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You might already have an idea that for your business to succeed, it’s going to have to make the migration online. You might even have a site set up, but you’re still not seeing the kind of results you want. It’s not enough to just have a “web presence”. To make your business visible online, you have to work at it.
Find your brand
Perhaps your business is getting spotted, but it’s just not converting the people you need to keep it running. Branding is a crucial part of keeping the attention of the market and must be given proper attention whether you’re getting seen or not. Branding is the message, the offer of the business, the story of what you can provide customers. It’s also the visual imagery and the voice, the personality that goes along with it to make it palatable to anyone who comes in contact with the business. Figuring out the core of your brand and making it distinct to your competitors is how you keep attention in the online world.
Google is your friend
You have to be able to actually gain that visibility to keep it, however. In this respect, Google is your friend. The most broadly used search engine, it has become the home of the web surfer who has a question that needs answered. If your business might be the answer to their question, it should be appearing on the other side of a query. If it isn’t then you might be missing SEO, short for search engine optimization. This is the process by which Google pairs your site to relevant searches. It’s a multi-faceted discipline, involving producing quality content, having a reliable site, and using keywords to match up with the right people. It’s one of the skills that you must either learn or get help with managing if you want your business to stay visible online.
What’s all the buzz?
Google shouldn’t be your only friend, of course. Industry partners, past customers, networking pals, they can all contribute to your visibility online. Particularly, they can contribute by heightening your presence on social media. If your business isn’t on social media, it must get on it now. Not only is it a tool to spread news of deals and changes in the business. It’s used to share content both created and curated by you that will get others listening and interested in what you have to say. It also works as positive proof of your business’s quality and legitimacy. Your followers and your active community are your way of saying “look how many support us”.
Becoming ever-present
After all, the one thing more effective that spreading the word of your business is having others spread it. Getting positive reactions on social media is only one of the ways to do that. Find the opportunities to cross-promote and to create guest content for influencers and other industry members. Even better is getting your business featured in local and online press. It creates a validity to the business that can do away with the level of mistrust that a lot of online customers have.
To gain and keep true visibility, the kind that you can profit from, online marketing must become a sustained, constant process in the business. There are no one-and-done solutions. You have to keep up-to-date with marketing methods, with brand evolution, your community, and the prevalence of your presence.
