As a small business owner, you already understand the importance of reaching out and establishing great relationships with as many potential customers as possible. You are likely also learning that in order to do that, you have to establish an online presence.
Even the smallest of local businesses needs to be online these days. Gone are the days when people would consult the yellow pages or look first to traditional advertising to find the goods and services they want and need. In today’s world, it’s all about being searchable on the Internet, ranking high in a search, engaging on social media, and catering to an increasingly mobile market. Here are four steps that you need to take to make that happen.
Develop a Winning Website
You need a site that is well designed and search engine optimized. In today’s world, that means a site that is responsive (one that displays correctly on all devices, both desktop and mobile) and takes full advantage of targeted traffic. This is particularly critical for small businesses that operate within a specific radius. SEO is the key element to being found and ranking high on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to name a few.
Establish Your Brand on Social Media
Social media is an ever-broadening terms for sites that encourage community interaction and engagement. It includes sites like Facebook and Twitter, but also sites like Yelp where people gather to critique and discuss local businesses. Setting up accounts on the big networks like Facebook is typically free, and most also offer the opportunity for paid advertising to give your brand more reach. Yelp, in particular, lets you claim your business page and interact with reviewers.
Develop a Solid Content Strategy
The businesses that see the most online success are the ones that not only establish social media accounts, but also maintain them with quality content—both branded and curated from other sources. The best and most successful pages are those that are engaging, with compelling copy and visuals as well as regular live interaction between you and your customers through comments and discussion.
You should also consider rounding out your content strategy with email. It remains the most powerful medium for online communication and marketing and, when used well, can help you tie in all of your content. It can give your brand excellent exposure, help you drive new business, and provide you the opportunity to establish trust and loyalty with your existing customers.
Do It Right the First Time
If you’re nervous about how to put all this together (or flat out don’t know how), consult with the pros. There are many businesses out there that specialize in helping small business owners like you establish and maintain a solid online presence from website development to content creation and management. Use LogoMaker’s website creator to create a website with our professionally designed templates. We do all of the hard work for you, all you have to do is customize it for your business.
