Every business should have a website, a digital space that showcases products and emphasises a brand’s history, colours, tone, and overall persona. It creates an easy way for people to find your business through a quick online search, offering more reach and awareness as opposed to hoping potential customer walk past your brick-and-mortar store or see your printed advert in that magazine where nobody can track true return on investment. However, having a snazzy website, even when it has been optimised by an SEO specialist, is simply not enough.
“We’ve noted that clients with websites as their only online presence do spend less time bogged down with content creation and have lower digital marketing expenses, but their website traffic ranges from low to non-existent,” says Chenara Coetzee, Co-Founder at Real Receptionist, “If you want to see more sales, especially when running an online business has become so vital during lockdowns, you’re going to need to diversify your digital marketing.”
Why is a website not enough?
- A website does not self-advertise!
While great content and quality SEO (search engine optimization) can help your website with organic (unpaid) visitors, the chances are slim with all the competitors out there. Your website is simply an address where your business lives on the internet, and hoping people stumble upon it will yield dismal results.
- You are missing out on valuable customer data!
Setting up advertising either via social media platforms or Google Ads, and linking them to your Google Analytics, will provide you with a ton of information that will allow you to see demographics and interests of your ideal target audience/s. Knowing who your customers are and what they like will allow you to make better business decisions to improve sales.
- Customers want proof of a quality brand and product!
Everyone promotes their products on their website in the absolute best light, which is great, but potential customers are smart, and they will certainly do some research before buying. If they cannot find mentions of your business nor your products anywhere other than your website, then their suspicions will grow. They will decide to choose another more renown option that at least has online reviews or a social media page where they can read post comments to get an idea of quality.
Growing your online presence…
To truly take advantage of the brand awareness that the internet offers, you will need to add a few extra assets to boost your web presence. Consider adding:
A Blog
Great content is what gives a website power to attract viewers. If a website boasts little text, it has less opportunity to show on Google search result pages. However, you cannot simply write and publish blog articles to pump your website full of relevant keywords and phrases. Each bit of content that you add to your website’s blog reel needs to be ‘useful’. You need to create content that helps the reader solve a problem and find a way to tie it in to your brand and what you have to offer.
A Newsletter
Relying on random visits to your website each month is a stressful gamble. You can enjoy more access to and influence your loyal clients by creating a newsletter. There are many easy-to-use newsletter creators like MailChimp and Sendinblue. Add a subscribe button to your website and social media pages, and start marketing special offers and new launches directly to the email addresses of people that have a high tendency to purchase. You can get some useful newsletter pointers from Real Receptionist’s blog.
Social Media Accounts
Having a Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok, Snapchat, or LinkedIn account for your small business will be a huge help. Social media platforms have algorithms that cater to users’ desires, which means that your posts can get more organic (free) traffic, definitely more so than your standalone website. Social media also offers paid advertising setup, allowing you to be specific with your audience targeting using the various dynamic settings provided (such as targeting specific locations, dates, timeslots, genders, age ranges, job titles, behaviours, and various interests). Another benefit of having a social media platform or five for your brand is that you open additional ways for people to get in touch with your brand – people LOVE having easy access to support.
Webinars / Live Streams
If you really want to go the extra mile, video content performs wonders. You can set up a YouTube or Twitch channel, or even stick to mobile-only platforms like Instagram and Tik-Tok and start sharing recordings of behind-the-scenes footage at the office, how products are made, reviews from experts, free tutorials, and whatever other cool things you can show off about your brand or products. Live streams are also a great way to boost reach and build hype for current or upcoming events and new product launches, and you can determine success in advance based on viewer comments.
A Customer Care Line
While you can set up chatbots and auto-responses on your website and social media messengers, or have someone check emails every hour or so, to ensure all customer queries are dealt with – it’s not enough!
“Gone are the days where brands can get away with minimal customer contact and communication vehicles,” says Coetzee, “You need a contact number or call-centre that can assist with voice-to-voice interactions. Text chatting and emailed instructions will only get you so far before your client gets annoyed and moves to a competitor that offers better customer care.”
If you do not have the staff, finances, nor resources to tend to numerous incoming calls each day, consider signing up for a virtual call operator from Real Receptionist. Virtual receptionists are real people that answer your business calls off-site but will sound like they’re sitting right in your office. They can transfer calls, take messages, and even assist with orders and frequently asked questions – allowing you and your team to focus on making sales and growing the brand.
Still wondering if your website is enough for quality online presence and taking advantage of the world wide web? Get more eyes on your brand and products with a well-planned, diverse, content-savvy digital marketing strategy.
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