If you are planning on running a successful business, having an online presence is absolutely essential, I mean really, who uses the Yellow Pages anymore when Google and other search engines are just a click away?
Over 80% of the transactions in our business world begin and take place online.
Think about it, whenever you are interested in something, or you want to buy something, where is the first place you go to check things out? You go on the internet, obviously. More specifically, you go to Google or another popular search engine. This is the reason why your business needs to be everywhere online.
There are many ways you can establish an online presence. We’re going to outline step by step, the best and proven ways you can make your online presence stand out in just 5 simple steps.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- How to Have a Perfect Website that Converts
- How to Optimize your Website so Google Loves it
- How to Use Social Media to Build Your Brand
- How to Use Email Marketing to Generate Leads
- Bringing it All Together for Total Web Domination
1) Have a Website that Converts
Professional websites should be similar to online brochures. They need to be designed in a way that is visually appealing andbeneficial to the reader. They have to look stylish and impress viewers at their first glance.
Some things to look for when designing your website are as follows:
- Keep your site free of banners (nobody likes them!)
- Make your important call to actions above the scroll (top half of the page)
- Make your pages easy to see with a menu at the top of your page
- Make it easy for visitors to contact you for any questions
- Have a sales funnel process in place (lead the viewer where you want them to go next)
We recommend creating a website on WordPress is easy, you just need to choose a template! If you want someone to design it for you, we can help.
2. Optimize Your Website
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another extremely important method of building your online presence. It involves obtaining leads and visitors from the search engine’s’ organic listings. All of the search engines rank web-pages based on how relevant the content is to the visitor.
When it comes to SEO, content is what matters the most. You need to find competitive phrases and keywords related to your products or services in a smart way. If you want to understand how to be more efficient at SEO, study the Google SEO Starter Guide or check out our blog here for more helpful SEO tips and tricks.
The basic rules for SEO will tell you how to write unique, high quality content, how to use keywords and how to optimize your website with images or videos. They also reveal technical advice how to properly set up your website using robots txt files, sitemaps, meta tags, anchor text, keywords and more nerdy SEO rules.
Getting your site ranked well in the search engines is essential for your website’s visibility. A website that is properly optimized will always generate more visits from the search engines. Some ways you can make sure your website is properly optimized are as follows:
- Check webmaster tools for html errors and duplicates
- Check your site speed here
- Make sure your site is mobile friendly (check here)
- Make sure you have enough quality backlinks (check here)
- Check your site for plagiarism – you shouldn’t have any duplicate content (copyscape)
- Get the All in One SEO or Yoast plugin to make sure your uploaded content is properly optimized (WordPress)
- Don’t forget to optimize your images
Related: 3 Scary SEO Things You Should NEVER Do
3. Use Social Media to Build Your Brand
If you are still running your business the old fashion way, it is time to learn some social media internet marketing techniques so you can be one of the cool kids.
You should start building your social media profiles now. It’s not as complicated as it looks and it can be very effective if you use the right methods.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram marketing can be an amazing and fun way to market your business (It’s one of our favs!). Top businesses use social media sites and generate thousands of leads on these platforms because they work!
Facebook alone has more than 1,310,000,000 active users with ages ranging from 18 to 75 and above.
Using social media sites to generate leads and build your brand is one of the most simple, useful and effective ways of growing your business.
It’s all about branding and building up your popularity, which is essential for your business to evolve and develop online. Here are the steps you should take:
Step 1 – Create Your Business Profiles on Your Favorite Social Media Sites
Create accounts and profiles for your business, on a few of the social media websites listed below:
(Remember to create business pages when possible and not use your personal profile – as this would go against many guidelines for certain social networking sites)
- Google+
If using all of these platforms is overwhelming, you can start with just Facebook or LinkedIn as those would be the most beneficial for your business when establishing your presence online. If you would like to hire a social media manager to take care of things for you, you can get one for a great price here.
These listed social media sites are the most important social media networks to be active in. There are many others, but it is important that your business has an account on the biggest and most popular social beasts that will benefit your brand best.
For niches related to food, crafting, and anything that can yield great visuals; Instagram and Pinterest should be used.
Step 2 – Spy on Your Competition
Before you get started on your adventure with social media, observe what the professionals in your niche are doing, watch how they are managing their accounts and how they are interacting with their followers.
Here are the most efficient ways to find your competitors and the discussions around subjects you are interested in:
Step 3 – Start Networking – Follow Us!
Using social network sites to generate leads requires you to interact with others. After you get accustomed to the interface and the way that each social media network functions, you are ready to interact and engage in conversations with others.
Here are the most efficient ways to interact with others on social media:
- Like and share popular posts and comments related to your industry
- Comment on statuses and conversations you find interesting and have an opinion about
- Participate at Q&A sessions
- Engage users in conversations
- Share industry related information, images and original content
Using social network sites to build your brand and generate leads doesn’t mean you should spam the websites and groups with your business sales and promotions ( go ahead and try… but this never works).
Make sure you leave relevant and helpful comments. Participate in discussions, say something interesting or even controversial, and the right leads will follow you. Remember, it is all about substance. Attract leads by making them curious. Don’t be in a hurry to sell, it won’t be effective.
Step 4 – Bring Your High Quality Content to the Table
There is no easy way around using social media sites to generate visitors to your website and build your brand. You must contribute your own original and awesome content.
Social media only offers you the means to distribute resourceful information, generating leads is a byproduct if your content is good enough.
These are some more helpful ideas you can use to share on your social media networks.
- Industry related helpful blog posts
- Shareable statuses from groups or pages
- Videos from YouTube
- Images or quotes from the web
- Industry related news
Using social network sites to grow your online presence; if done properly, will bring you lots of traffic to your social network pages and your business website. It is important to be patient and not try to force the sale. Don’t nag your friends with your business, be a voice and an expert in the business groups of your niche instead.
Using social media to grow your business online is one of the most efficient and fun online marketing strategies. The online social environment is full of potential long-term clients.
4. How to Use Email Marketing to Generate Leads
Email marketing refers to sending emails to a list of clients in order to keep them updated about your business news (product launches, promos, sales etc )
Email marketing is a cost-effective, successful and highly effective method of marketing and building your brand. Email follow up lists keep your sellers and customers connected at all times. It would be wise to know your clients well and send them personalized and customized emails in which they would gain benefits from (once again, we’re talking about quality and relevance).
In order to generate new subscribers with email marketing:
- Create an opt in form with a compelling call to action; ie, give something away for free in return for their email
- Go offline: offer a discount on services to those who sign up to your list
- Promote your CTA (call to action) on social media and drive people back to your website to get the freebie or discount
Email marketing will help grow your brand because your super helpful, beneficial and amazing emails will be in your client’s inbox and will keep your brand in their memory.
Related: 3 Ways to Market Your Small Business for Free Online
5. Have a Consistent Brand Image Across All Platforms
Now that you have established a clean website, implemented some SEO rules, started capturing leads through social media and established your email list, it’s time to pull it all together.
It’s important to keep your brand visible and congruent in all of your marketing efforts. Here are some things to keep in check when it comes to branding your marketing efforts. These should all have the same colors, logos, fonts + tone):
- Email signatures
- Social media profiles
- Websites
- Blog posts
- Business cards
- Offline supplies (flyers, brochures, t shirts etc)
Now you know the basics of establishing a killer online presence. By following this guide, you’ll be able to get started with your online marketing efforts and start to become visible to your future clients.
If you liked our guide, please share it with your followers, they’ll love you for it and we will too!
We Can Help!
If you need further assistance on getting more traffic to your website, ranking organically, social media management and more; we would love to help. You can reach our awesome and friendly staff here.
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