As online platforms continue to sprout, it is important that your business invests in a strong digital presence to raise awareness, engage the audience, reach their potential and grow. Sadly, most businesses think that existing online equates to having a presence. Simply put, digital presence is how your business exists and presents itself online. In this article, we are going to share strategies that will boost your presence.
Consider Revamping Your Website
We all know the benefits of having a website for your business. A great website allows you to engage with your audience, deliver valuable content and drive consumers through your sales funnel. There is one thing having a website and another having a modern, attractive and informative website. Remember, consumer expectations have gone high. In fact, 75% of consumers judge a company’s credibility based on its website design.
Here are some tips that can help revamp your website:
- Personalize your website based on your brand
- Add landing pages that help convert users
- Use contrasting colors
- Add strong visual elements and features
- Build a blog
Boost Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy
Simply defined, search engine optimization is a process that increases your website traffic, brand recognition, and brand presence. SEO helps customers have a better chance of finding your website and buying from you. Mastering it can boost your rankings in Search Engine related queries. It is vital that you work to earn a top spot in search results because up to 75% of consumers stick to the first page of search results.
Take time to learn the three critical areas i.e., off-page SEO, On-page SEO, and Technical SEO. Seems technical? Well, you can simply sort the services of digital marketing experts and go through different SEO packages that will work for your brand. It will save you more time and you are bound to reap ROIs.
Maximize Social Media
Social media is king when it comes to improving your digital presence. However, before you join the bandwagon and create an account on every social media platform, you might want to do some research. For instance, who is your audience? Where are they on the social platform? How can you reach them and what do you want to achieve? Such questions will help you know which platforms to capitalize on.
Statistics show that visual social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Tik-Tok are growing faster than text-based ones. You can choose to be present on all social media platforms or in only two accounts with solid engagement. After all, curating content and having a successful marketing strategy is not a walk in the park.
Tip: You can also invest in top social listening tools like Talkwalker, Mention, Brand24, Brand Moran, and the likes to help you mine key business insights from social media.
Invest in Paid Ads
Sometimes businesses don’t see the results with paid advertising because they lack the expertise to manage online advertising campaigns. What most people fail to understand is that paid advertising is a fast way to show up prominently on social feeds and search engines. Below are some ad options that you can use to increase your online presence:
- Search ads-you can use Google and Bing. Search ads land you on top of search engine result pages
- Display ads-Help consumers get familiar with and recognize your brand
- Social ads- Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn can be used to improve your online presence because of the high reach and engagement rate
- Podcast advertising
Try Guest Posting
Guest posting is another way of using content to dramatically increase your website traffic and brand visibility. Before making your pitch to a guest post you need to ensure that all your online profiles are informative and clear. Clean up your bios and publish a few good pieces on your channel before guest posting. After “cleaning your house “and ensuring it looks good, now try to find the right publication; preferably one with the same audience as yours. Once done proceed to craft a personal and engaging pitch and share it with your Editor.
Tip: Avoid poor planning and mediocre content. Always remember to follow the guest post rules to the latter.
Leverage Videos
As noted earlier today’s audience prefers visual social platforms over text-based ones. While at it you might want to maximize the power of video for more shares and memorability. Let’s throw in some video stats to put this to perspective.
- Social media generates 1200 more shares than image and text combined
- Up to 64% of consumers make purchases after watching branded social videos
- People spend an average of 16hours a week watching online videos
- 95% of the message is retained when watching a video compared to reading it
Great stats, right? It’s time to share those videos. If you are going to use them for advertisement, you might want to do an ad length of 6-10 sec.
Integrate Emotional Appeal into Your Posts
Human beings are inherently emotional beings. People want to feel and identify with your posts. It’s simple, once they do, they share it with their friends and family across social networks. Think of your followers as an audience and connect with them. Emotional marketing is about being empathetic; understanding your customer’s needs, being authentic, creating strong emotions, and telling a story. Keep in mind that a brand that can relate to its prospect’s feelings and emotions has a better chance of being noticed.
Consider Email Marketing
With the advent of many digital marketing strategies, one question that keeps coming up is whether email marketing is still important. The answer is yes. Creating a strong email marketing strategy can help you increase sales at an affordable cost. With email marketing, you have direct access to your audience because people get to check their emails on a daily basis. What’s more, is that you can use demographic or psychographic data and create personalized campaigns.
Final Thoughts
From our discussion, it’s quite evident that there are many ways that you can employ to improve your digital presence. The beauty is some of these tips don’t require you to have a big marketing budget to get started! And, there are many other ways to grow your business online. Other ways that you can try are; maintaining and monitoring your listing, building relationships with other brands, making content accessible, using mobile-specific marketing strategies, and staying active.