Future Proof Your Business With a Strong Online Presence
Is Your Business “Future Proof”?
A strong online presence can help you future proof your business by enabling you to offer your products and services to your customers online in their time of need. As this month’s post finds the world in the midst of dealing with the COVID-19 disease, and the social distancing and self-quarantine recommendations/mandates being placed, some of us are faced with a new reality of doing business solely from home. How you conduct business when you’re forced to temporarily ‘close shop’, or not getting the ‘foot traffic’ you depend on, raises important questions not only about the sustainability of your business but your online presence.
An online presence is any existence of an individual or business that can be found via an online search, and online presence management is the process of presenting and drawing traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This management process combines web design and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.
Now that we have some time on our hands… Perhaps it is time to visit or revisit your online presence and specifically the strategies involved for your business to remain successful. When economic times are tough having a marketing budget is usually seen as a nice-to-have, or even a luxury, but is cutting your marketing spend the answer?
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”
– Warren Buffett
Rushing to conclusions and switching off your marketing spend will have a negative impact on your business in the long run by cutting-off your sales funnel and lead generation pipeline, and potentially distancing yourself from your existing customers. Not having your brand ‘out there’ in front of consumers, especially when consumers are positioned to really only be online (during this lockdown), is a sure-fire way to lose existing customers and miss out on converting those consumers into your customers.
In this digital age of connectivity, consumers are turning to social media and the internet for all their needs, support, information, and entertainment. If your business has a strong online presence you will be able to meet and fulfill the demands and wants of your customers. Your online presence will help keep your business running as usual even when the times are very unusual. That’s future-proofing your business.
How to set up a strong online presence, and future proof your business
Knowing where to start can take a lot of the frustration out of building that online presence, and while there are arguably many ways to go about it, here is a simplified overview of 5 important steps to take.
- Step 1: Set Goals
Write your plan down, but keep it basic – Itemize your goals, objectives, and then strategize on how to achieve them. After setting the goal(s), break them down into smaller sub-items. By itemizing your steps it makes your goal(s) seem more attainable and provides you the motivation to keep moving down the list, and the assurance that they are attainable.
- Step 2: Get SEO
A solid online presence requires a solid website, and SEO is the vitamins any good website needs to stay healthy and relevant. Understanding the basics will help you in your efforts towards creating marketable content.
- Step 3: Be Consistent
Be consistent in creating value. Once you decide on the one habit that will help you start moving toward your goal, make sure you do it every day. Whether it’s your Instagram or your WordPress account, always provide consistent value first.
- Step 4: Keep Track
You want to know if all your time and effort you’ve been spending to achieve your goals is working, right? Make sure you keep track of your campaigns via Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, social media likes, etc… The numbers don’t lie, and they can help you adjust your strategies.
- Step 5: Be Patient
You’ve gone down your checklist, you have SEO, and consistently creating valuable content, and have analytics tracking in place… now it’s time to be patient!? Nothing’s permanent here and it does take time to experiment with different messaging and campaigns, but patience is a virtue. Give your campaign(s) time and don’t set unrealistic expectations, it may take a few rounds but the insight you gain will be priceless.
There’s a lot of work that goes into building your online presence and hiring a professional can help speed things along the way. At t7web we can help you and your team come up with a strategy that fits best with your companies goals and objectives. Adhering to strategic design practices we help analyze external and internal trends and data, which enables the best design decisions to be made on the basis of facts rather than aesthetics or intuition alone. Let us help you bridge innovation, research, management, and design. Learn more about our services
