Take your business online to make it more discoverable, drive growth, and connect with your customers.
As customers spend increasing amounts of time online, businesses have had to move to virtual spaces to meet them on common ground. Having an online presence helps to increase brand awareness, drive sales, and create customer growth. It gives you, the owner, the opportunity to connect with your customers in an informal space, show them a more relatable side of your business and foster community spirit.
Here are eight simple steps you can take to create an online presence for your business:
Understand your target audience and how it uses social media
To connect with your customers, you need to be where they are. Based on your market research, which social media platform does your customer base gravitate toward? For instance, does Gen Z still favour Instagram and Tik Tok? Or, if you are looking to connect with customers from this current generation of 20-somethings, should you be setting up a Snapchat account instead?
Don’t forget to look at how your audience uses the platform. Millennials and previous generations may use Facebook only to stay in touch with friends and family. But a report by Sprout Social states that 76 percent of Gen Z users take to social platforms in order to connect with brands, and 78 percent use these platforms to discover new brands. Social media users from Gen Z expect brands to keep up with conversations on social awareness and may even use these platforms to gauge how respectful and socially aware brands are.
Choosing the right platform for your business
The most simple and effective way to choose the right social media (SM) platform is to see which one best aligns with your goals. In terms of both the audience you’re hoping to connect with, and for the specific result you want to achieve. Are you looking to grow brand awareness, engage with your customers, or to increase sales and product reach? Do you hope to do a bit of each?
Consider the format of the SM platform and how well your product would translate on it. Businesses tend to favour the Instagram format to showcase their products and tell the story of their brand. If your goal is finding talented people to join your company, then LinkedIn may work better. Choosing the right SM channel helps you focus your resources where they are most likely to have the best impact for your business.
Create a business page
Whether it is to spread the word on new products or share your plans to open a new store, this page is a great way to tell your company’s story. Explain the care taken to make each product and introduce the people behind the brand. Those who follow along emotionally will invest in your journey, and this forms a community around your brand. The connection helps people remember your company which translates to patronage when they are looking for products or services. With a page specifically designed for your business, you’re able to give current and potential customers a legitimate source for updates.
Most SM platforms have the option of creating business accounts and these are kitted out with features that help you understand audience engagement. The insights tell you which bits of your content are working and those that aren’t doing as well. This will help you craft your posts better.
Putting together a social media calendar
Sharing content consistently is essential for a strong online presence and getting your page noticed. You can decide how often and what type of content you want to share. Remember to plan it so it aligns with your goals. Creating a calendar is a great way to stay organised. Typically, each calendar should include the date of the proposed post, it’s theme and a brief visual description, the format and the platform you’re planning to post it on.
You can plan when to post by studying your target audience. When are your customers likely to be checking social media? In the cab on their way home? Or after dinner when they have a few minutes to sit down. Or perhaps it’s with their morning cup of tea? Schedule your posts for those times. If you’re not sure, you can experiment with different day and time combinations to catch your audience when they’re online.
Embrace the platform
Social media platforms are generally free so they’re widely accessible. These platforms depend on creators of content to catch people’s attention, keep them engaged and keep them coming back to the app for more. If your content draws attention and engagement, the platform will push your posts out to be discovered by a wider audience.
This is a great opportunity to let your hair down a bit and show your customers a different side of your brand. Many a brand have achieved widespread fame for their witty banter on Twitter, hilarious meme content or their skilful storytelling. Using the many different and new features that the platform offers further encourages it to promote your content. Once you have an audience’s attention, they will discover your products.
Creating social media content
Let your goals and your audience guide your content. If you’re aiming for brand awareness or product awareness, your posts can be framed around this. Creating social media content is often compared to having a conversation with your customers – rapport is key. Ply your audience with too many ads or overload them with dull information and they’ll move away.
Find a way to say what you need to say in a pleasant, informative, and enjoyable way to keep them at the table. There is no single, magical formula to make this work. The feeds that seem to do well are those that engage users with an assortment of posts that inform, inspire, and amuse. Be aware of your customers’ reactions to your content and be ready to respond intelligently. What is it that your target audience cares about? Begin there.
Start your online store
Now that you’ve met your customers on common ground and routinely touch base with them, you can go a step further to make their lives a bit easier. Putting together an online store makes it convenient for them to purchase the products they’ve been hearing so much about. Remember that simply having an online store doesn’t guarantee return customers. The cardinal rules of customer satisfaction still apply. To bring your customers back for a second purchase, your services and product quality are essential.
Many of the most loved small businesses have a tiny team working behind the scenes to deliver exceptional service. Adding tools like Live Messenger to your website or answering basic questions via direct or private messages makes it easier to complete a sale. It also builds customer confidence when the company can provide a convenient point of contact to assuage delivery fears or respond to customisation queries immediately
Reviewing your strategy
For businesses that are keen on building an online presence, it is essential to begin with a specific goal or goals in mind. Set realistic timelines to achieve these goals and routine evaluations of your progress. Your strategies can be altered based on the results that you see.
The success of your online marketing can’t be defined by any one variable. And the goal is not the same for every company. Some small businesses achieve their goals with just 500 followers while others may need a wider reach. To correctly evaluate whether your strategy is working, you must first pin down what success looks like for your company. Is it achieving X number of sales per month? Or getting feedback on your products? What are the meaningful actions that you are working to produce?
The beauty of the online space is that it is a fluid area that is easily accessible by a large cross-section of customers. It brings everyone down to the same platform so whether you’re a large company or a small, local business, you have the same tools to woo your customers. It’s up to you to figure out how to use this space to showcase your company in the best light.