers. As fitness studios ran their classes online and restaurants switched to home delivery via social media, business owners quickly adapted to create new revenue streams using their online assets.
For example, estate agents used video platforms to take house hunters on virtual home tours, resulting in a 600% increase in the use of 360-degree virtual home tour technology between 2019 and 2021. Experian Economics forecasts that by 2025, online sales will have reached levels not previously anticipated until 2035 – a full decade of digital acceleration that will have a long-term impact on our economy.
6 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Online Presence
- Ensure your website is search engine and mobile friendly.
“81% of people look for a product or service online.” It is statistics like these that tell why businesses need to recognize the value of having a website. Due to this fact, it is critical to ensure that your website is optimized to be as visible as possible on search engines and mobile devices.
Use relevant keywords that customers are most likely to use to find a business like yours when writing website copy or listing products. Create a Google Business Listings page as well, and fill out every information field as precisely as possible – phone number, address, website, map location, images, and reviews. This can demonstrate your credibility and increase the likelihood of customers seeing and clicking through to your website.
2. Create a content marketing strategy.
Any business can use content to promote its online profile, interact with customers, and build trust. ‘Content’ refers to a variety of engaging assets such as blogs, videos, whitepapers, or social media posts. Each one increases your chances of being discovered online by hosting them on a variety of digital channels.
Remember that 65% of B2B buyers consider your website to be one of the most important content channels. Choose a professional agency, like us here at OCGnow, to keep track of how your content is performing using the insights provided by your website and social media analytics to ensure it is tailored to your audiences.
3. Incorporate video into your online presence strategy.
Over the last five years, video marketing has shot up in popularity, with more and more marketers across virtually all industries utilizing the tool. This became important for many businesses during Covid-19 as a way to engage with their customers despite physical constraints.
4. Create a community by focusing on the brand’s purpose.
Now is the time to ensure that your brand values are visible. It is critical to share a clear, consistent, and compelling brand story across all of your content and online channels, with social media serving as a key platform.
The trick is to concentrate on the channels that are best suited to your customer. For B2B customers, this could mean prioritizing LinkedIn or Twitter, while for others, it could mean experimenting with newer platforms such as TikTok. As previous lockdown conditions have demonstrated, it is possible to build strong relationships with your customers online, so look for new ways to welcome them into your virtual world.
5. Increase your credibility by keeping your online reviews current.
Word of mouth has always been one of the most effective methods of attracting customers. This technique can be applied to online reviews in the digital age. It can also be a quick and cost-effective way to boost your online presence for businesses.
Including reviews on your website and encouraging customers to leave reviews on Google and social media sites like Facebook is a great way to build trust in your brand.
6. Calculate return on investment (ROI) by establishing specific goals.
Take the time to measure the effectiveness and ROI of your online marketing channels after you’ve been using them for a while to develop a strategy that works for your brand.
Online shopping can save money in a variety of ways. While some platforms, such as social ads or working with external experts to create videos, require a financial investment, there are professional agencies that can help manage them to get the most back to you.
At OCGnow, we use digital tools to be able to provide data and analytics to assist you in better understanding your customers, their behavior and preferences, and how they interact with your company at each stage of the customer journey. In addition, we can help define which online approaches work best for your company, allowing you to target budgets and resources much more precisely.
Positive Outcomes From A Positive Online Presence
The Covid-19 pandemic has simply amplified a digital and cultural transformation that was already sweeping the business world, paving the way for new opportunities in 2021 and beyond.
Despite the numerous economic challenges posed by the pandemic, there are now numerous opportunities for resilient, innovative, and entrepreneurial businesses to survive and thrive.
Building and managing your online presence will be critical to capitalize on this unique opportunity for growth by reaching more customers, analyzing your data, and opening up new revenue streams. The good news is that there are more low-cost, accessible options than ever before, with the potential for a high return on investment.
Choosing A Professional Agency To Achieve Results
For improving your online presence, choose the only complete online presence management company designed specifically for maximizing your online presence to its full potential. Your Online Capital Group takes your current portfolio of digital assets and works to capture the overall value to put it to work for your reputation.
For more information, or to schedule an evaluation of your current online presence, give us a call today at (904) 600-3600.
