9 Strategies To Quickly Start Building Your Online Presence [Free Webinar]

Join in and Get The 9 Essentials To Web Success!

A recent survey showed that 53% of small business owners say their online presence is NOT serving their business well. Our goal is to help you build an online presence that will increase your customer reach, brand awareness, loyalty, and sales. We are still in the early phases of the Internet and social media, and it is not too late for a small business to get on board and take advantage of this wave.

In my last blog post, I announced the launch of “The 9 Essentials of Web Success,” our new webinar series designed to give business owners & marketing teams the tools, techniques, ideas and strategies for building a productive and profitable online presence.

Over the next 9 weeks I will go into detail on each of the 9 strategies, but for now, here is a list of our 9 Strategies with things you should start considering.  

#1 & #2:  Website & Storefront Strategies

I like to address these two together.  It is important that if you have a storefront or office location you think about how a strong online presence may affect the office.  Do you want to attract new customers to your office or storefront?  Or would you prefer a phone call or a Web form? Do you take calls after hours?  Also, can you use your existing storefront or office to promote your website?  Do you have signage advertising your Website address?  Are you asking people to follow you on Facebook?  

Regarding your Website: is it easy to update?  Are you comfortable adding and updating content on a regular basis? Consistently adding and updating content on your site is critical to being found on the Internet.

#3 eCommerce Strategy

Will you be selling online?  Can people come to your website and buy your products?  Do you have an eBay store?  Do you want to sell on Amazon? Do you currently accept credit cards? Is your staff prepared to respond promptly to orders and other customer inquiries? 

These are just a few of the questions you may want to ask as you think about your eCommerce strategy.   What are your barriers to selling online?  Most of our clients use either Paypal Payments Pro ($30/mo) or Stripe ($0/mo).   Both charge 2.9%  + 30¢ per successful card charge.

#4 Local Strategy

This is particularly important if you have a storefront or office, but it really applies to everyone.  Do the listings online have your correct address & business information?  It’s amazing how many clients come to me and tell me that their address on the Internet is totally messed up.  This can really hurt your search rankings and definitely causes you to lost potential customers.

I had one client whose address was showing up wrong - instead of showing them on a busy highway, Google had an incorrect address that showed their location out in the woods.  Another was one where the business had moved twice, ultimately back to their original location, but the town had renumbered all the addresses on that street and all mapping systems were confused. These situations can be difficult but they can be managed and corrected.  

Have you claimed your Google+ listing?  It is imperative that you claim your listing and start populating it with accurate information.  

#5 Email Strategy

Email is still one of the best ways to reach your customers.  If your small business is not collecting email addresses, get started today! Tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact will help you to manage your lists and keep your customers, prospects, and followers up to date on your activities and your offerings.  

#6 Content Strategy

Content is King of the Internet.  If you want to be found on the Internet you need to have something to say.  Sometimes this is very difficult for small businesses to figure out. 

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As a result, we take time with our clients and their sales teams to discuss what kinds of questions people asking about your business, what could they be confused about, and what are some special things that your team knows that you can share with your clients and customers?

By finding the answers to these types of questions, you are then able to create FAQ pages, videos, blog posts & more that will attract your target audience to your website and create potential leads.

A steady stream of informational content will help you be found on the Internet, will increase your site visitors, and will increase your sales.

Example: Our client Busbee Truck Parts' Organic Traffic

#7 Social Strategy

Do you have social media properties?  A Facebook page?  Think about where your customers are spending time on social media and make sure you are there.  Again, it is helpful if you have something to say, something to share. This takes some time and energy and forethought, but with some effort you can use social media to engage with your existing customers and reach new customers.

In addition to posting and social sharing, most social media platforms allow for paid advertising, allowing you to be very targeted in your advertising.

Search Strategy

#8 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is partly technical and partly creative.  On the technical side, your Website needs to be “tuned up” to include all the proper “Meta tags” that Google and other search engines are looking for. Besides the basics such as Page Titles and Meta Descriptions, there are other opportunities, for example:  Facebook likes to see “OG” or “Open Graph” coding, Twitter likes to see “Twitter cards”, and it is extremely helpful to have geo-tagging whenever possible. These things all help you to be found on the Internet.

#9 Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click advertising typically means Google AdWords or Bing Ads - any online adverising where you pay only when someone clicks on the ad. When you do a search on Google, typically the top 2 or 3 ads are paid for, and if you click on one of them, the advertiser pays Google.

The price of a paid ad varies significantly depending on the target audience and the keywords that you use. I have done work for attorneys in large cities where the Cost per Click (CPC) is over $25 PER CLICK. If you have a narrow focus and you have a fine-tuned AdWords program, you may be paying under $1 per click.

Over the next 9 weeks, I will spend about 30-45 minutes talking about each of these 9 Essentials of Web Success, both in a blog and in a Webinar format. 

If that’s something you’re interested in, I’d like to invite you to a free new webinar series that I’m hosting: The 9 Essentials of Web Success. There's no charge, but the number of spots is limited.

In the following weeks there will be 9 follow-up webinar sessions to explore each of the 9 Essentials in more detail. These will be held on Tuesday afternoons, one per week, for nine weeks.

• Website Strategy, Content & Search - Tuesday, June 13, 2:00 PM
• Content Strategy, SEO, & Pay-per-Click - Tuesday, June 20, 2:00 PM
• Email Strategy, Content, & eCommerce - Tuesday, June 27, 2:00 PM
• eCommerce Strategy, AdWords & SEO - Tuesday, July 11, 2:00 PM
• Paid Search Strategy - AdWords Deep Dive - Tuesday, July 18, 2:00 PM
• SEO Strategy, Content & Pay-Per-Click - Tuesday, July 25, 2:00 PM
• Social Media Strategy, Content & SEO - Tuesday, August 1, 2:00 PM
• Local Strategy, Storefront & Geo - Tuesday, August 8, 2:00 PM
• Review & Rebalance, Your Future Web Strategy - Tuesday, August 15, 2:00 PM

My hope is that this program will help you -  business owners & marketing teams - think about your online marketing strategy, and make plans to reach your goals.

If you would like to improve your business's online presence, please join us. Sign up today!

The initial webinar, The 9 Essentials of Web Success, was completed on June 7, 2017, and is available below.