Lurking in the lower reaches of Google, wondering why there’s scant traffic to your site? We’re sure you already know this, but it’s so important we’ll say it anyway; struggling to rank highly in the search engines can be seriously detrimental to your business. To go from strength to strength this year and beyond, you need to boost your brand’s online presence.
Rock solid branding online is the single most important modern tool in your business’ armoury. Use it often, enthusiastically and precisely and you could increase your profitability ten-fold. Here’s how; our 5 IDEAL tips for growing your company’s brand online.
Your Website & Its Images
No surprise here, but it bears repeating nonetheless; one of the first steps to growing your online business is having a fully functioning, visually appealing website. It’s usually the first engagement potential customers will have with you so if you want to impress them from the off, then it needs to run slickly and speedily. Your website also helps you effectively convey the ‘vibe’ of your brand in an appealing, visual and easily accessible way. Therefore, it’s worth a fair investment.
You can most effortlessly convey that ‘vibe’ via professional images and photography. Visual appeal is crucial for the user experience, and images can boost your SEO, too, when done right.
That said, some caution should be exercised in terms of the amount of photos you use. It can be tempting to upload a photo to each page just to fill blank space; web pages can, after all, look bare if there is only text, and it can be easy to fall into the trap of uploading photos and images just because you feel like a page needs one. However, simply because having a photo is better than not having a photo on the page isn’t going to help you get better results.
Instead, as the Bristol photographers at evokepictureslifestyle.com tells us, ”creating versatile images that will meet all your brand guidelines” is the best way to play it.
Social Media Currency
It’s an unavoidable truth of the modern way we all do business; stocks, shares and assets are out. In their place, and worth the big bucks to a company, are clicks, likes, follows and. ultimately, attention. And it’s your brand that generates this engagement online. If it’s appealing, inclusive and on point, the validation from the masses will follow.
The savviest social media users know how to work the crowd and gain those all important clicks for free, generating catchy content which has the potential to go viral and grow your brand’s online presence exponentially.
But even more basic social media engagement can reap rewards. Consistency here is vital; you want your social media presence to have a tone of voice and recognisable style to capture a user’s attention as they scroll.
An emergent tool in recent years are sites which make your social media interactions and engagement easier than ever, automating certain tasks, finding hashtags for you to target and ultimately, delivering you more followers. Hootsuite and Nitreo are two of our favourite platforms for putting your social media channels on autopilot right now.
Content Is King
The internet has sped everything up, make no mistake. Supply, demand, transaction and engagement; the expectation now is for your company and website to be constantly on, engaged and ready to do business.
It’s therefore vital to make sure you’re pushing out regular content and marketing yourself succinctly in order to stay relevant and ahead to the pack. This doesn’t mean that at every 2:42 PM on a Wednesday you need to publish a blog post, but you need to be consistent and do things with clarity and precision.It might be worth deferring some of the workload here to an SEO company, who will be well versed in the best target language and technique to encourage engagement with your brand.
With the expertise of SEO companies like Elevate Digital, your online presence can effectively navigate the fast-paced digital landscape, ensuring seamless engagement and optimal performance.
Because what’s clear is that there is competition everywhere, and those who don’t keep things fresh and pertinent will quickly be dismissed in favour of a newer, shinier model. Conversely, regular content will instil loyalty in your visitors and attract new custom, too. Remember this; it’s a numbers game first and foremost.
Assess Reach Via Analytics
With 45% of the world (a whopping 3.48 billion) now having a social media account and millions scrolling through their feeds at any given moment, it would be financial suicide not to be harnessing the power of the click, constantly and consistently.
While there are plenty of paid options to promote your business on social media, you should only do so with scrupulous tracking of analytics to assess whether the reach of such posts is worth your investment. You might find that you could achieve the same reach via free social media channels; making an Instagram and Facebook page (we all have one, right?) is easy and needn’t cost you a penny. Keeping a constant eye on what’s working and what’s not will keep you ahead of the game.
Improve Your Online Customer Service
We’ve all found a peculiar comfort in those chat screens on a company’s website which offer help. Don’t deny; things simply get done like this. Equally, we think it’s fair to assume that each and every one of us has felt frustration at having to fill in a form out and then verify you’re not a robot by clicking pictures of traffic lights, when all you want is to email someone. So, consider how your brand offers customer service online. Make it snappy, intelligible and simple to seek. You’ll generate some serious loyalty this way.