Creating a strong online presence

When thinking about marketing your business, your online presence can be pushed down the list, especially if it’s something you have little knowledge of or time to get to grips with. However, presenting your company online, in various forms, is now one of the easiest and most effective ways to generate new business.

Get a website that wows!
You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds to get a great website. For example, Cotswold Web offer affordable websites for small and medium businesses that won’t break the budget. However, it’s also true that you get what you pay for, if you don’t invest enough. Low-cost or free websites usually produce second-rate results – with limited functionality, third-party advertisements and dire SEO rankings.

These days, customers find suppliers online and then make a judgement about that company’s capabilities through how they present themselves. Is your website clear? Is the branding consistent? Do you have spelling errors, too many or too few words ? Does your website tell your customers what they need to know to make an order or booking? And does it stand out from the crowd?

Your website must also have strong SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure it ranks highly on search engines such as Google or Yahoo. This means including terms in your content that your customers use to find your business, and that metadata (the backend stuff) also reflects those keywords. So, when Joe Bloggs types ‘web design company Cotswolds’ into a search bar, the best web design websites come up top of the list. (It’s a bit more complicated than this, but you get the gist!)

Investing a bit of time and money in your website will pay dividends when you realise that customers find it easy to do business with you, and so return for more or recommend you to colleagues.

Get to know your customers online

Social media is powerful, you only have to glimpse at any app to see the influence it can have on big topics such as politics. Most of us find having some kind of online profile whether that’s through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ useful to keep in touch with others, and, as a business, having a profile is just as important.

The beauty of social media is that it offers you direct communication with potential customers. You can use your pages to engage people in thoughts and ideas, special offers and promotions, and offer advice and expertise about a latest product or innovation. There is so much you can say online, and people want to hear it! Providing consistent and interesting content directly to people who are already interested in what you offer will only help your business to grow. Social media can also be used at minimal cost, so transforming enquiries into orders can be a big gain for very little input.

It can feel easy to be intimidated by the sheer volume of online platforms and data that are available; however, a simple starting point would be to set aside time each month to plan your social media communications calendar, as you might do for work you have going through.

Things to consider might be:

• What is big news in our industry this month?

• What pages of my website can we promote?

• What words of wisdom can we share?

• What new clients do we have?

• What work have we done recently?

If you’re dipping your toe into marketing through social media, it’s a good idea to choose perhaps one or two platforms initially to get to grips with how it works and establishing a routine. And, if you’re really too busy, you can get someone to help. Cotswold Web offer advice and support with all aspects of SEO and social media marketing – whether that’s getting you started or maintaining your online communications long-term.

Doing business online needn’t be difficult, and any company can benefit from it, if it’s done well.

To find out more, contact hello@cotswoldweb.co.uk

Find out more about the incredible companies we work with here and contact us to see how we can help with your website.