Conducting business online and having a digital brand presence is nowhere near a new concept as the practice has only been gaining steam since it first reached the commercial space. Online advertising, marketing, networking, selling, buying, and more are everyday occurrences on today’s Internet. Using the Internet for business requires different rules and steps to ensure you are using these modern tools correctly and their full potential. Whether you are selling or just marketing online, your brand needs an online presence rather than remaining a faceless company. Online presence means more than making an account on popular social media sites; it is about using every advantage and avenue the Internet offers. There is a long list of good ideas and prudent moves to better your online presence, but here are a few of the essential checklist tips and tricks to get you started.
Optimization For A Wider Reach
The Internet is more extensive than most people understand. Millions of bytes of data are uploaded to the Internet every day, which only counts the indexed pages, not the hidden dark web. With so much data being added to the Internet, it can be all too easy for your ad, a community post, status update, new image collection, or any other content to be lost in the crowd. To combat the noise ceiling, work to improve your reach through optimization to get your content on more platforms and in front of more eyes.
One of the most straightforward and most essential optimizations is to ensure all your websites and content works on mobile smartphones. Smartphones are no longer rare like they were when the iPhone first launched, and there are now over 3 billion smartphone users. More people than ever have a mini-computer in their pocket, and they want to be able to browse with the same ease as if they were on a desktop. Truly optimizing for mobile and other sized screens means more than porting a desktop version. Just because a site technically works on mobile does not mean it is a good experience customers will enjoy and consider using again. No one wants to fight with awkward scrolling, buttons too small for touchscreens, or navigation that is clearly made for a mouse. Take the time to properly optimize for mobile platforms to get your content in front of potential customers who may have never seen your brand online before.
Borrowing Influence
With the rapid adoption of the Internet also came the rise of Internet celebrities, now commonly called influencers. Influencers are not the traditional celebrities we see in magazines or on tabloid news, as most influencers are known within their community, but not by the general population. You may think getting a well known A-list person to partner with your brand is the best way to go, but you may end up paying for a name that doesn’t help you where you need it. Smaller influencers tend to have niche communities, and you should use those specializations to your advantage. If you are launching a new face wash, partnering with a computer influencer to promote the product isn’t the best match. You would be better off partnering with a beauty influencer to promote a new face wash and partner with the computer influencer if you launch something relevant to that field.
Partnering with an influencer for a marketing campaign increases your visibility and authority because you borrow some from your influencer partner. Customers trust other customers, people they like, and the people they look up to. Word of mouth, peer recommendations, and idol recommendations are what make influencer marketing work. Influencer marketing uses the same psychology as putting Superman on toothpaste. A kid might not care about a generic company selling the same toothpaste, but Superman makes it appealing. If your favorite audio influencer promoted earbuds, you would be more likely to check out the product if not buy a pair for yourself. An influencer agreeing to a marketing deal tells their audience that they sign off on this product and brand, so customers should trust them. Let the influencer do the hard part and send customers your way when all your brand had to do was find the right influencer partners.
Always Use Social Media
Along with smartphones came the explosion of social media. There are a slew of different major platforms depending on your style, but social media is a giant part of online life that is not going anywhere any time soon. We have seen the enormous power of social media, so why not use it to help your brand. Posting images, status, customer contests, videos showing behind the scenes, and more play well on social media. The more you show customers you are more than a faceless brand, the better. Go to the social media platforms where your audience is to make the most of these reasonably new digital spaces. Some methods and strategies from older platforms still translate to the online world, such as direct response marketing, but the Internet is too unique to copy and paste every commercial success strategy.
Doing business online is never an easy or one answer affair. There are so many moving parts, even putting aside the information overload online every day. Carving out a space for your brand can be tricky, but you can make an impact by using the tips and tricks of the Internet. Optimize for more platforms and screens to expand your reach before you partner with niche influencers that match your intended goals. Always use social media as a business tool to better your brand and enchant new customers with your content.