Building a strong digital presence is not what it used to be.
As the number of your competitors in the digital sphere is rising, getting yourself noticed is easier said than done.
Unsatisfactory conversion rates and poor brand awareness are just some of the numerous signals that you should rethink your online marketing strategies.
Here are a few steps you should take:
Boost your Digital Marketing Budget
To improve your digital presence, you need to allocate enough resources to it.
Unsurprisingly, no matter if you’re building an in-house marketing team and equipping it with the right tools or outsourcing your strategies to an agency, the initial investments are always high.
Statics say that for 27% of marketers, securing enough money is their top marketing challenge.
However, this shouldn’t discourage you. Research shows that, no matter how big their budgets are, 70% of marketers decided to increase their demand gen budgets this year.
Even if you can’t fund your digital marketing campaign on your own, there are numerous financing options that may help you, such as small online loans or bank loans.
If you’re dealing with late invoice payments, you can take advantage of debtor finance solution to increase cash flow and start using it to boost your online marketing budget.
Build a Professional Website
As 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, your website will probably be the first point of contact between you and your target audience.
It gives you a unique online identity, providing your target customers with the relevant information about your business and products.
Most importantly, it indicates your professionalism. Precisely because of that, it needs to be created wisely.
- Make your site responsive. We’re living in the mobile-first era, where 57% of online traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. By investing in a fast, responsive, and mobile-friendly design, you’re ensuring that your site is perfectly optimized for all visitors, irrespective of the device they use.
- It needs to be visually appealing and professional. Remember that visitors make judgments on your business’ site within the first few seconds.
- Establish a unique tone and voice and use them consistently when creating your website content. Your messaging needs to match your brand identity, values, and mission and evoke a reader’s emotions.
Write Quality Content
Content marketing is critical for your digital presence, as it brings value to your readers. And the content you create needs to be industry-oriented, interactive, and engaging.
For example, research has proven that long-form articles perform better on search engines. So, this should be your standard when drafting content creation guidelines.
You should also try out different forms of content until you find the ones that resonate with your target audience.
Apart from traditional articles, create videos, infographics, or case studies that generate significantly more traffic, links, and shares.
Optimize your Site for the Right Keywords
You’re not the only one trying to get noticed on Google. As your competitors have the same goals, Google’s search results have become extremely competitive.
And, to rank high, you first need to optimize your site for search engines.
The backbone of your SEO strategy are keywords; the phrases your searchers use to find you. There are numerous keyword research tools that may help you discover and monitor the right keywords.
You could, for example, start your research with Google AdWords, Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, or SEMrush.
Apart from targeting exact-match, short-tail keywords, you should also optimize your site for long-tail ones.
Even though their search volume is lower, those keywords are more precise and are used by the people that are closer to making a purchase.
Build Links on Authoritative Sites
The quality and number of your backlinks remain one of Google’s most significant ranking factors. Precisely because of this, you need to have a solid link building strategy in place.
Now, the content on your blog is the backbone of your link building efforts. By creating and publishing high-quality and engaging content, you will earn loads of organic links from authoritative sites in your niche.
Another great way to build backlinks to your site is through guest blogging. Even though we have been reading a lot about its slow death, this practice remains a key aspect of your digital presence.
By contributing to reputable sites in your niche, you have an opportunity to engage their audiences and increase your brand exposure.
Most importantly, you will boost your brand’s authority and inspire people to visit your site for more valuable tips.
Now, guest blogging is the most powerful way to build links, but it’s far from being the only one. Here are a few additional tactics to consider:
- Build authoritative links on Wikipedia.
- Find broken links on reputable sites in your industry and offer the link to your related content as a replacement.
- Look for sites that mentioned your brand or products, cited you, or used your visual content without linking back to your site. All you need to do is connect with them and ask them to include a link to the original content.
- Get your site listed on major business directories, like Yelp or Glassdoor.
Grow your Digital Presence with Paid Ads
SEO is a long-term investment in your digital presence and it takes weeks or even months to deliver the desired results. PPC, on the other hand, helps you boost your online visibility instantly.
Most importantly, it helps you raise your conversion rate and make more sales. Namely, 65% of customers click on Google Ads when wanting to make a purchase.
To maximize the power of your ads, make sure they are catchy, optimized for the right keywords, and related to the landing page.
Above all, leverage the amazing geotargeting options that PPC offers to put your ad in front of the right audiences.
Humanize your Brand via Social Networks
A great majority of your target customers are on social networks and you need to use these channels, too. However, just creating profiles on different social media platforms is not enough.
There are a few steps you need to take to get the most out of them:
- Choose the right networks. Instead of managing a myriad of accounts simultaneously, choose the ones that make sense for your business. If you want to publish gorgeous photos of your products or motivational quotes, Instagram is great for you. Twitter lets you promote the hottest industry news, while Facebook helps you grow your community.
- Humanize your brand by posting behind-the-scenes photos of your staff members to make your brand more relatable.
- Build relationships with Influencers to give your brand visibility and build trust with your target customers.
- Give real-time feedback. Use social media monitoring tools to track your brand mentions and participate in your target audience’s discussions in a timely manner.
Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search is still in its infancy, but it will make up 50% of all searches by 2020. It has already started changing the SEO we know of.
For example, when conducting searches, people tend to use full sentences and ask questions.
Therefore, apart from the long-tail keywords mentioned above, you should also optimize your content for conversational phrases and questions.
This is yet another reason why your content needs to be longer. This way, it has a greater opportunity to match search queries.
Alternatively, consider adding a comprehensive FAQ page that will answer your audiences’ common questions and get Google to display your page in voice search results.
Conclusion
By creating a solid digital presence, you will boost your online visibility, attract attention, and increase conversion rates.
Above all, you will boost brand awareness and rise above your competitors.
What do you do to improve your business’s digital presence?
