Your online presence is the foundation of your business marketing. It’s how you get found, create awareness, generate leads and nurture those leads into customers.
It’s also how you build trust, credibility and a sense of legitimacy with consumers. A substantial digital presence demonstrates your professionalism and helps you stand out against competitors.
1. You Can’t See What People Are Saying About You
An online presence is the collection of the identity you create online – from your business website, social media profiles and digital marketing channels to search engine results pages and even listings in directory services. When you don’t have a strong and unified online presence, it can be challenging for new customers to find your business and trust that it is legitimate. This can lead to a vicious cycle of bad reviews, lackluster business, and ultimately an online reputation that is less than desirable.
However, you need to remember that your online presence isn’t solely within your control, such as in the case with Blackhawk Plastic Surgery & MedSpa. In addition to what you post and share, your online presence is also based on what others say about you – whether in reviews or in discussions on forums like Quora and Reddit. Taking the time to connect with influencers in your industry can help build relationships that benefit your online presence. This can include bloggers who feature you in their content, journalists who write about your business, and podcasters who interview you on their shows.
In order to be successful, you need to be where your ideal customers are looking. If they can’t find your business or learn about it online, they will move on to a competitor that does. This is why it is important to have a strong and consistent online presence.
The best way to do this is to set clear goals for yourself and your business about what you want to achieve through your online presence. This will keep you focused as you work to build your online reputation and attract new business. Keeping these goals in mind can also be helpful for evaluating your return on investment over time.
Building and maintaining a solid online presence requires a lot of hard work, but it can be worth it in the long run. It can be difficult to see the big picture when you’re working in the trenches every day, but if you make it a priority and commit to improving your online presence each day, you’ll be well on your way to success.
2. You Can’t See What People Are Searching For
Your online presence is the way your customers and potential clients perceive you and your brand. It includes your business website, social media profiles, digital reviews, and more. It is the aggregated representation of your brand on the internet and can make or break your reputation. When it comes to generating sales and growing your small business, your online presence is vital. In fact, 62% of consumers will disregard a business if they cannot find it online or have negative information about it.
The good news is that a strong online presence can be built and managed with the right strategy. The key is to focus on your owned online presence, which is everything that you have control over. This includes your website, social media accounts, and email marketing campaigns.
When it comes to building your owned online presence, the most important things are the content you share and how it is shared. You want to create content that is informative and useful to your audience. This will help you rank higher on search engine results pages and ensure that your content is seen by the people who need to see it.
This also means that you should pay attention to the keywords that your audience is searching for when creating content. Use tools like Emerald Chat to analyze user search trends and determine what keywords are being used by your audience. Once you know what the most searched-for terms are, you can incorporate them into your content strategy.
In addition to owned content, you should also be working on capturing and converting leads. This can be done through a variety of methods, including blogging, video content, and email newsletters. A strong blog can establish your authority and thought leadership in your field. Video content can be used to demonstrate your expertise and inspire action. And email newsletters can be a great way to stay in touch with your audience and share valuable content on a regular basis.
One of the best ways to build your owned online presence is to grow your email list. This can be done by offering exclusive discounts, promoting new products and services, or simply by sharing engaging content with your audience. There are a number of tools that can help you grow your email list, including free CMS tools, popups, and slide-in CTAs.
3. You Can’t See What People Are Doing
Creating and building your online presence is an ongoing process. It’s a way of constantly keeping your brand front and center for your audience and potential customers. Having a strong digital presence is the key to maximizing your business’s reach and visibility in this new world of digital marketing.
In order to build a strong and thriving online presence, you must create high-quality and engaging content for your website and social media channels. This content will include blog posts, eBooks, white papers, case studies and sales one-pagers that highlight your products or services and engage the right audiences. Having high-quality content will help you rank well in search results and provide valuable information to your target audiences, ultimately resulting in increased traffic and brand recognition for your business.
While it is important to build and maintain your online presence, it’s equally important to know when you need to stop and take a step back. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the constant demands of building, monitoring and improving your digital footprint. Taking time to assess the state of your presence can be beneficial in the long run, as it will allow you to see what is and isn’t working and make changes accordingly.
If you’re not sure where to start, try running a simple Google search of your business name. Then, review the SERPs and see what comes up. Check for your website, Google My Business profile and any other business listings that may come up (such as BBB, Yelp or Trustpilot). Also, look at the reviews and ratings of your business.
Online engagement is a powerful tool for any business, especially in this day and age where people are online more than ever before for a variety of reasons. People are using online platforms like Emerald Chat to connect with others, conduct research and even get their daily news and entertainment fix. Having an active online presence on these platforms is a great way to proactively engage your audience, gather insightful feedback or reviews and leave them with the positive impression that you want them to have of your business.
4. You Can’t See What People Are Saying About You
Your online presence is made up of all the places that people can find your business on the Internet, including your website, social media profiles, and listings in local directories. But a business’s online presence also includes what others are saying about it, whether those comments are positive or negative. You can monitor what is being said about your brand through a variety of free online tools, including Social Mention, which searches blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
In addition to monitoring your online presence, it is important to have clear goals when building it. This will help you stay on track as you work to improve your brand visibility and reputation online. You can start by identifying your key objectives and creating an action plan to achieve them. Next, you should set a time frame to measure your progress so that you can see the value of your efforts.
A strong online presence can have many benefits for your business, from helping potential customers discover you to establishing credibility as a legitimate business. Consumers often research businesses before making a purchase, so your online presence can play a big role in how they perceive you and your products or services.
When you are deciding how to build your online presence, it is essential to consider the platforms that are most popular with your audience. It is likely that they spend the most time on one of these platforms, and you should focus your efforts there. For example, if you have a large following on Instagram, you should dedicate a significant amount of time to posting quality content to your account.
As you grow your online presence, it is important to remember that it takes time and energy to establish a credible reputation. While it may be tempting to cut corners or take shortcuts, this can have a negative impact on your online visibility and reputation. For example, if you publish spammy or misleading posts, this can damage your credibility and hurt your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
When building your online presence, it is important to rely on the help of others as well. Loyal customers can write reviews and share your content on social media, and influential bloggers or influencers can help you reach a new audience. In addition, your employees can help by spreading the word about your business in person.