In this age of neck tight competition, having a sound digital presence is crucial to dominate the market competition.
As per the Datareportal statistics 2020, 81% of people surf the internet to buy a required product or service. 90% of net users prefer to check customer reviews before picking up a product. Hence, developing a comprehensive digital presence is the need of the hour to reach your potential customers.
What is Online Presence?
Online presence is not limited to having a website rather it’s related to the visibility of web content in SERPs. Precisely, it is an advanced marketing strategy to boost brand awareness among the targeted audience to persuade informed purchase decisions.
Creating a brand presence online takes considerable time, especially when you are a newly established business. It requires a course of forbearance to achieve your goals. However, if you have a surefire strategy, it becomes easy to get on top of the SERPs. Dive in to read further as we unveil the proven hacks to create a strong online presence.
How to Create Online Presence?
1. Create a Responsive Website
A website provides great exposure to your brand online. It is the place where visitors can find all-inclusive information about your products and services. Several CMS platforms offer free as well as premium websites. Platforms like WordPress, Wix have a simple interface, supporting non-technical people to create a featured website.
However, to build a striking website is not as easy job as it may appear initially. You need to consider the changing customer behavior- how they find information online. During the past decade, there was a major switch in the use of devices. 67% of buyers use a mobile phone or a tablet for purchasing a product online. A responsive web design renders visitors easy access on every screen size, promoting maximum reach.
2. Produce Valuable Content
To make a powerful online brand, you must leverage a multi-dimensional online marketing strategy. Generate engaging content regularly with blogs, infographics, videos, images, etc. to hype your brand message.
Think where you will get your maximum audience. It can be on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, etc. Depending on those channels, plan your content marketing strategy. For example, you may produce regular videos on Youtube to attract audiences on that channel. Similarly, blogging is another great way to build a robust online presence and bring traffic to your website.
While producing content, always keep in mind that people need solutions to their problems. Creating content focusing on that aspect increases the chance of customer retention.
3. Interact with Target Audience through Social Media Channels
Social media channels render an awesome platform to boost your brand presence online. As per current statistics, 83.36% of global internet users have their social media accounts. Further, people spend an average of 145 minutes on these social networking sites.
Being on these forums will increase your chance to interact and engage such a vast audience. Again, staying active on some popular social accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, etc. builds trust in your potential customers. More followers on these sites will eventually ingrain your reputation, enhancing the prospects of a better conversional rate.
4. Sign Up with Popular Forums
An internet forum is an effective platform to popularize your brand. Forums like Quora, Reddit have millions of followers. Being active on such forums connects you with such a vast population.
Sign up on these forums, creating a striking profile. Participate there regularly through answering questions and suggesting solutions to your target audience to spread knowledge and ideas. Post your webpage links using anchor text to drive traffic to your business. You can also promote other resources there to build trust in your audience. As long as they will find valuable content from you, they will engage with you and your brand.
5. Collaborate with Influencers
Influencer marketing is an emerging online marketing strategy today. Though it’s a matter of some bucks, it ends up with great results. When social media influencers, having millions of followers promote your brand, your digital presence will definitely get an upthrust.
80% of marketers believe influencer marketing bestows better positive results in terms of leads and conversions. To get the most out of influencer marketing, you need to research the influencers of your niche.
Approaching a celebrity influencer is a matter of budget. However, there are micro-influencers and blog influencers, having massive followers on social media. Once you collaborate with such an internet celebrities, you can have a blog post or review on your product written by them.
Consumers prefer an expert opinion on the products before using them. They are likely to engage with such reviews or blogs as well as your products.
6. Get Listed in Directories
Business directories and listing sites are very effective channels to get the reach of local customers. These sites have advanced filter options enabling customers to find you within your geographic dimension. Further, listing sites, such as CrunchBase, JustDial, HotFrog, etc. boast high domain authority. Thus, they are beneficial for obtaining high-quality do-follow backlinks, increasing the domain score of your website.
Search on Google for high DA business listing sites. Sign up there, bestowing your business info, including brand name, address, phone number, etc. Add your website link there to channelize the traffic to your webpage. Getting listed your business in these prevailing directories fosters online presence and reputation of your brand.
7. Retain Your Prospects with Freebies
Handing out freebies helps businesses to build strong relationships with customers. People enjoy getting things for free. It persuades your prospects to become leads. You also can increase your email subscribers, distributing freebies such as e-books and coupons, hosting free webinars, how-to articles, giving access to free tutorials, etc.
Email subscription list enables you to send promotional mails to your leads and customers. Send email newsletters while introducing an offer or you can send them daily to promote brand awareness. Placing proper call-to-action buttons on such newsletters increases the click-through rate by 28% providing better conversion.
Wrapping it Up
Digital marketing strategies always depend on business types and marketing goals. If you are a new business with a limited resource, don’t go for hefty investments at the initial stages. Simple SEO on your website and active response in social networking sites can also boost your digital presence.
However, to create a dynamic digital presence, you must adopt some extra measures. Use several tools for competition research, keyword research, content ideas, etc. There is a plethora range of tools available for free as well as premium. Use plugins in your content management system (CMS) to provide a better user experience, enhancing the functionality of the website.
