Having a strong online presence is essential to businesses that want to continue thriving in this digital age. Most consumers rely on internet resources whenever they need information or wish to purchase anything. So, maintaining visibility online can help a business grow and reach a wider audience. If your brand consistently appears as one of the choices when your target audience tries to search for something, that means you’re gaining traction and improving your online presence. On the other hand, if you don’t establish an online presence, you will get left behind by your competitors who utilise online platforms.
During these uncertain times, in particular, it’s more crucial to be able to connect with customers while staying digitally relevant. However, growing one’s online presence or even the mere essence of it remains tricky for some entrepreneurs. While others may think that having a website is enough to have an online presence, keep in mind that the internet is comprised of a variety of components and not just websites. Hence, if you don’t know how to manoeuvre different aspects of the web, you might not achieve the results you desire. Moreover, you’ll end up hindering the growth of your business instead of increasing it if you don’t create or take advantage of an effective online strategy.
Therefore, it's safe to say that online presence refers to the collective existence of your brand that can be found on the internet via an online search.
Read more: 5 Ways To Rock Your Online Presence
Why Grow Your Brand's Online Presence?
Online presence is circulated across multiple platforms and channels on the internet. Some of it you have complete control over, such as what your website could contain, among other pieces of online content you create under your brand's name. Then there's also the online presence you earn that could essentially come from any platform or in any format depending on what customers say about you.
Since not all aspects of your online presence are within your control, it may help to have a value proposition before creating a strategy. This way, you can steer your brand in the right direction and ensure you reach the right audience.
Either way, it only means monitoring and growing your online presence is essential. Having any kind of online presence doesn't mean you can stop striving to grow it and still get good results. So, if you're selling customised products on Facebook with suppliers such as printful.com/sell-on-facebook-shops, you should definitely consider growing your online presence. Why? Take a look at some of the compelling reasons below.
1. Consumers Can Learn Who You Are As A Brand
If you want to become a household name, building your brand online is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that goal. The more people know about who you are as a brand and what you can offer, the more exposure and traffic you'll get—be it online or offline. Growing your online presence means more people get to see your brand, and you’ll potentially get more business, too.
The digital revolution is both a blessing and a curse if you think about it. It's a blessing because it's now easier than ever to put your brand out there and be known across different channels and platforms. It's a curse if you don't know how to utilize it well, and you end up getting negative reviews and opinions from consumers. What’s the secret, then? It's striving to be a good household name that your target market can rely on and doing your best to not attract negative exposure.
Remember: your brand is your strength.
Your goal is to set it apart from competitors by offering excellent products or services that could help your audience with what they need to address or find a solution for. Once you gain a considerable following online, your customers will contribute to the growth of your brand. Their reviews will help encourage others to check your company out.
2. It Lends You A Powerful Voice
As a brand that’s continuously growing and learning, you have a voice, and it deserves to be heard. You can use that voice to help customers with what they need. Various features of online platforms can help communicate your message and connect you with your audience. Say you're a brand that targets the fitness niche. Use your voice to tell a story via social media. Interact with your community and reach out to potential customers by providing them with helpful and valuable information they can use to reach their fitness goals.
Another way to use your voice through an online presence is by writing blogs on your website. There you can demonstrate and share your expertise on a particular niche. You can explore different ways to entertain your audience while also informing them. Make use of search engine optimisation (SEO) tools and techniques to further widen your reach. Publishing informative articles on your website will not only help you gain new customers but will help establish your brand as well. In addition, it will improve search engine ranking and drive traffic to your site.
Read more: How Does an SEO Specialist Affect the Company's Success?
3. It Helps You Capture Leads
It’s not enough to just have an online presence—likes are good, but sales are better. With more and more online consumers starting to notice your brand online, they’ll be more aware of who you are and try your products one of these days. You get to draw more customers in, and those are already considered leads.
With the right technique, leads can turn into sales, and soon after they’ll be loyal customers who would continue recommending your brand to others. This is where the earned online presence comes in—people would write reviews or talk about your brand on different channels, may it be social media, blogs, or forums.
4. It Is An Opportunity To Build Credibility
Aside from increasing brand awareness, a substantial online presence can also help you build your credibility as a business. If a customer tries to search online for a particular product or service and your name constantly appears on search engine results, that means you're already strengthening your brand.
With a strengthened brand come reliability and credibility. Your customers would put more trust in your business knowing that there are a lot of other consumers who are doing the same. Likewise, they're more likely to recommend your brand to their friends and family. However, if your brand remains under the radar, they will view it as suspicious or unreliable.
This may interest you: Gaining Credibility
5. It Lets You Interact With Your Audience More Personally
The digital age has made way for customer engagement to still be personalised regardless of people's location, age, gender, and other contributing factors. With a stronger online presence, you can expect your customers to reach out to you more often through online means. It could be by sending you messages on your social media accounts, subscribing to your weekly newsletters, or simply commenting and liking your posts via online interactions.
Since the internet is vast and practically unlimited, there are more than enough means to connect with an audience without doing so in a generic manner. Back in the day, you needed to write snail mail or make phone calls to reach consumers. Today, an online presence might be enough to connect with people in more ways than one.
Takeaways
Growing your brand's online presence can prove to be highly beneficial, especially now that the internet has become an essential part of many people’s lives. Consumers will learn more about you as a company, and along the way, you’ll get to establish and boost your credibility. A strong online presence is also an opportunity to be heard when it comes to information, services, and products you want to share with your target audience.
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Author: Mary Valles is a digital marketing expert. She has been in the industry for more than seven years. She writes blogs to share her knowledge with aspiring start-ups and entrepreneurs. During her free time, Mary loves to read books and bake desserts.
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