There are over 21.1 million internet users in Australia, indicating that 89% of the Australian population are using the internet (source: www.internetlivestats.com). Furthermore, Australian online spending jumped 22% to $4.37 billion in the first quarter of 2015, paving the way for a record year (source: The Australian Business Review, Apr 2015). The growing use of the internet by Australians as a more convenient way to look for information or shop for products cannot be denied. Businesses need to keep abreast of changing customer behavior by ensuring that their digital presence is optimized and competitive to ensure they’re not missing out on potential sales. Most new clients we talk to are looking at ways to improve online presence. With this in mind, here are some tips to help businesses improve online presence…
Improve Online Presence:
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New, Responsive Website
Unfortunately it’s not enough to merely have a website. In today’s competitive online environment businesses need to ensure that their website is not only responsive and able to be viewed on all devices, but is competitive and answers all potential questions their customer may be searching online for. It is so easy for your potential customer to click over to your competitor’s website if yours is difficult to navigate, unresponsive (or poorly functional on mobile devices), or lacking in information. Make sure your website is hitting the mark by appealing to your demographic and selling your business and your products effectively.
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Increase your In-bound Links
Adding links to your website by joining free or paid online listings may help your customers find you on the web. Asking your suppliers or any related online businesses you deal with to include your website link on their website also builds in-bound links. This can help customers find you when they search online for products that you distribute or custom-make for any wholesaler or manufacturer. Each click is another potential customer!
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Start Blogging!
Ok, so you have a new website that’s working for you and helping you generate sales leads. That’s great, but a website needs to be updated regularly to stay fresh and demonstrate it’s not an outdated information source. This is one reason why it’s beneficial to blog or write interesting articles about your products or services. Blogs are a great means of driving traffic to your website, as search engines may pick up on key phrases used in your blog that are relevant to your customers search term, encouraging new visitors to your website. Blogging also helps to position your business as an expert in your field by showing your customer that you’re knowledgeable about your products or services. Blogs can also be an effective way to add recent work examples to your website, to showcase your talent and level of expertise to potential customers.
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Online Advertising
Invest in some online advertising to help generate traffic to your website and increase your potential leads. Online google advertising is particularly beneficial for businesses who are not organically featuring on page 1 of search results. Online advertising can be relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising and can provide a quicker return on investment, given the fact that customers searching online are usually ready to buy. This is a sure way to improve online presence by getting your website listed in the top 3 search results for specific keyword phrases.
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Get Social
Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other popular social media tools to help generate visitors to your website. Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform in Australia, with 14 million users. YouTube is close behind with 13.7 million unique Australian visitors (social media statistics sourced from socialmedianews.com.au for April 2015). There are numerous other social media or networking sites out there, and how you select the most effective ones for your business is dependent on the type of products you are selling and your customer demographic. Some social media networks also provide opportunities to reach new customers by advertising through their network of users, helping businesses gain new clicks to their website. The more social media platforms you utilise, the more you’ll improve online presence with higher possibilities of click-throughs.
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Encourage Website Visitation via an Email Newsletter
Regularly communicating with your customers via an email newsletter has many benefits including providing regular reminders about your business and products, communicating news and product information as well as encouraging visitation to your website in an effort to stimulate sales. Including links within the newsletter to your website will help build visitation so be sure to include several links to different pages throughout your website. Providing information that’s of value to your customers is paramount, as well as offering them incentives to keep receiving your newsletter. Offering a random, regular prize draw, member specials or other exclusive offers for email recipients only are ways to keep your customer database from dwindling.
We hope these tips have given you some useful insights to build or improve online presence. Of course, ensuring the right messages are communicated to your potential customers is essential to your online success. This along with ensuring your online marketing tactics remain fresh are crucial, and are areas where many businesses fall short due to limited time, manpower or expertise. Speak to Marketing Wing Consultancy about how we can help you come up with an online marketing program that targets your demographic and is manageable in the long term. As well as offering an all-inclusive Responsive CMS Website package, we also assist clients with online advertising, content marketing, email marketing or any other online media strategy mentioned in this article. View our range of marketing services.
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