How to Set Up Your Online Brand for Success (Guest Blog)
Establishing an online presence is a fundamental aspect of long-term growth for many businesses. Since the majority of today’s consumers leverage search engines and social media to drive many of their purchasing decisions, it’s important for companies to know how to effectively establish and grow their digital footprints.
But gaining online visibility isn’t exactly easy or straightforward. There are a number of different variables that come into play when building a business that is not only marketable, but is also able to stand out from the fierce competition online.
Thankfully, there are a number of foundational steps businesses can take to ensure they’re setting themselves up for success.
How To Give Your Business Better Online Visibility
Establishing a business online isn’t all that difficult for many industries. It’s never been easier than it is right now to quickly establish a great-looking website and get it up and running. However, getting the right amount of traffic coming through the digital doors can be another story altogether.
Below are some effective strategies new and established businesses can put in place to start improving their online visibility and the associated web traffic that comes with it:
Get a Good Understanding of Your Target Audience
Before you can establish your online business as something that resonates with an audience, you first need to have a clear understanding of who that audience is. This will often begin with conducting demographic research that helps you identify exactly who makes up your potential website visitors – their age ranges, geographic location, and other relevant details.
This is a great starting point if you want to know the types of products or services they’re likely to be interested in as well as the specific marketing strategies that are more likely to resonate with them. Taking the time to learn this information will give you important information that will help you shape your priorities and focus your time and resources in the right areas.
Build an Effective Content Marketing Process
One of the most effective ways to start growing more awareness for your brand online is by establishing a great content marketing strategy. Having great content on your website not only creates more opportunities for your website to rank well in search engines but also helps you create a sense of authority in the industry you represent.
For example, if your business was in the home renovation industry, you would want to share a number of helpful tips for your potential clients, including ideas related to bathroom remodels or even how to prepare a home for sale.
While this content may not directly contribute to your revenue sources, it shows to your audience that you’re thinking of their best interests and taking the time to create helpful content that benefits them directly.
Follow the Best SEO Practices
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is by far one of the most important elements to understand and execute properly when it comes to increasing online web traffic. This helps you find profitable keywords and phrases that you can try to rank your website for in search engines which can lead to a significant increase in free visits to the website.
There are literally hundreds of different ways you can optimize your website’s SEO, and there is no shortage of guides or services available to help you get started. Many of these resources point to first completing a thorough keyword research analysis to help structure individual web pages around.
This, in combination with a variety of other strategies like performance modifications on your website and establishing backlinks from other reputable sites, can help you springboard your efforts to get more attention to your site.
Start Expanding Your Network
Knowing how to network effectively can be another great way to expedite your brand visibility efforts. But networking shouldn’t be looked at as something that’s restricted to attending trade shows or passing out business cards. There are a number of different ways to use networking to your advantage, including partnering up with other well-known businesses in your industry, including influencers and even competitors.
Expanding your professional network is a great way to open up new opportunities to bring in new referral traffic to your website. By providing helpful information and sharing it with other companies you connect with, there is an increased likelihood that other companies might start to link to your content. This helps you to bring better authority on search engines and is a great way to broaden your target audience.
Leverage Online Advertising
The great thing about operating a business online today is that there are now so many opportunities for you to leverage online advertising. Google Ads and social media advertising platforms offer website owners with a variety of pay-per-click or pay-per-video-view options to help them quickly get more attention to their sites.
While certain online advertising levers might not be the most economical choice long-term, they can be a great starting point for helping your business move the needle in its early stages.
The great thing about online advertising platforms is that they can complement other SEO strategies you’re putting into action, helping to give you some important insights into the keywords that are most likely to convert and give you additional information on the demographics of your website visitors.
Continuously Learn and Adapt
Growing a business’s presence online isn’t something that will be successful by taking a static approach. It’s important to keep your strategies agile and have a willingness to adapt your methods depending on the outcome of your initiatives.
For example, you might find out that while maintaining a blog on home renovations might show some initial interest from your audience, their needs become more specific in other areas over time. Rather than applying a “rinse-and-repeat” approach to your content generation and marketing efforts, you may need to start broadening your tactics to ensure you’re meeting the more relevant needs of your audience.
In any event, you’ll want to monitor the impact of any strategies you implement so you can let the data point you in the right direction. This helps you from flying blind and putting your energy and resources into areas that don’t bring you a favorable return on your investment.
Start Priming Your Business for Better Online Success
Having a strong online presence isn’t an optional component for most organizations – it’s a requirement. By following some of the basic strategies discussed and always being willing to adapt your approach over time, you’ll be able to successfully grow your digital footprint and create new opportunities for increased revenue.
Author Bio
Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020-inception, Revive has since become the smartest solution for homeowners to maximize their home’s sales value across the nation.