You are starting a new business. You’ve got everything figured out except one thing. Your online presence.
You convince yourself you can worry about it later. No biggie.
But, you feel anxiety because you know it’s important in today’s digital world.
Almost 70% of people use their smartphone to view media, and half of the world’s population are on social media, it is vital for a business to utilize digital marketing. (SEO Expert)
With about 63,000 searches performed every second of every day on Google, your business will struggle without an online presence. (SEO Expert)
Well, where do you start, you may wonder?
1. The phone book is dead, list your info here.
If you still have a phone book, you are one of the few.
Almost 40% of the world’s population own and use a smartphone. Almost half of all Google searches are for local business information. (HubSpot)
If you haven’t made your business contact information readily available on major online directories, you are killing your business.
The most recommended directories to start listing your business’ info on are Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp, Facebook, and Better Business Bureau. There are many directories to list your business on, chose as many as you’d like.
2. No website? Get on that like yesterday.
Okay, you are probably thinking “duh,” but what I mean is your business should have a fast loading, easy to navigate, search engine optimized, mobile-friendly, updated website.
People want instant results and have short attention spans. If your website is none of the fore-mentioned, they will leave it and click on the next query from their search results.
Your site should load in 5 seconds or less, and the information your visitors are looking for should be presented immediately.
Your website should not mimic a page from a Where’s Waldo book, nor be confusing to navigate. The number one cause of someone leaving your site in 2019 is going to be because it is not mobile friendly.
3. Time to tweet, snap, DM, post, and all that.
At the very least you should have a business page on Facebook and Instagram. Depending on the type of business, you may also want to utilize platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
I personally still recommend a Google+ profile, but most marketers say it is no longer relevant. And it’s not.
In fact, Google will probably be weeding it out eventually. But while it remains, I personally think it can’t hurt your status with the Google gods.
You can’t just make accounts on social media platforms. You also have to stay engaged on them. Invite people to follow your business pages, post quality content, and take advantage of Facebook ads which
4. Get those email addresses.
Believe it or not, email marketing is not dead.
In fact, it is one of the best forms of digital marketing to retain customers. Think about all the times you go to check out in a store and the first thing they ask for is your email.
Once collected, use software of your choice to develop email marketing campaigns. If you use WordPress CMS for your website, you can simply use a plugin to manage your email subscribers from there.
There are definitely some do’s and don’ts to email marketing.
You need to entice your customer to open the email with a good subject line, offer quality content in your email, make it easy to read, and don’t send too many.
5. Gotta keep your online reputation clean.
Once you add your business information to popular directories it gives
Don’t freak out, but the unfortunate part is that people can be petty and add bad reviews for silly reasons. Make sure you check all of your reviews often.
If there is any negative feedback, try to remedy the problem or explain what happened if possible. If the reviewer is just being malicious, contact the platform and try to get it removed.
Think you got it?
There is so much opportunity for digital marketing. If it all seems like a lot to take on while running a business, think about hiring a professional.
If you don’t stay on top of digital marketing, you will miss out on a lot of opportunities to gain new customers and to retain them.