Google says: Sort out your online presence now!
An online presence is not just a helpful business strategy to pursue; it’s a necessity in the contemporary business climate. If you are not accessible to your digital customers, it’s the equivalent of saying that your business doesn’t exist.
With over 70% of users turning to the online sphere to find a solution to their issues, it’s easy to understand why a cyber presence is crucial to the survival of your company. In fact, there is no point arguing the reasons why you should get online: everyone is well aware of these. But the key factors of a strong online presence remain a little blurry for small businesses, according to the Digital Garage workshops held by Google technicians across the UK. So what’ are the key elements of a successful and noticeable digital presence?
Simple but effective online presence
Needless to say: there is no online presence without a decent website that answers the demands of your users. Unless you feel confident building your professional presence with regards to navigability and usability, it’s best to work closely with an agency that is specialised in template builts from WordPress or Drupal. The first mistake of small businesses is to prefer a DIY approach that might make the result look a little homemade. As a rule of the thumb, a professional website needs to be easy to navigate, responsive and highly functional. But that’s not all; you also need to produce a site that is easy to index for search engines, aka that relies on readable meta and micro data. Unless you were born with a coding gene, it’s best to leave it the job to experts who know what they’re doing and who have got experience in the field. The DIY approach is cheaper at first, but it just looks too cheap to encourage trust.
Get visible with digital campaigns
There’s no denying it: your customers spend more time checking emails on their smartphone that they do on a computer screen. Consequently, it’s essential that the mobile revolution becomes part of your communication strategy. A responsive website is only the first step of creating a mobile-friendly presence, but it’s not the only one. You can create mobile-focused offers to prompt action from smartphone users. You can also ensure that you employ time-critical strategies, such as SMS-marketing that urges immediate responses or special day offers sent in the morning, for example. With smartphone users, you get a real-time reaction, so make the most of it!
Content is still king, no matter what you think
Finally, what you share with your customer matters, and the kind of content you provide will define whether they want to come back or not. Unfortunately, as content has become a marketing currency, more and more businesses rely on easy fixes and copying existing materials. Informative and personal content is what attracts users to you. Pointless repetitions of what any other industry blog writes about are just dull. So when you write, make it count.
In short, it’s time for small businesses to consider their online strategy in terms of accessibility, reactivity and purposefulness. To put it crudely, nobody cares about you if you can’t display one or more of these essential digital qualities.
