The brick-and-mortar store, they say, is less important than the pixels of your website, and the follow count on your social media channels. Companies across industries and geographies are discovering that it’s in the digital realm that they can find their competitive edge in the modern era – and that means that you, too, should consider your various locations on the world wide web. This article focuses on only those that are most important to your business; helping you establish yourself as a presence across some of the most-visited platforms in the world.
Website
We’ll start with the most obvious: you need a website. That’s not all; you need a website that’s completely modernized, up-to-date, mobile optimized, and well mapped-out to help enhance your ability to sell to site visitors. These sites aren’t those which you can build in an afternoon on Wix or WordPress – you’ll need web professionals to help you build marketing principles and UX protocols into your design ethos. Hiring outsourced staff to help you with your website is an investment that’ll inevitably pay dividends in the long-run. Your website, remember, is your home on the internet.
Social Media
Next, you’re going to want to establish a home on all of the social media sites that your customers are using. The top three are, of course, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook; large platforms with billions of users and a huge amount of promotional value for your company. If you’re able to commit to producing extra content, you may wish to add a YouTube account to this list – as well as podcasting, photos or other side channels to help you stand out across the internet with a strong and professional presence.
Business Networks
Your job doesn’t stop there – you’ve only covered the very basics. Your next step is to think carefully about the other areas in which you can build a small presence for your business, raising your brand’s flags across other platforms and websites. For instance, you may wish to get your site featured as a Wikipedia post, or on business detail registers used by Google. Concerning the latter, you must look into Google My Business tips for SEO strategies that’ll help customers see what your business details are e.g. address, opening times etc. by searching your name on Google or on Google maps. Don’t be invisible on these platforms, register yourself for an increased presence on the web.
Media and Press
Your final stab into the digital world is to create yourself a PR pack and media strategy to help your business feature in the news stories of major publications. Start small by asking for a local reporter to cover a launch or newsworthy story in your offices, before forming a larger strategy to make the news on a national or even international level. Remember, too, that industry magazines will take a small fee to feature your business in their print editions as well as on their website thus helping your company appear like a top player in your given field.
There you have it; four distinct areas in which your company can situate itself online, helping boost your exposure, sales and profits.
