About Businesses Online

Be you a plumber, a carpenter, a lawyer, an electrician, run a bakery, a florist, a mechanic, have a dental practice or be any other type of service provider you must have an online ‘window’ to display your offerings.

What would happen if a potential client looked for your business online right now, what would they find? Perhaps a negative article written about your business from the local paper or a negative online customer review, a website that hasn’t been updated since it was launched or worse – nothing at all?

Many service related business people fall into one of the following categories where their online presence is;

* only their own personal social media accounts
* what other people say about their business without any knowledge
* a website that hasn’t been updated in years
* nothing at all

Creating a business online presence is more than just having a website where people can read about your company, see your services and order from you. Its how a person finds, follows and connects with your business online.

10 tips to create an online presence for your offline business:

1. Get listed locally on Google Places- Google Places local listings provide you with maximum visibility on the 1st page of the Google search engine allowing consumers to quickly find you.

2. Get on the map- claim & optimise your Map listings on Google. At the desk, in the car & on the go Maps lead customers to your door.

3. Put the word out through Google reviews- reviews & promotions are important ways to influence customers. Let them know how great you are!

4. Get a domain name- Having a professional sounding email ending gives more credibility to your business than one that ends in ‘hotmail.com’ or similar which could suggest you’re not a business to be taken seriously.

5. Add video – videos provide a dynamic, interactive experience for site visitors. The engaging nature of video encourages users to spend more time on a page, thereby increasing stickiness and ad revenues.

6. Get a website – not having a website can now make even the smallest business appear…well small. Give your customers the confidence that you’re a thriving professional business no matter how many staff you have or the size of your premises.

7. Do SEO – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an online marketing strategy to help your potential customers find your website in the search engines. SEO targets various aspects on your website (i.e. your content) and off your website (i.e. links pointing to your site)

8. Start a blog – at the core of every successful blog is great content. If you’re passionate about a subject like your business, blogging could be a great way to communicate this to your customers.

9. Social media – it’s the future and it’s here now. Start with Facebook and then think about Twitter or LinkedIn if you think it’s relevant to you and your customers.

10. Everything else- you then get into things line Affiliate marketing, Text marketing etc etc, the list is almost endless. Get the other 9 in place before you even start to contemplate more advanced online strategies.

The key concept about marketing is to think of it like a Roman temple.

The roof is held up by pillars and the roof represents your business, and the pillars are your marketing efforts. You need several pillars of marketing activity that will support your business. If you rely on only one activity like referrals from local people, what happens if they dry up? Do you lay off staff as business declines, make less profit, possibly go bust because your regular routes to market dry up?

There are a wide variety of social media services available for small and large businesses, but how do you know which one to choose that will ultimately take your business to the next level? Choosing social platforms to effectively market your business will realistically be based on the types of products, content, and services your business provides. It will also be extremely important to understand exactly where your audience will be the most active.

Each of the social media services that are available will provide different advantages for each specific business. In order to grow your business successfully, you’ll need to know which social media platform will prove to be the best marketing platform for your business.

* Facebook: Social Gathering
* Twitter: Communications Network
* Four Square: Location-based
* LinkedIn: Business-To-Business

Facebook is an excellent place for social gatherings and communicating with a variety of different people in social groups and circles. This is an ideal place for businesses to begin because they can test different products and services and find what might be hot, and what is not. One of the unique aspects of Facebook is that it is free and provides many different tools for marketers that are interested in targeting specific groups.

Twitter is really a communications based system which allows businesses to get the word out about their business in short but sweet snippets. When people find value in your tweets, they will then re-tweet or create buzz about your business to their followers. This is very effective, but in many cases – this will not work for every type of business. Some businesses would like to target their local markets and in this case Four Square may be one of the social media services they choose.

Sometimes brick-and-mortar businesses would like to focus on the local market, and in this case Four Square could provide more benefits than any of the other social media services. LinkedIn provides a fantastic opportunity for businesses overall because it helps to link businesses with other businesses, as well as people with businesses. People can use the service to interconnect by making connections, and receiving recommendations.

There are many more social media services available; however, each service will provide something different when it comes to benefits, and the specific audience you will have access to. All social media Platforms are not created equal and each service will provide something a little different. It will be up to the business owner to test which service will prove to be the best fit for the products and services they provide.