Having an online presence works pretty much like this: you may not even know what someone is talking about, but you know who they are.
“In a few years, there will only be two types of companies: those that do business over the internet and those that are out of business.” You may not have heard that phrase before, but you know well who said that: Bill Gates! The business guru.
If you’re here, you want to know more about building your online presence. And the first thing you should consider is: do people know what my business is?
Having a presence revolves around having a strong brand that is visible to people, and that is remarkable. And today, with digital, those who go unnoticed lose a lot: lose the opportunity to grow, lose revenue, lose the audience. According to research by Ironpaper, 93% of purchase decisions are influenced by social media.
That is, it is the famous popular saying: who is not seen (online), is not remembered. And if you’re here, it’s a good sign: it means you want to find out how to have an influential brand!
In this post, we will tell you 12 effective ways to build your online presence, so that you can develop your company digital and build a strong brand, and of course, through this, increase your results! Let’s go!
Why is it important to have an Online Presence?
We talk about how important it is to be seen, right? After all, if your customers don’t know your brand, it will be impossible to impact them and have good results with your strategies! Having an online presence helps your business to be more influential when your clients are considering an option when making decisions. If your business is not online, it might not even be considered.
Just as you have this opportunity, it can also be taken advantage of by your competitors. And this is your chance to differentiate yourself from them, showing at which points your business differentiates itself. Have you ever thought about the impact this has on your results?
After all, while you are considering whether to risk your digital presence, it is good to remember that your competitors are probably already operating in this modality and having great results. Don’t let them get ahead of you, prioritize an approach focused on a good online presence.
So, start taking advantage of that exposure gain by focusing on your online presence.
You have complete freedom to use these means in your favor and show your audience that your business is the right investment for them!
For example, you can implement conversion-focused strategies that involve impacting the right audience and directing them along an optimized path on your website. There are several approaches you can explore! We will talk about each of them below:
1- Have a website
The website is where we present our company, it is our digital home. Having a strong online presence starts with a website because this is the space where everything about your company will be gathered. And when someone googles it, they will find it! Right? It is important that you create a site that is easy to navigate, is fast, has an assertive design, and of course, is mobile-friendly.
Another significant detail, which never goes unnoticed: have a secure website. Some sites have such poor security that it leaves many people insecure. Invest in overcoming this problem. Thus, you increase your chances to gain the trust and loyalty of customers.
Digital security to assert your online presence is paramount. Show that your site is safe for both simple visits and purchases! If you’re going to sell online, your website is also your store!
When entering a website that is all locked up, the consumer has the same reaction as if he arrived at a physical store, and the cashier is on the street, the products are on the floor, and the salespeople are sleeping! Chaotic, right?
Analyze if your site has any bugs or any other concern that generates distrust. Check the links, and see if your site is easy to navigate, with an organized layout and objective and direct information.
As your website is the gateway, it must be well-structured. In other words, to build your online presence, you need a good website. And if you don’t have one, now is the time to do so! It’s always the first channel people go to when they want to know more about a company.
2 – Create an email list
We’re hopeful that you’ve already followed the first tip (or are getting ready to follow it), and this second one is connected with the first one! How is it, exactly? Let’s explain. Create an email list. With the site ready, you should be ready to capture whoever gets there!
Yes! With an email list, this will be possible! Imagine the following journey: a customer has a problem, and searches for it on Google. Your website appears with this rich content that presents some solutions for the customer. He is delighted with all the positive experiences he had with the website and with the content, and then, see a lead magnet…
This lead magnet is free, and to acquire that, he only needs to register his email in a form. He leaves the email there, you get that contact, and you can create a flow to win that customer even more until he reaches the final goal: purchase or some other type of conversion.
If this scenario looks good, imagine it on a large scale. This can happen! And an email list will help you in this, not only in capturing contact but also in customer loyalty. Email is a closer channel, there you can talk more about your company, your products, and services – that is, you will be more present.
And who is present, is noticed! That’s right. Your website will help you with the part of putting together the form or some other way to capture the email (or another contact) of the customer. And by email, you can communicate more closely.
3 – Develop the Branding of your brand
We’re sure you’re a big fan of some brand. You don’t even need to tell us which brand moves your heart, regardless of what it is, we’re sure of something: this brand invests heavily in branding. The most noticed brands and those with the most significant digital presence are those that invest in their visual construction and perception.
But what is Branding anyway? Branding is the brand management of a company, they aim to make a brand more positive in the minds of its customers and the public. Branding involves strategies related to a company’s purpose, values, identity, and positioning, and how it communicates all these aspects to the world.
And why is it important to build a company’s online presence? Because branding strategies communicate what a business believes in and how it can transform consumers’ lives! If you don’t know, one trend among famous brands now is to humanize themselves more, and thus, connect more with customers.
If you want your company to be outstanding, then develop its Branding!
4 – Produce valuable content
This is your moment to shine! You already have everything in hand to start one of the most important parts of a digital strategy: content production! Foremost, define in a nutshell what your niche is! Do you work as a coach? As a nutritionist? Have a local business?
With this answer, we move on to another question: what are the pain and difficulties of your customers? They have one (or several), right? And that’s when you shine!
Do you know why? Because you will help solve these pains. First, through content, then with your products or services. Content production is using the information to educate, teach and generate value for your audience, and thus attract more consumers to your business!
You offer material that will help solve the audience’s pain, and thus, create a bond with them. With the help of other content formats, you can get closer to them.
What are the benefits? You end up becoming an authority in your niche. For example, let’s assume you are a coach: as you produce blog posts, lives, and social media posts, the more your audience will see you as a reference/authority!
Everyone has pains, problems, and doubts. The content acts as it comes to show the person that there is still light at the end of the tunnel, and the best part: you will give that light to them. This help will be remembered!
The user starts to see your company as an ally that helped him in an issue he had difficulty with, so you become a guide. The user becomes a lead and trusts you and your work, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.
It is worth remembering that not everyone is at the same stage, that is, a person can parachute into your blog, without knowing that they have pain. The content for that person is going to be different from the content that should be produced for someone who already recognizes they have a problem and is already looking for a solution.
Different demands, therefore, different content, right?
5 – Optimize your website and blog
Blog and website optimization means using SEO techniques to promote a better ranking of your pages on Google. Through optimizations, it is possible to offer a positive experience to the user when he is on a page, and also, conquer the best positions in search engines.
Your site’s position on the first pages of Google depends on the quality of your content and how well your site performs! A survey by Hubspot revealed that 51% of consumers trust a Google search more than a recommendation made by a friend or family member.
This research mentioned above proves the importance of having a website that appears on the first page of Google, right? Now it’s time to know which strategies can be useful and efficient in the optimization part. The main one is, without a doubt, Search Engine Optimization, SEO.
This strategy aims to achieve a better positioning of a page in search engine results, achieving a prominent place to attract the attention of more people and build your online presence.
Therefore, the idea is to generate more organic traffic, which are the visits that come naturally. Some factors are essential to achieve this result, they are:
- Content quality: your content has to be consistent with what it promises, if not, Google will notice it, and may penalize you.
- Content Size: yes! This influences whether your content will rank or not. A blog post of 1500 words is easier to rank than one that has only 500.
- Title: if the title does not have the blog post’s central keyword, it will hardly rank.
- URL: it’s the blog post link, it must be short, a long URL that doesn’t have the right words will not appear in the ranking.
- Time spent on pages: if the user stays a few seconds inside your site, Google understands that it is because there is no relevant content there!
- Keywords: it is the core of your content, through it a user will find your post.
- Loading time: Does your website open in a few seconds or does it take minutes to open? The longer it takes, the less likely the user is to stay there. And of course, Google doesn’t see this as a good sign.
- Link building: these are the internal and external links present in a blog post.
Also read: Why should I create a website for my company?
6 – Create a close relationship with the public
For your company to exist, it needs consumers, right? What many companies forget is that the relationship with a customer doesn’t have to end after making the final sale. Ideally, contact with the customer is maintained over the long term, so that he becomes a propagator of the brand.
For it to be a good relationship, it must be thought out in the smallest details, the entire flow must be prepared. And how to do it? First, understand who your audience is, what they like, and what the pains, fears, and difficulties they face. What are their hobbies, and what does he love to do? All this goes beyond the basic information!
Knowing all this, you go on his journey in your company, what are his demands at each stage of the funnel? This is the moment when you will assemble the customer’s purchase journey! What content will they consume at each stage of the funnel, what will their interests be, etc.
Once you have that defined, up to the final step, which is the sale, it’s time to think about how that customer will be loyal to your company! Here, you will think about how you will keep in touch with the customer, will it be by email? By Instagram? All of this must be thought out to the smallest detail.
Investing in the complete process will guarantee that your client will leave happy and satisfied, and willing to come back, who knows, maybe even recommend your service to a friend. And the best thing is your online presence will be forever remarkable in the consumer’s mind!
7 – Network
Nothing better than a network of contacts! Networking is important for many reasons: with an extensive list of contacts, it is easier to be remembered, to get some collaboration on a project, and to have an exchange of experiences, among others. There are many ways to network.
Today, there are many apps and groups that you can join and introduce yourself to new people, debate on a variety of topics. Facebook, for example, is a great social network for this, it has several interesting groups that you can join to expand your contacts!
On Instagram, you can invite influencers who are in your niche to participate in posts on your profile or invite them to Lives, and that way, your audience will have contact with them, and their audience with you! This is a rich exchange that can strengthen your business’s digital presence!
8 – Invest in brand storytelling
Once upon a time… just kidding, we’re not going to tell a story, but you can, especially if it’s your company’s story! The human being is driven by narratives, everything that is told through narratives is easier to understand for anyone! And you can use that to your advantage. How?
Through storytelling! Imagine yourself talking about the mission and values defended by the company, achievements, and failures, difficulties. This conveys a true and vulnerable image, do you agree? This practice of telling good stories has been increasingly used today as it is a powerful connection tool.
That’s what storytelling does, it communicates an idea through a narrative, whether it’s using words or visuals. The goal is to engage people to convey information through a fluid story that generates curiosity. The more the public connects with the story, the more powerful your message will be.
This practice is remarkable because, generally, people have an easier time remembering stories than data. Storytelling makes companies humanize a product or service and, in this way, get closer to a company. So the more you invest in talking about your company in a narrative format, the better!
9 – Be on the main channels that require an online presence
There are many outreach channels currently, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Each one with its particularities. For you to be remembered, it is important that you are on all social networks, but in the right way! After all, it makes no sense, for example, for your company to have a LinkedIn profile and post a cake recipe there, do you agree?
You must be on each channel, but in a strategic and authentic way! All this is easier when the other tips given above have already been implemented: know the audience, have a well-designed storytelling and already have a well-built blog and website! The production of content for the other channels will depend on these other points.
A blog post, for example, can become a post on Instagram, an article on LinkedIn and so on! Ideally, you should think about how your audience behaves on each platform, what they want to hear and how they want to hear it. From there, you will be able to determine what your way of communicating will be and what you will share there.
10 – Know your customers’ buying journey
We’ve already mentioned the importance of knowing your audience! The second important point, after that, is to know what their buying journey will be like! The purchase journey is the path that a potential customer takes before making a purchase. It usually has 4 steps: learning and discovery, problem recognition, solution consideration, and purchase decision.
Why should you think about the buyer’s journey to build your online presence? Because that way, you can map which stage each lead is in. It is important to keep in mind that each persona may be at a different stage of maturity. Knowing how to communicate with each step, you can show your company the right way.
With that in mind, we set out to complement the purchase journey, which is…
11 – Create content for each stage of the funnel
Here, you determine what you will make available for each stage!
At the beginning of the process, the lead does not know very well that they have a problem or need! He’s still sparking interest in a topic, and your company’s goal is to capture their attention by teaching something, not talking about you.
In between, the consumer has delved a little deeper into the topic and realized that he has a problem. The contents here must be with the objective of generating this need in him or revealing to him a problem that he has, but that he did not know yet. After that, he starts to research and study the problem more and look for solutions for it.
And finally, the consumer looks for and analyzes options that can help him solve the problem, and makes his decision: it’s time to buy! Time to talk about your company, show the differences in relation to competitors and convince that your product is the best choice!
12 – Get close to professionals in the field
Now is your time to put all the tips into practice, and finally, have a strong online presence! Last but not least, we give you this special tip: get close to digital marketing professionals! Those who are observing and executing the best strategies every day and who know the market.
They are the ones who will show you how powerful marketing is! And if you’ve read this article this far, it’s already a good sign that you’re close to experts. We produced this content in order to help you, we brought all the information we see every day, generating good results!
We hope you enjoyed it! Did you have any doubts? Contact us!
