How to Build a Strong Online Presence

⏱ Reading Time: 7 minutes

A strong online presence is a high priority for businesses and brands. Typically having a strong presence means that you are easily found online when someone goes to search for your particular service or product. Building your online presence provides more visibility for products and services, increases brand awareness, and gives your business a solid reputation. 

Adaptive Marketing found that 94% of consumers use the internet to find a business. If you have thought that your brand is okay not utilizing the internet, let this information provide you with a wake-up call. Having an online presence is essential to help consumers find you and learn about you before purchasing. Establishing your online website and social media channels might seem like a simple task. However, engaging your target audience and finding the proper way to market can be challenging. 

🚀Read Customer Service: A Guide for Successful Business Growth🚀

So, how do you build your brand into a more substantial online presence? Here are some of the best tips and advice on how you can take your business to that next level, increase your customer base and mark your mark with a solid online presence.

Create and Develop a Business Webpage

If you have not done so already, your first step should be to create your website online. Utilizing social media channels is great, but people who want to know more about your business will look for your web page.

There are many websites that you can use. Some of the more popular ones out there include WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace. Your website should correlate with your business. Your marketing team should oversee the development of layouts, schemes, colors and ensuring that your logo and images all appear to appeal to your consumers. The idea behind all businesses is to evaluate people’s issues, and your service or product will become the solution to that issue.

Picture 1. Create your website

SEO Matters

If you are familiar with aspects of marketing online, you have probably discovered that algorithms change constantly. Mastering Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a vital step in your visibility online. Think about when you go to search for something specific. Are you scrolling down to the fifth or sixth line? Not usually, most consumers will go right for what is at the top. And the reason for that is because the SEO has hit all of its marks. They have utilized the proper keywords and phrases to nail that spot.

The content on your webpage should include the following:

• Keyword Search
• URL Structuring
• Educational TidBits for Customers
• Internal and External Links

If a potential buyer is searching for your specific product or service, utilizing your SEO correctly will ensure that your website is the first that comes up in the search bar.

Picture 2. Optimize your SEO!

Content Creation

Opportunity is part of the game when it comes to gaining more visibility and an online presence, so the more content you can produce, the more opportunity you have to show up in searches. Set yourself up with a marketing and social media strategy for what platforms you will utilize the most. The social media platform you focus on should correlate with where your target audience is active.

Depending on the platform of choice, you may want to develop an array of content that includes three areas: copy, video, and images that will further attract and generate new customers. It can be helpful if you research to find what content is best for which platform, as in, what gets the most engagement. 

Instagram is an excellent example of knowing your user’s content preference since it uses photos, copy, and videos on its channel. You need to research your particular customers and find what they respond to the most so that you can prioritize your content. 

For instance, If you discover that many customers you currently have tend to demonstrate a fear of missing out on new things, you will want to create hype and utilize the stories features more on Instagram. That content is only available for a day for viewers to see it, and your customers won’t want to miss out.

Email Lists

Email lists are a tried and true method of many businesses. Engaging with your customers can happen regularly through their email, and they can also subscribe to things like updates and launches. 

You can provide them with a newsletter, which can help you collect new leads by their email address. The plus side to this method is that it also shows you more about the customers that are subscribing to your content to learn more about them and develop a solid understanding of your target customer.

Stay Consistent and Active

Although it is important to set up these platforms and your website to gain more of an online presence, the other part ensures that you are consistent and active within those platforms. Regular postings to your social media channels and updates to your website are a necessity. 

Engage with your customers, either by responding to comments or questions online, or you might even consider doing some outreach. It can be helpful to set up surveys or forms for customers to provide insight and feedback. They allow you to connect with your customers on a personal level, which creates more trust, and you can also discover what it is that they want to see more of within your industry for future products and services.

Read 7 Ways to Use Customer Feedback to Improve Your Brand and CX

Picture 3. Be present online!

Provide Value

Value is an integral part of your online presence since you do not want consumers to come back with negative feedback due to a lack of value in your product or service. As a business owner, it is crucial to stand behind the value of what you are offering. The priority should fall back to having a strong and proactive customer focus, and you want to provide them with knowledge, advice, and assistance that will help them. 

Take a deep dive into your buyer’s persona to understand and accurately help them answer questions that provide them with efficient and effective solutions to their problems. Engaging with them online through social media, webchat, or email is another facet of delivering value. Customers tend to feel validated when being responded to and are more likely to be satisfied overall.

Locate where your customers are asking questions (and what about), and make sure that you answer them in a timely fashion. Part of the value you provide depends on how quickly and efficiently you respond to help your clients, and you want to cultivate and build upon those relationships.

Analyze and Organize

Implementing each of these areas within your strategy online will help to start building your online presence. Once you have begun with some of these tactics, you need to be sure to analyze and test your strategies and accurately keep track of the results so that you can build for future campaigns. 

Collecting as much information regarding metrics will help you decide what is working and what is not. It can be helpful to utilize link management and analytics to track multiple facets of your online forums. Tracking your links can provide you with results for various areas like click-throughs, A/B tests, and the number of subscribers. 

Remember that these strategies can take time, so don’t expect your analytics to show you results immediately. There may be challenging areas to track as well, but if you can get a decent overview of the overall picture for your business, you can effectively plan for the future.

Research the Competition

Another way to help your online presence gain more traction is through evaluating the competition. Chances are, your business is not the only one with this specific service or product. You should do some research and find out various things regarding your competitors’ market, such as:

• What strategies are they using? 
• What keywords/SEO do they implement?
• Is there an area that they haven’t addressed yet?
• Is there advice or help that they aren’t providing that customers are asking for?

These areas and more should be looked at and evaluated to see if you can gain more ideas for your content or strategy. It can be difficult to beat the competition if you are not aware of what they are doing.

You might also consider searching for influencers across social media that engage in your same industry can be helpful. You can look at their reviews and why people are drawn to their content so that you might even want to utilize them to sponsor your product or service. These influencers will be appealing to your target audience already so that they can help massively build your online presence.

Wrap Up

These multiple ways to help you build a reputation online will require a lot of effort, discipline, and time. However, tapping into the online market is crucial for businesses, and many of these strategies can help build and gain customer loyalty. 

Utilizing these planned-out techniques to engage and assist your customers through efficient use of platforms. Also use email building, content, and responsiveness, as well as finding new, innovative tactics that other competitors haven’t tried will solidify your online presence. The results will yield increased sales, brand awareness, and a more substantial reputation for your future business.

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As an experienced content creator, Donna has covered numerous topics in the realms of health, beauty, lifestyle, and the arts. She has written for various publications and can often be found conducting research for her latest article. Donna spends her free time exploring New York City, where her days are filled with new life experiences and adventures to write about!