Whether you run a traditional brick-and-mortar business or run an e-commerce shop, the importance of having an online presence can’t be underscored enough.
There are many reasons to have an online presence. Still, first and foremost, people shopping for goods and services utilize online searches and reviews as their primary information source before buying.
In fact, the number is astounding: 89% of people globally who are looking to shop will browse online and look at reviews to help inform them of a business.
If that many people are looking online, it’s crucial to have a presence online. But what are some other benefits and advantages associated with being online?
- Greater exposure
- Enhanced trust
- Accessibility
- Better brand recognition
- Free advertising
Greater Exposure To A Larger Audience
Finding new clients and holding on to returning ones is always one of the biggest challenges for any business. By promoting your services online, you’re exposing your business to a broader audience that has the potential to generate more business down the road.
Creates And Enhances Trust
Having an online presence where customers can come and see your offerings and interact with your brand creates and enhances trust in your business. If new customers are looking for offerings similar to yours, having an online presence where they can see your brand will provide a boost in reputation and legitimacy.
Accessibility To A Wider Audience
Being able to get in touch with a business is crucial to a customer’s perception and trust in the brand. Having an online presence allows you the ability to post basic FAQs and points of contact for your potential clients.
Having an online presence allows you the ability to interact with potential customers as well.
Some businesses use audience response tools to help create interactive content, such as polls and contests that get engagement from visitors. Others use these audience response tools when designing future content that can build off some of the already published content.
By offering interactive content, publishing content that addresses a visitor’s specific needs, and having a point of contact such as a customer service representative or “bot” on your pages allows for greater transparency and, thus, enhances the trust in your brand.
Increased Brand Recognition
Having an online presence lets you get your products and brand out in front of more people, increasing brand recognition. The more widely recognized a brand is, the better it is received regarding reliability and trustworthiness, all factors impacting your sales and growth potential.
Free Advertising
A profile and pages highlighting your business and offerings are one way to create better recognition and trust in your brand. It also serves as an “online business card” that can help the additional purpose of acting as an advertisement.
If you’re cross-promoting content on social media and other online forums, your website and online presence can act as a form of marketing, meaning free advertising for your brand.
Increasing Traffic To Your Site
Now that you understand some of the benefits of being online and having an online presence, increasing traffic to your site is the next logical step in your online presence.
Use SEO Tactics
SEO is a term that stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO tactics help algorithms identify what your pages are about, how they can best appear in results pages, and what ranking they should appear.
When you’re thinking about SEO, consider how a person may need your services and publish hyper-focused content on those search parameters. For example, if you do flooring, don’t focus on just “flooring services.” Instead, make it hyper-focused, such as “top-rated cheap home flooring services in <town>.”
The specificity and local inclusion would need to be in all components of your SEO tactics and online pages but will yield great results.
Optimize Your Pages
Optimizing your pages means taking the key components and search terms that a potential customer is seeking and incorporating all aspects of your online presence to accommodate those needs.
Post Regularly – On A Webpage And Social
Writing and posting content, especially image-heavy content, is an excellent way to get traction, traffic, and engagement with your content. In addition, your content should highlight your business in a way that helps foster your reputation and builds brand awareness.
Build An Audience
Finally, posting content, using interactive tools like audience response tools that help shape your online content, and posting on a regular calendar, if optimized with SEO in mind, will help create more traffic to your website and social media.
The more traffic you get, the better your online presence becomes, which, as we’ve seen, can boost your business tremendously.