As a business, it’s clear there’s one key target to work towards in any marketing effort – getting customers. Whether you’re in a start-up phase online with no digital presence or an established business with a digital presence that isn’t performing, the topics we’ll cover will give valuable insight into how you should be handling your online presence to get the most out of any digital assets.
Providing your company is operating ‘above board’ offering quality products or services with good customer service, and you know there is a market online of people searching for what your business does, then this process should apply to you perfectly.
Get customers online
Customer Service
Good customer service isn’t just for engaging person to person, no. Your website and any other online platforms you use to generate business should have a customer focus, making sure to address questions and provide help and advice.
You could encourage customers to get in touch and contact you to answer any questions they may have, or direct them to FAQs and pages on your website.
Personality can also pay a big part in good customer service, adn is definitely something you can carry through online. If your online asset is a business website, then branding is a must as this can add heaps of personality to a brand and is important for first impressions. More ideas might include adding a meet the team page, and writing candidly rather than formal – both great ways of displaying some personality.
Choosing the right platforms
Building a presence online can be done in a whole host of ways. With no end of social media and publishing sites, how do you find YOUR audience?
At Creative Asset, we believe the first step online should always be with a quality business website. Having a website means you control your content and online presence completely. A website is crucial to providing a legitimate presence as there are no third-party platforms involved, meaning all control is yours to publish what you want and add features you want.
That being said, it’s not the only option out there. Many businesses have found success on social media, creating free business pages that they use to engage with their audience both B2B and B2C. Linkedin stands out as a great social option for B2B businesses being exclusively used by professionals.
Choosing the right amount of platforms is also essential. Don’t limit your business with too few platforms if you feel you could benefit from adding another to your online arsenal, but on the other hand don’t over expand if you don’t have time to effectively manage them all.
Snappy introductions
It’s no secret attention span by web users is incredibly short. Your introduction on any platform should be optimised to tell users exactly what your business does in a way that grabs their attention forcing them to read on. A snappy introduction can also be used to keep your message consistent across online platforms, having the same intro on your website as you do on your social media and advertisements forms a coherent brand.
Managing your online reputation
The internet makes it so easy for users to look for reviews and testimonials for your business, so there’s no hiding bad business. Reputation management is key. With good customer service and the encouragement of customers to leave reviews online, you can build a very strong reputation – the sort of reputation Google and other search engines love to see!
You can choose from a whole host of online review platforms, the most common ones being Trustpilot, Reviews.io, and of course Google itself. It’s worth noting reviews on your Google My Business Listing (to be mentioned) will contribute to higher ranking in map pack search results for your business.
Leverage online softwares
Google offers a suite of tools for website owners, the main one being Google Analytics for website tracking. By installing the tracking code for Analytics on your site, you can see anonymous data for user behaviour and the actions they take on the website. This can provide valuable insight into what is and isn’t working on your website, and make changes accordingly.
Search Console is another helpful management tool for your business website that can help you see and manage your online presence for Google Search. This gives you data on who has found and clicked on your website on Google, as well as the Website’s average position for all the keywords it ranks for.
Finally, another tool we’d recommend when increasing online presence is creating a Google My Business listing. These represent the business on Google Search and feature business details, images, reviews, Q & As and more. See below
Optimise for sales
Reduce barriers that might stop a customer inquiring or purchasing from you. By taking a look at the buyer’s journey on your website, you can spot opportunities for improvement. Removing unnecessary features and text on your site that is drawing attention away from the main goal you want users to take.
This might include adding more payment options to give users their choice of payment, making the website load pages faster, or adding calls to action for buying or enquiring. These steps would all help increase the chances of someone becoming a customer.
Most websites on the internet these days are responsive and work well on various devices, but it’s well worth checking your website is too. 95% of the websites we host receive 50% or more web traffic from mobile devices. This would be a huge segment of your target audience excluded if your site did not work well on mobile.
Digital Marketing Strategies
So you have your website, now what?
Your internet presence isn’t brought about by just letting things run their course, on the premise “business will pick up”, no. You have to go out and get that business and now you have your website, you can use it to access marketing options online. Here are a few to get you started.
SEO
Search engine optimisation is probably the most leveraged digital strategy with low barriers to entry – all you need is your website. There’s no direct cost associated with SEO if you learn some technical knowledge to do this yourself. Otherwise, outsource your SEO to an agency like us. SEO aims to make changes to a website’s composition based on what we know from search engine algorithms to increase your website ranking for keywords.
Provided your keywords have enough searches a month to bring in potential business, this strategy could work well, and often secures long term success online, as opposed to buying ads that place you at the top of search results temporarily, until you stop paying.
Paid Advertising
There’s so many forms of paid advertising, the most popular being Google Ads where you can display ads on Google’s entities whether that be Search, Gmail, YouTube, Or Adsense properties. Google Ads is the largest advertising network on the internet, and arguably has the most intuitive interface for beginners.
Not limiting yourself, you should also consider paid advertising on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Linkedin. Facebook is regarded as having the best audience targeting features and data of any other advertising platform, so if you’re looking to explore audiences, this could be a perfect option for you. Facebook also owns Instagram and this is reflected in the advertising platform with Instagram included as a network you can target.
Linkedin is a social platform where professionals meet and network, so could be a great way for B2B businesses to target their audience.
Content Marketing
If you have expertise you’re willing to share then content marketing could be for you. This involves writing content for websites with large audiences you would like to reach. In writing your content for their website, you can promote your business and drive traffic back to your website and business.
This method works hand in hand with SEO and can be a great combination for a strong digital strategy.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is often thought of as needing a large list of subscribers to be able to target them, but that’s not the case. You don’t need to have collected any emails to leverage this marketing tactic.
Sites on the internet will offer to promote your products or send your emails to their email subscriber lists for your benefit. This is a paid marketing method but provided the subscribers are for a relevant brand or website then this can work well to introduce potential customers to your brand.
Influencer Marketing
If the social media world has brought about anything, it’s the world of hashtags, followers, likes, and retweets. Influencer marketing uses the established audience of a social media account to post sponsored content from businesses looking to promote their products.
As with all marketing, it’s important to find the right audience or you could be wasting money, so find influencers that have a strong relation to the products or services you’re looking to promote.
Conclusion
We hope this article has been useful in giving you ideas about your marketing and optimisation efforts online and hopefully will help increase sales and enquiries. Looking for help with marketing? Reach out to us for a quote on your digital needs.
