In this article, we will discuss the concept of professional digital presence, and the benefits of utilising it for your business. Throughout this article, we will highlight the importance of professional web presence – not just any type of internet visibility.
What is online/digital presence?
Online presence is the process of promoting your mission, ethics and overall brand through the Internet. In the concept of what we are talking about today, this in reference to local or small business marketing. However, online presence is also applicable to individual contractors, freelancers. Essentially, digital presence is defined as any individual which promotes their identity and/or service through the world wide web.
What does digital presence encompass?
The term online presence can mean different things to different people. So what really is digital presence and how is it achieved? Although this is not an exhaustive list below, it does give you examples of how digital presence is executed:
1. Social Media Marketing
Your customers are more than likely using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or for the younger generations, TikTok. It only takes a few minutes or less to create a public-facing profile page on these platforms, it is free and with the right strategy, you can be able to target lots of people relatively quickly.
2. Video Marketing
Have you noticed your competitors posting videos on YouTube or sharing videos of their services through the above social media channels? You may notice they are using video titles like “Top Window Cleaner in Dallas TX” or using words to emphasise the area in which they are doing business in. Video creation and marketing can easily and visually show your prospective customers what you’re all about and what you stand for, gaining trust.
3. Content Marketing
The very article you’re reading right now is we’ll admit, a form of content marketing! In effect, what you’re doing is creating/writing articles that people in your sector of business may find useful or informative. But in order to do this, what you’ll need is a website. You can write compelling posts on social media and this may work temporarily, but with a website, you have much more control and more customisation in terms of what content you’re able to write.
Which are the benefits of a professional online presence?
A professional online presence, especially with a well-designed website, has a wide array of benefits and pros associated with it. Here are just 3 of the benefits to consider:
1. Attract new customers to your business
By far the most obvious benefit, if you have the right strategy in place and do the right things consistently, you will attract new customers for your business. You can do this in several ways. If you’re a builder, you can have a contact form offering people a free quote for their building project. You can write articles or hire someone else to write articles in your industry, where people can discover these articles through searching on Google.
2. More Control Over Your Brand
Web design and branding go hand-in-hand. One of the easiest ways to build your brand online is to simply own your own website. With platforms like Facebook or Instagram, you’re limited to the amount of words you can write, the type of content you want to write, the size of the pictures you want to upload, the way the website looks.. so many things that are not in your control.
3. Low cost to start and obtain free website visitors
Lastly, we will highlight the benefit of owning your own website long-term is the ability to obtain free, targeted visitors to your website. No longer do you have to advertise for expensive magazine ad space or billboards locally. It doesn’t whether the person does or does not buy/reach out to you. What does matter was that it was free to reach that targeted person.
