A serious brand needs to rely on a strong online presence to generate leads in 2023. Even if you’re a small local business, a handyman, or a restaurant owner, potential customers will still search for you on Google. And while you can always try to reach the target audience by giving out leaflets on the streets, web exposure is the most scalable approach.
There are numerous digital marketing approaches you can try out. Some brands utilize a combination of different methods, while other businesses benefit from just one or two. Ideally, you should analyze the market and your company’s needs to find the most suitable approach for your brand.
Truth be told, gaining a massive online presence requires effort. In most cases, it’s a long-lasting investment that provides results after a few years. This is why you need to trust your marketing strategy before you set things in motion.
In this article, we’ll explain what a strong online presence means, and we’ll talk about different online channels your business can utilize. Check it out!
What is an online presence?
According to Wikipedia‘s online presence definition, we use the term for people and brands featured on the World Wide Web. A person or a brand could have a website, a blog, a social media account, or be shown on third-party platforms (such as online forums).
Although this isn’t wrong, the MiroMind team thinks this definition is a bit too wide.
Today, there are simply too many bloggers and social media users for a person to be noticed. Even if you appear in search engine results pages when someone types your name, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have a strong web presence.
According to us, having a web presence means being shown repeatedly within search engines when someone’s browsing industry-related topics. In other words, if a person is interested in a product or service, they should sooner or later learn about your brand.
This statement might be a bit controversial, given that you have large brands that rarely appear in the top 10 results for certain queries. For example, you will rarely see “Alpha Romeo” or “Grundig” when browsing the web. Still, these companies are well-known among consumers and industry experts.
As an SEO brand, MiroMind focuses on search engine optimization but also utilizes other methods of web promotion. Nowadays, it’s common for brands to have several social media accounts and even to introduce paid ads.
How do brands benefit from online presence?
Nowadays, consumers rely on search engine results, online directories, social media threads, and online advertising to find brands that will meet their needs. The data indicates that 20% of the US population makes a web purchase once a week. This is an enormous quantity of money, changing hands on a weekly basis!
In fact, in recent years, many traditional vendors have closed their brick-and-mortar stores in favor of heavier online investments. The trend is especially noticeable in the apparel industry but has affected other niches as well.
Here are some of the benefits of having a strong online business:
- Global presence for brands that only have domestic networks
- Better exposure for local businesses that don’t have traditional stores
- Showing current and potential customers that you’re a legitimate business
- Helps companies build brand awareness
- Improves the company’s scalability
- Allows you to save money in the long run
- Provides more traffic than the traditional marketing
- Allows you to advertise and drive leads without relying on third-party providers
Unfortunately, promoting your company online isn’t as easy as it might seem.
Given all the previously mentioned benefits, other businesses are also trying to get a piece of that sweet marketing pie. So, even if you have a great strategy for promoting your brand online, gaining enough exposure will take time and heavy investment.
7 Ways to build an online presence in 2023
Without further ado, here are 7 methods that will help you build an online presence and make your mark on the World Wide Web!
1. Focus on website
As MiroMind’s team likes to explain to clients, your website is your business card in the online world.
Even if you focus on paid ads or social media, all the leads you get from other channels will eventually come to your platform. Aside from helping you increase your digital presence, your website also provides valuable business information and allows product purchasing.
So, how do you make your website look more professional? What do you need to do to turn it into a powerful lead-generation tool?
- Improve website design
- Increase page speed
- Make your site mobile friendly
- Add professional landing pages
- Create easy-to-use sitemaps
- Simplify your online shop
- Create high-quality content on your blog
- Make it easier for people to contact you
If you wish to increase online presence the right way, we suggest that you hire a reputable SEO agency. Companies such as MiroMind can polish your platform, improving design and user experience. This will improve your authority within the niche but also help with all other marketing strategies you wish to implement.
2. Implement local SEO
Small businesses live and die by local optimization. Adding your brand to the local directories and managing online reviews and reputation is the best way to appear in the notorious Google 3-Pack.
Local optimization is much different from regular SEO. It’s more of a reputation management process, where a business has to pay attention to customer feedback. Google uses metrics such as the number of online reviews and positive reviews to place brands at the top of search rankings.
Here’s what you need to do to master local rankings:
- Create listings in the biggest directories
- Make sure your business information is the same across the board
- Ask loyal customers to leave positive feedback
- Try to get more reviews by using different channels
And that’s it!
Basically, the best way to improve your local SEO is to simply have a quality brand. And while having a well-optimized site can also help with local queries, it isn’t as important as for global SERPs.
3. Spread content around
When building an online presence, you can build inward or outward. In other words, you can drive people directly to your site and social media platforms, or you can spread your message on other sites.
Guest posting, forum posting, and being featured in interviews and roundups are all good ways to increase your online presence. Even if a reader never visits your site, they will eventually remember your name and the brand’s name. Like with all other approaches, you’re looking for a dripping effect where you’ll slowly build authority through numerous small steps.
Among others, when you write guest posts, you also get backlinks to your site. They will not only provide an indirect source of traffic but will improve the site’s/page’s placement within the search results.
Your content marketing efforts are also important for other sites. Other platforms get a new, fresh voice for their blog while allowing them to take a break from arduous daily posting. Creating all these connections also makes it easier to find partners for future projects and helps diversify your presence.
4. Build links
We’ve just mentioned the importance of the links, but let’s get a bit deeper into this topic.
For the longest time, Google and other search engines have used hyperlinks to assess the quality of a page. The general mindset is that the other blogs wouldn’t mislead their readers by promoting nonsensical pieces.
Although the SEO field has changed a lot, external links remain an important metric. As mentioned, they’re important for algorithms but can also provide lots of traffic from other sources. This is especially true if you get featured on major blogs and forums. Here are some strategies that can help you get more of them:
- Publish blogs on other sites
- Find interview and roundup opportunities
- Use broken link building
- Try your luck with HARO
- Link through forums and social media pages
- Add your website to online directories
- Invest in influencer marketing
Generally speaking, it’s good to be recognized as a company that creates quality posts. This could potentially land you guest posting opportunities.
Other bloggers need to see value in featuring your brand on their own websites. So, gaining link-building opportunities often comes as a result of your other business and marketing efforts.
5. Go with social media
Increasing your social media presence can be extremely valuable to your brand. There are numerous brands in the world that drive more leads through their Facebook and Instagram pages than through organic traffic.
Aside from increasing your visibility, social media pages allow you to connect with the target audience in a more personal way. Messaging people via email is often clunky, and some people hate it. Social media channels are much more direct and can add a layer of transparency.
Here are a few tricks that will help you build an audience on these platforms:
- Find social platforms that are best suited for your business
- Analyze user intent and ideal demographic
- Customize the message to cater to that audience
- Invest in photos, videos, and other digital marketing solutions
- Connect with other influencers and ask them to promote your brand
- Offer discounts and other perks to loyal followers
Promoting a website is very similar to promoting a social media channel. In both cases, you need to create amazing content that will draw in followers. The good thing about social media is that it allows short-form communication, presenting your business to users in a different light.
Besides improving your social media followership, you might also consider investing in social ads.
6. Use email marketing
Email marketing doesn’t improve your online visibility per se. However, it’s a valuable tool that you can use for all other marketing efforts.
MiroMind commonly uses email campaigns when building organic links for its clients. It’s a fantastic method of doing outreach and sharing your posts around. Besides that, you can use Gmail and other platforms to simply connect with other influencers, ask them for opinions, and start new partnerships.
So, what are the things you should pay attention to during outreach?
- First off, make sure you’re sending the email to the right person. Companies often make the mistake of contacting the wrong manager, which is a waste of time and often perceived as unprofessional.
- Your messages should pass spam barriers. In other words, they have to be long enough, and you shouldn’t include any links at first.
- Create titles that will intrigue receivers. The same goes for the body of the text.
- Take your time during campaigns. The most successful emails are part of a longer sequence that involves several messages.
- Customize every message so it speaks to another person. Find small tidbits of information on the receiver’s site and social profiles and use them to leave an impression.
Unfortunately, many brands suck at emailing. This is usually because they skip steps or are too reliant on tools. So, if you wish to make an impact, take your time and research recipients before sending anything.
7. Use PPC
PPC or Pay-Per-Click refers to advertising methods where a company pays money every time a person clicks on their link. It mainly refers to Google Ads, but it can also refer to Microsoft Ads, social media ads, and other forms of digital advertising.
When you use search engine PPC, your link is placed at the top of all results, above organic pages. This increases the likelihood that a user will go to your pages instead of competitors. The price of PPC varies from industry to industry and from keyword to keyword. Some fields are so competitive that it’s sometimes not even worth running these campaigns.
Although PPC isn’t as effective as SEO or SMM in the long run, it provides nice short-term results. As soon as you pay Google, you start generating leads to your landing pages. Aside from increasing your sales, PPC campaigns are also good for increasing your online presence.
If you’re looking to increase your online visibility, make sure to contact MiroMind today!