Last updated on August 3rd, 2023
Picking up visits from suitable prospects is never guaranteed when you run an online business. You might offer a strong value proposition, but if people don’t know your site exists (or just don’t understand why they’d want to visit it) then you’ll get nowhere. This is why being relaxed and passive simply isn’t an option. You need to earn your traffic and sales.
The core of this process involves building your online presence: the more your site and brand get mentioned online, the more likely it is that members of your target audience will notice you (and the more you’ll be perceived as a competitive seller). But the online world is vast, and you have limited time and resources. How should you shape your strategy?
Well, it ultimately comes down to picking out a select group of tactics and making them your top priorities. In this post, we’re going to look at five high-value ways in which you can bolster your online presence.
Let’s get to them.
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1. Get Active On Social Media
Despite being originally intended for personal use, social media has become immensely important in the modern business world. It captures so much of our attention that there’s no good reason to overlook its promotional power — and if you want to get noticed through social media, you need to be highly proactive. It’s incredibly competitive and fast-paced and you’ll be ignored otherwise.
Your goal should be to get your content noticed and use it to demonstrate the quality of your company and/or products. The former requires an understanding of how to stand out in social feeds: you must lean heavily on visuals (bold thumbnails for images or even videos), time your posts carefully (you can queue and schedule posts using VipeCloud), and take part in casual social conversations to ensure that your brand comes across as approachable.
2. Create A High-Quality Blog
Every ambitious company builds a blog, and for good reason. It’s a reliably effective way to show expertise because you can provide rich tutorials capable of bringing people in and convincing them that you’re worthy of their trust. It can earn support by offering value without directly asking for anything in return. It can even build potent internal links to product pages.
Such is the power of a blog to steadily attract a worthwhile audience that it’s actually one of the best ways to precede a business: the digital landscape is rife with businesses that started out as blogs before having enough followers to successfully deploy monetization. Don’t worry if you don’t initially get much attention through your blogging efforts. It takes time to attract an audience, so focus on producing high-quality content and you’ll get somewhere eventually.
3. Join Online Communities
Very often, the key to getting valuable exposure for your business is knowing the right person. Taking note of what you have to offer, they can mention you to other people, who can mention you to even more people — and before you know it, you have an influx of people ready and willing to buy from you. It’s why influencer marketing has become so huge.
You don’t need to pay an influencer, though. The online world is full of communities covering all manner of topics and industries. If you can find some that match your business niche and start to participate in them, you can really raise awareness of your brand. Reddit is a great place to start (there’s even a subreddit for finding subreddits), but you can also try Facebook groups to network and build your online presence.
4. Guest Post On Relevant Sites
The better you get at blogging, the more value you have to offer other blogs. Why would you want to produce content for others? There are several reasons. When you have your content featured on someone else’s blog, you establish a professional link with that person (a link that can be useful for both of you down the line). You also get your brand mentioned, exposing it to a totally new audience that’s still relevant — assuming you’ve chosen an appropriate site.
There’s also a solid chance that you can also pick up a valuable backlink. It won’t always happen, because some sites are needlessly wary about linking out to strong resources and companies — but when it does, it’ll really help with your SEO efforts. And if it works for both parties, you can accept guest content in return. Mutual benefit is a great thing.
5. Run Targeted PPC Ads
I mention this option last because PPC marketing in general doesn’t bear fruit in the long term. It’s all about short-term gain: regardless of how successful your PPC marketing proves, that success will vanish as soon as you stop running your ads. That said, finely-targeted PPC work is incredibly reliable and effective at getting attention quickly.
Consider a platform like Facebook Ads, which provides you with a huge range of niche targeting options. If you want to target people in specific demographics, or those who’ve “liked” particular pages, or those with specific professions, then you can. And if you can impress the people who reach your site, that’s how you’ll achieve long-term ROI, because you can earn their loyalty.
6. Build An Email List
Building an email list will enable you to engage with current and potential customers regularly. Plus, you can notify your email subscribers of promotions or new events you may be planning.
To grow your email list, you’ll need to use a CTA (call-to-action) on your website and social media pages prompting visitors to subscribe to it. But don’t forget to promise a value in exchange for the subscription – simply highlight how joining your newsletter will benefit them.
7. Personify Your Brand
With so many similar brands coexisting today, it’s getting harder for consumers to pick one. Personifying your brand will enable you to stand out from the competition and appeal to your audience.
For example, you could create a fictional character for your brand that reflects your ideal target demographic, their interests, and preferences. Then use this character to speak to and engage with your ideal customers.
Having a clear, personalized brand helps users relate to your company and make them want to engage with you. Once you have an engaged audience that trusts you, they will follow you to visit your website and even purchase your product or service.
8. Explore Influencer Marketing
Influencers have massive communities who share the same interests and trust an influencer whenever he/she recommends a new brand. They are basically experts in certain niches.
In order to build a solid online presence for traffic and sales, you’ll need to get into influencer marketing. In exchange for your product or service, sometimes even cash deals, influencers will spread the word about your brand, resulting in more customers coming for your brand.
Plus, the more often people talk about you, your brand will more often show up online, ultimately attracting more customers.
9. Optimize Your Website For SEO
SEO is one of the most effective ways to improve your online presence. People search for all kinds of information online, and if you provide value to their queries, your SEO-optimized website should attract organic traffic.
For example, if you’re selling noise-canceling headsets, you want your website to appear when customers search “noise-canceling headphones” on Google.
10. Show Up Where Your Audience Spends Their Time
Having an online presence isn’t just enough. You need to show up where your audience is. If you consistently show up where your ideal customers can see you, you’ll build a strong online presence your audience can’t ignore.
For example, if your audience is on Instagram, but they aren’t on LinkedIn, there’s no point in setting up a LinkedIn presence. Instead, you need to focus on online channels where your audience spends time.
11. Encourage Customers To Post Reviews Online
Word-of-mouth has always been one of the most solid marketing strategies. First-time customers will trust other customers who review your product or service more than they would trust you.
That’s why I highly recommend you encourage your customers to post reviews online. You may want to consider sending a note along with your product politely asking for a review. To nudge customers even more, you may reward them with a percentage off their next order if they leave a review on your website or social media.
12. Develop Interactive Content And Engage With People
From quizzes to calculators, you can leverage interactive content to engage people and get them talking about your brand.
For example, if you sell different types of wireless speakers, you could create a quiz with the title “Which speakers are right for you?”.
Quizzes evoke curiosity and are fun to take. People who are confused about which speakers to order would benefit from taking your quiz to help them make a decision.
There are so many things you can to build your online presence, but the five we’ve looked at here are extremely consistent and can be used without spending enormous sums of money. Why not work them into your strategy? Get started with your social presence today with VipeCloud alongside its complete sales & marketing platform and request a demo today!
This is a guest post from MicroStartups. MicroStartups is a business community that celebrates inspiring startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Whether you’re a solopreneur or a startup making your way in the business world, we’re here to help. For the latest news, inspiring stories and actionable advice, follow us on Twitter @getmicrostarted.
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