With many businesses going online due to the pandemic, it has become challenging to connect with the market. This is the reason why businesses should invest in increasing their presence online. While it might be necessary to get a digital marketing agency’s services to accomplish this, businesses can also work on their own if they do not have the budget to hire an agency.
Here are some things businesses can do to increase their presence online
Create a Suitable Website
The first thing they should do is to create a website. While many businesses are content with setting up a social media page, a website offers many benefits for the business. But they should create a website for the sake of making one. The business should make sure it reflects the image and brand the business wants to project.
Due to this, the business should make sure the website provides consistent information about the business. This means the website and social media pages should have the same information. So, when someone searches the business on Google, they will find the information is the same everywhere. This also means the logo, typeface, and even contact details should be the same.
Aside from consistency, the website itself should be visually appealing. The design should entice visitors to explore the website and check the business’s products and services. To facilitate exploration of the website, the design should make it user-friendly. Putting a clickable sitemap on the website also gives visitors another way to explore the website. It also shows the search engine the important pages of the website and provides valuable information to allow it to rank well.
Optimize the Website
Setting up a user-friendly website is not the only thing a business should do. It should also optimize the website so it will rank well on the search engine results page. While the sitemap is a good start, businesses can do a lot more to make the website searchable on Google and other search engines.
Optimizing means the business should use suitable keywords for the website, create a blog with good content, use suitable meta descriptions, and link to relevant websites. Additionally, it should also use appropriate alt tags for any images the business has on the website.
The business can also use programmatic advertising when setting up ads to build incoming traffic into the website. Using ads has also become essential to build an audience for any website, particularly websites offering products and services in the market.t
Work on the Sale Funnel
After setting up the website and optimizing it to bring in traffic, the business should start working on the sales funnel. The sales funnel shows how the business aims to convert an ordinary visitor to the website into a paying customer.
Each part of the sales funnel shows the tools the business uses to encourage visitors to go to the next level in the process. For instance, the top of the funnel is essentially lead generation, where SEO was used to bring people to visit the website.
The next step is prospecting using landing pages and free tools offered to the visitors. Then, the opportunity to make a sale comes by offering free trials and demos. And once the visitors are convinced about the quality of the products and services offered by the business, the visitor becomes a client who will purchase what the business is offering.
Sign Up for Google My Business
Signing up for Google My Business is another way for the business to reach its target audience. This is a free service offered by Google to allow businesses to promote themselves online. The tool connects businesses with their audience. It also gives businesses an idea about how people see the business.
The information on Google My Business needs to be consistent with the information on the business’s website and social media accounts. This is particularly true if the business wants to come out on Google if it has a physical location.
Engage the Market Through Social Media
Engaging with the market through social media also helps increase the online presence of the business. Since many people have social media accounts, it’s always good to connect with the audience on these platforms. The business should also make the engagement a positive experience for the customer. Using humor is a good way to engage with people and increase name recall if the customer hasn’t encountered the business before.
Increasing the online presence of a business is a challenging task. But if the business knows what to do, it can connect with its target audience online and increase sales and revenue.