Reasons why Start Ups require Online presence

Why Your Business Requires an Online Presence

Having an online presence is very crucial in helping your small, startup or medium business take off. According to google, 97 percent of customers use the internet to search for local businesses, and their products and services. This means that a majority of your targeted audience is most likely online, and so should you.

Reasons Why an Online Presence Is a Key Module in Your Business Strategy

1) Reduced Marketing Costs

A majority of you may not have sufficient resources to incur an extensive marketing team, however, with a majority of the online platforms free or affordable it is easy to market your brand. There are millions of users logged in online daily looking for products and services that you may be offering. Therefore, an online presence grants you a huge audience for little to no costs. Marketing is one of the most important factors for you to be able to grow your business. People need to be aware about its presence, and an online platform is one of the best ways to acquire that recognition.

2) Brand Development

Brand development is endorsing awareness, creating and promoting your company using publicity campaigns, and advertising strategies. Having and nurturing a brand for your company establishes a rapport of trust between you and your consumer. This is because they are able to learn more about your business and also get to review the products and services that you offer. You can use online platforms such as social media, blog posts, consumer relations, or online analyses to develop your brand.

3) Enhanced Accessibility

A majority of startup, medium, or small scale businesses operate on a 9-5 basis. This means that at particular hours of the day, you will not be able to provide your consumers with your products or services because you will be closed. The internet does not sleep, and this is an added advantage on your part because it means that in the hours when you are closed for business, your online presence is still active. This gives consumers a chance to reach you at any time through platforms such as your website or social media accounts. Also, clients that are not in the same geographic location as you can conduct business with you at an hour of their convenience.

4) Even playing field with larger Corporations

Before there was an online evolution, larger firms would eat up smaller or startup firms because they had an unlimited amount of resources that helped them develop their brands, and market their products and services much more efficiently than smaller firms. Now, with the online evolution, there is an even playing field for both parties. Many of the online platforms are free and they guide you on ways to ensure your online presence is felt. This ensures that you are able to provide services to your consumers even with little resources.

5) Delivery of value Customer Service

By having an online presence, you are able to engage your consumers one on one. Your company website or social media will enable you to engage your consumer by addressing their inquiries, feedback, and frequently asked questions about your products or service. Most consumers who have received great products and/or services will always refer more of their friends, families or colleagues to your website or social media platforms.

Now that we have established the importance of having an online presence, let’s further discuss some of the steps through which your business can get online. Most start up, medium, or small companies lack adequate resources to employ full development teams that will help them set up their online presence.

Guides That Help You Establish an Economical Online Presence

1) Build your website

There are a variety of tools online that assist you get free website. These tools include Weebly, Wix or WordPress. These sites provide you with standard templates that are easy to customize, and they go a step further to provide you with inexpensive premium plans that will enable your customization beyond the ordinary templates. When selecting your domain name, you should select one that brands you and it is very ideal to make your brand name your domain name.

It is important to remember that your company website is your most powerful sales and marketing tool, and you should, therefore ensure it is properly built in. Ensure that your website is well hosted. When running on a budget, consider shared hosting which offers you all important features at a low cost. You can do this by:

• Branding your homepage

The homepage is the first place that your consumers will visit. You should, therefore, ensure that the content provided in the homepage embodies your brand fully.

• Pages

Apart from your homepage, your pages display your proficiency, knowledge and provide applicable and in depth information about the concentration of your business.

• Blogposts

Blog posts are very essential for your startup, small or medium scale business because they offer up to date information about your business. They can also be used to answer relevant questions that guests ask.

• Graphical Media

This is a very important part of your online presence. Human beings have very short attention spans and they may involuntarily find themselves ignoring too much text, and instead go through headings, pictures, videos, slideshows or infographics. Therefore, ensure that you employ these visual media techniques.

2) Social Media

There are very many social media sites that you can choose to create an online presence in. With over 2 billion users worldwide, social media has become a must use for many businesses. It is virtually the easiest and cheapest way to connect to your consumers and target your audiences. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can be used by all types of business. They easily provide access to millions of people, and are designed to make communication very easy between consumers and businesses.

In order to yield the best results from your online presence, you should create content that targets your specific audience. This simply means that you should write for your specific audience, and instead of trying to sell to them, educate them and offer resolutions to possible problems.