World Executives Digest | 5 Guidelines for Building Your Business’s Online Presence | The current health crisis is making e-commerce the preferred method of shopping, leading to an astounding increase in sales. According to figures, large corporations and small businesses are benefiting from this surge. This situation has led to many businesses to transition to digital platforms and opened the way for new online stores.
There are many reasons for building an e-commerce store, such as having lower operational costs than a brick-and-mortar set up. However, your online store won’t be able to survive, much less flourish, if you don’t cultivate a strong online presence. Your online presence is the collection identities and interactions your business has on the internet.
If you’re new to the whole digital arena, here are 5 effective guidelines for creating and maintaining a strong online presence.
Get a Website
This may seem like basic advice, but in 2019 a survey revealed that as many as 46 percent of small businesses in the United States don’t have a website. Even if you sell only a handful of products or have less than five employees, a business website is still an important tool in building your business. It’s still vital if you already have a page or account on an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify.
Think of e-commerce pages like your storefront, where you do your transactions, and your website like your corporate headquarters. The former is where you do your sales and the latter is where you do everything else, such as launch products, answer queries, and gather customer information. You need both to have an effective digital presence.
Use Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-click advertising is a digital marketing strategy that mostly relies on search engines. It’s online advertising without the heady cost. You make a bid for your business’s website to appear at the top of a search engine’s results page every time someone enters a specific search term or keyword. When somebody clicks on your link, you pay a minimal fee to the search engine. If done correctly, the fee is inconsequential compared to the sales generated by the click.
Reliable PPC service providers can determine most effective keywords for your company to bid on. These can be keywords that have low competition but high volume of searchers. Or they could be very specific search terms that indicate the searcher has a high purchasing intent.
Generate Valuable Content
Your products aren’t the only thing that can drive and sustain meaningful traffic to your website and social media accounts. You’ll need to create content that your customers and other online users will find interesting and educating. These can be anything as simple as blog posts about interesting facets of your products. Or they could be educational articles offering readers amazing insights on your industry.
The key to creating traffic-driving content is to know your audience. Ask yourself who buys your products and what information they would like to know. Go through your correspondence and see if there’s any recurring question that could be the topic of a new post or article. These types of content can pique the interest of online users and help convert them into loyal customers.
Reach Out on Forums
This is connected to providing content. You can expand your business’s online presence by reaching outside your sphere of influence. The perfect platforms for you to reach out to are online forums that are linked with your business or your specialty. For example, if your online business deals with baking equipment and supplies, you can go on forums frequented by commercial bakeries or even homemakers.
When reaching out on forums, remember to provide honest and legitimately useful advice or information rather than simply selling or talking up your store. Doing so helps build you and your company as a subject matter expert and a reasonable authority in your field. It also fosters trust with online users, making t more likely that they’ll become customers.
Constantly Interact
Online interaction is key in creating a strong online presence. Your website is your primary platform for interaction. Ensure that your site has a contact page where visitors can leave messages and access your contact information. You can also use chatbots, so your customers and curious visitors have access to ‘round the clock information assistance.
Your business’s social media account is also an excellent channel for interacting with users. You can generate posts that encourages them to communicate with your business and each other on the comments section. Regular status updates and posts also fosters more interaction and can lead to more exposure for your business.
Your online business is just one fish in a vast ocean. If you want to become a power player and run a successful business, you need to get noticed and get bigger quick by growing your online presence. These tips will help you accomplish that as soon as possible.
