Easy ways get your business noticed online

The digital space is a busy one. It can be hard to state your place within the online world and make your voice heard through all the noise. You may think that digital expansion of your business comes with a hefty price tag but this is not always the case. In fact, most digital growth activities are free or inexpensive and are simple to implement, they just take time, patience and consistency.  

Establish a strong social media presence

It may seem obvious but many businesses neglect their social media. When investigating a new business, product or service many consumers head to social media pages before visiting a website. It’s tempting to create pages on all the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) but it can be difficult to keep up with all of them. Instead, create a social media strategy by assessing which platforms are most relevant for your business. For example, a B2B business will probably achieve the most engagement on LinkedIn while B2C businesses will most likely benefit from posting content on Instagram or Twitter. It’s better to create a strong presence on two or three platforms rather than giving yourself too many platforms to keep up with. Consistency is key to establishing a strong social media presence so make sure you’re posting a few times a week at a time where your target audience is most active on social media. You can use scheduling services such as Hootsuite to keep on top of this. 

Engagement on social media is critical to growth, both from your audience and you as a business. Make sure you are engaging with the content of others in your industry and recognising the engagement of your audience to make your presence known. This will also assist you in networking and building relationships, which can ultimately lead to sales.

Curate and create engaging content 

A lot of businesses make the mistake of creating social and website content (such as blogs) designed only to sell a product or service. While you need to utilise social media and blogs to sell your product your audience doesn’t want to constantly be pitched to, especially on platforms such as Instagram. Look to mix content that simply reflects your business’ way of thinking and culture with content showcasing your product or service. This is an example of thought leadership,  content that introduces your audience to the values of your business. Not only does this give your audience a more holistic insight into what you do and stand for rather than just showcasing a product, but content like this is more likely to be engaged with (likes, comments shares etc.) 

As well as creating content think about sharing the content of others such as blogs and news articles. This works especially well on platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook and it will give you audience something to think about and engage with. 

Have a clear brand identity 

The digital space is predominantly a visual one. Consumers can decide in an instant whether they are interested in what they see or not and similarly can recognise a business or brand in a few seconds. It is therefore important that your brand identity is clear and consistent. Things like consistent colour schemes, fonts and the kinds of images used can make a business instantly recognisable online. Ensure that your design and marketing teams have clear brand guidelines to follow to keep any visual content consistent. You can learn more about creating brand guidelines here.

Ensure your website is a strong reflection of your business 

Think of your website as a shop front. You wouldn’t go into a shop that didn’t look interesting or reputable. While social media has become an optimum place to get noticed your website is usually where a consumer will commit to buying your product or service, therefore, it has to speak for itself. In order to do this the messaging needs to be clear, engaging and reflect your business’ values. 

Similarly, you probably wouldn’t stick around in a shop in which you couldn’t find what you were looking for easily, therefore your website had to be easy to navigate. Ensure important information is easy and quick to locate, you have a clear and inviting “About” section and your contact information is easy to find. You can find more tips on creating a seamless and successful website here.

Wise up on SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, the activity of increasing traffic to your website through organic search engine results. The stronger your SEO the more chance you have of directing quality traffic to your website. SEO can be improved in a number of ways, one of them is through the kind of content you publish. You need to ensure the content you have on your website is relevant to your industry and your audience and is updated regularly. Within this content, you need to include a good amount of keywords that are relevant to your business, audience and industry. This will increase your chances of your business being discovered through organic search. You can learn more about SEO here.