Every business in current times longs for digital presence. Some might even term digital presence as the deciding factor behind a successful and a not-so-successful business. And while everyone is talking about digital presence, it still remains rather subjective. For some business having a website can be defined as having a digital presence, while for others it could be listing products on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay etc. and for some, it could just mean having a social media page on Instagram, Facebook etc. Depending on the nature of the business and the targeted audience, the definition of digital presence can be different for different business.
So, we thought we will make it simple for everyone. Irrespective of the nature of the business and the targeted audiences, here we have listed four must-have for every business if a strong digital presence is what they are after. Each of these four pillars (as we call them) can be discussed at length and must be discussed at length, but for now, we will have a brief look at each of them to explain it to you, why they are a must-have for your business.
A Website –
The number of website development agencies that have sprung in recent times is just astonishing. Ever wondered why? Well, simply because that service is highly in demand and everyone wants to have one for themselves. It doesn’t even have to be a business, even individuals are getting websites for them.
So it is a no-brainer for you to have one for your business. And if you are haven’t got one for your business yet, it’s about time you get one now. This not only will open an additional marketing channel for your business in the form of digital marketing, but also will give your business an address on the world wide web, where the world is.
Here are a few things to keep in mind while getting a website for your business, other than it being beautiful, simple, and interesting. If done right, this will fetch your business plenty of new visits daily and will help your business grow over time.
To have a successful business website you need to:
- Get the domain name that’s relevant to your business type (not mandatory though) and is easy to remember. A website address that’s not easy to remember is not worth getting.
- Have an easy to navigate interface. Whether you are setting up an online portal for selling products or getting a one-page website for your small shop, it should be clutter free, well segregated, and must be easy to navigate. In an ideal world, a visitor should not need more than three clicks to reach any section of the website. So, you can use it as a tip when getting the website for your business.
- Go for a trusted web host. It’s very important to have a trusted web host hosting your website as it is a key element in building your websites’ trust over the web and for the search engine optimization of it.
- It is recommended to have pages like About Us, Contact Us (with your business’ address and contact details) to make sure your customers are able to reach you anytime they run into any difficulty. You can tell your customers about your business through these pages and gain their trust in the first visit.
- Make sure your website is fast and easy to load. Nothing upsets a visitor more than a slow loading website (OK, maybe pop-ups), so make sure your website loads fast on every web browser.
There are plenty of other recommendations that you will come across when getting a business website concerning search engine optimization and digital marketing, and depending upon your purpose, you must incorporate all that’s relevant.
In simple terms, consider your website as your store, it should be clean, easy to navigate, and if possible entertaining.
A Blog –
Blog? Yes, it might sound boring, but a company with a useful and informative blog gets a lot more attention of the visitors than the one without a blog. The blog can be used as a communication channel between your business and your audience.
Some experts from digital marketing and online sphere even rate blog above social media accounts, when it comes to adding value to the business. As per a recent report published by HubSpot, a business which publish at least 16 blogs per month, see 3.5 times more traffic than their counterpart.
Think about it. You read a good blog post, you than straight away head to the website it is part of, as opposed to seeing a good post on Facebook, as a good post on Facebook brings users to Facebook first. You can even use a different blogging technique like a video blog, text blog, or just audio podcasts, there are all sorts of techniques that you can use for customer engagement.
A Newsletter –
A blog brings your audience to your website, but what brings them to your blog? This is where a newsletter comes into the play. Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in the world of online marketing and pretty much every digital marketing agency offers email marketing as a special feature of their package. This is why sending a newsletter to your customers plays such a vital role in the growth of any business. Whether it’s informing the customers about the latest update from your business or just notifying them about your latest blog post, a newsletter can do it all for you.
Having said that, a newsletter has its own peculiarities and rules that you need to follow to stay away from that spam box of your customers.
What makes a newsletter such a powerful aspect of any businesses’ digital presence is the fact that it,
- Can be personalized for different customer groups
- Is directly addressed to the customers and is shorter than a blog post
- Can be used for a wide range of purposes, from making an announcement or gathering customers’ feedback or just to send seasons greetings for when it is the holiday season
Social Media –
Finally, we come down to social media. It will be unfair to not include social media in any discussion regarding digital presence for a business or even for an individual. We live in the era of social media, so it’s vital for the businesses to have a strong social media presence.
According to a recent study, the number of social media users will reach around 2.77 billion across the world. If you really want to be accessible to your customers, you need to have a presence on almost all the social media platforms that are there.
Broadly, we can categorize social media into two groups: popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc and specialized social media platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest etc. Try to be present in both groups.
However, depending upon the nature of business your choices can vary. For instance, if you are in the B2C sphere a Facebook or a Twitter might be more useful for you as opposed to LinkedIn, where you primarily get B2B customers.
Also, your presence on social media will keep you in touch with the customers, the market trends and what your customers are saying about your business. All of it will only benefit your business.
That will be all. These are the four pillars of a strong digital presence for any business according to us. What are your preferred modes or channels of engagement in the digital sphere? Do share them with us. ')}