In the midst of everyone making the switch to going digital amidst the pandemic, there are more businesses and brands online than ever. Going digital definitely brings you more opportunities but with this comes a set of challenges. Ask yourself these questions: Is your business properly managing your digital presence well? Have you reviewed your online activities? What else should you be checking on?
Your business website is an essential part of your digital presence online. Studies show that 88% of consumers will research product information before they make a purchase online or in the store and having a website will help in providing them with that information. Your website should be the place all your other platforms link to and will be the home base of your business. Some things you should run through when checking your website:
Make use of the world’s biggest search engine! Having a Google business listing is important to ensure that whenever someone looks up your business, your listing can help them figure out your contact, operation hours at a quick glance. You can engage with customers on Google for free by starting your own business profile here.
You’ll also want your website to appear and rank well on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). It’s best to make sure your page organically appears on the first page of the SERP as on the first page alone, the first five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks and the results from 6 to 10 account for only 3.73%and you can do this through search engine optimisation. We previously did an article covering this topic on improving online presence which you can read here.
Is your business on any social media platforms? If the answer is no, make sure you examine your target audience, think about who your business resonates the most with and from there choose the right platforms to be on. If the answer is yes, make sure you check that all information on your socials is up to date and accurate. We recommend launching a Facebook page and depending on your audience, an Instagram account as well. These two social media giants are the most popular platforms among the general public with millions of users on the platform. To add on when you use Facebook Ads, you can do a targeted form of advertising. You can advertise to people by age, interests, behavior, and location depending on what your objectives are.
Social media is another key part of managing your digital presence and more customers expect businesses to be present online. Make sure your business is active and put out content that is relevant to your audience. Organic content can also be another way for you to promote your business as well as strengthen your customer loyalty. Social media also allows you to engage with your customers and you can use this opportunity to build trust in your brand. So stay active, post regularly and update your social platforms consistently! The more active you are, the better.
While many may think email marketing may be dead, Entrepreneur reports over 1.2B more people also use email and that 72% of people would prefer to receive brand content via email as opposed to social media. You may want to consider email marketing to tap into a wider audience and also to retarget people who have signed up for your website’s newsletter. Building an email contact list can help you reactivate dormant customers while also helping you interact with your customer base.
It’s important to tailor your email marketing content and ensure that you don’t unnecessarily spam your subscribers with junk mail. For example, if you have a sale on your website, let your customers know and you can do this by sending out emails to appeal to them.
Do note that this approach may not work for everyone, it also depends on the nature of your business and the products you sell. Hospitality, fashion, and retail brands benefit from email marketing the most, so do take the nature of your business into consideration before deciding on email marketing.
We hope the checklist above helps your business with managing your digital presence! Of course, there are many more factors we did not cover but here is a simple list to get you started. In these times, it is necessary to ensure that your business does not get drowned out by other competitors online.
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