Steps For A Stronger Online Presence February 27, 2017My BusinessOff

The dawn of the internet has completely revolutionized the place that small businesses hold in the larger economy. Despite their smaller spaces, these fledgling start-ups can now grow exponentially through a strong and well-managed online presence. While starting a business and getting a decent foothold in your market is easier than it’s ever been, it’s essential that you take all the necessary steps to make sure all your online platforms are really performing for you. Here are some tips for optimizing your online presence:

Manage Your Outlay
A professional online presence, just like anything worth having in business, is going to cost money. With your resources so stretched, and this first year of trade being so important, it’s essential that you manage your outlay properly in order to give yourself the best chances of success. One of the first investments you’re going to have to make is in a hosting service like this: www.wizzhosting.co.uk/web-hosting.

These services may seem pretty universal on the surface, but you should try to invest more or less according to the needs of your business. If you’re going to be holding a lot of important data, you’ll need to set more money aside for good backup solutions. The degree of security you’ll need should also come into consideration. The level of customer support you’ll get is important to think about no matter what kind of business you’re running. When setting up your online presence, managing your outlay effectively is an essential first step.

Find Out What People Are Saying About You
While there are a lot of universal tips that you can apply to developing an online presence, the customer is always right! You’re going to have to tweak your online presence and various other facets of your business according to what your customers want, so make sure you’re keeping a finger on the market’s pulse. Start off by setting up a Google Alert about your business. This will allow you to tap into customer reviews and draw conclusions from them. There are also various tools which you can use to schedule social media posts and monitor what people are saying about your brand. You can check out a good example here: www.falcon.io/request-demo/ . You can also use various content curation tools to keep track of any news that your target market is sharing. Keeping engaged with your target market, and strategizing based on all that you find, will pay off massively in the long run.

Ask Your Customer Base How They Want to Receive Updates
Over the past decade, there’s been a huge shift in terms of the standards of customer-business relationships. Due to everyone having access to various social media and news channels right at their fingertips, it’s become more or less a given that business owners keep in touch with their customer base, and update them on anything that could be relevant to their experience with the brand. To make sure you’re doing this effectively, you need to reach out to your customers, and find out where they want to receive their news. If they’re actively using social media channels (like pretty much everyone) the next important step is to engage with them. Social media isn’t a one-way street, even for the largest of brands. Be sure to listen to your customer base, and reply to their queries, complaints and other posts. This is the start of the process which turns passive customers into brand ambassadors.

Have Some Trusted Advisors in your Network
Your online presence may be centered around your brand, but it should rely on a range of different people. One of the best things about being an entrepreneur in 2017 is how easy it is to network with people and draw on a wealth of knowledge and experience. In just a few clicks, you can get onto LinkedIn, find people who could be a benefit to your venture, and drop them a message. If you execute it the right way, this can open up all kinds of doors for the future. When I say “networking”, you probably think of potential investors and partners. However, you should also make a point of getting friendly with people who have more experience in some of the areas you’re a little shaky about. If you can foster this relationship effectively, you’ll be able to lean on these people for advice whenever you hit a wall. This will happen a lot in the first couple of years, believe me! The internet is a wealth of free information and advice, but nothing’s better than having an expert in your phone book.

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