Nowadays it goes without saying that in order to have a successful offline business, you need to have a strong quality online presence. Mind you we are putting an emphasis on quality for a reason. Having an online presence is more than just having a one-page website featuring your contact details. One needs to create an online persona through which your target audience can get to know you and which ultimately might mean a conversion of sale for you. This can be achieved not only through a well-built informative website, but also through the opening of social media accounts which are constantly updated with key information.
Some key points to remember about your business thanks to the internet;
Your business is always open
Despite the fact that your opening hours might be from 8am till 5pm, thanks to the internet your business is open 24 hours. Awesome right? The only problem is that if your online presence does not reflect your offline one, it might be working against you. One has to be sure that both your website and your social media accounts are reflecting you’re through services. Otherwise potential customers might not be enticed to get in touch with you.
Building trust around your name
The online world is giving us opportunity to build a quality brand without spending a lot of money in marketing. Why should we pass on this golden opportunity in this day and age? Just to motivate you a bit keep in mind that in 2014 alone an average of 5,740,000,000 searches were done on Google alone.
You can reach new markets
One has to keep in mind that the internet is literally a worldwide showcase. Once you are out there, you are marketing your product to a whole new target audience, which otherwise you might have not had an opportunity to engage with before. Why should you limit yourself to just your street, or your own town?
Platform to talk directly to your customers
Whereas before the only source of communication with our customers was face-to-face, the internet has made it easier for us to engage with our audience. Through both our website and our social media accounts we can directly talk to both our current and potential customers about what we are doing.
However one must point out that this is a two-way road and customers can also leave their opinion about us. Does this mean that their comments are always going to be positive? Far from it! In such circumstances we need to be sure that we active in a timely manner, and we communicate with our customers in an open and polite manner. Best situation to try and make lemonade out of lemons.
Always keep in mind that the internet is not a passing fad, and the quicker we embrace it in our daily operations, the easier would be in the long term for us to engage with the online world.
Would you like more information on how you can reach your customers? Contact us! Our team would be more than willing to help to share our expertise in website design and website development.
Sources
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The Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs an Online Presence by Jane Williams, Demand Media. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/reasons-small-business-needs-online-presence-27742.html Accessed on 01-03-2015
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Google Annual Search Statistics. http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/ Accessed on 01-03-2015