Having an online profile for your company is vital in today’s world as more and more people see the internet as their marketplace. The fact that you do not have an internet business is irrelevant and there is much to gain form giving your business the online exposure which it needs in order to grow. My buddy Daniel Ludolph, an internet guru, and I were speaking just last week about the worryingly low number of businesses on the high street who are yet to take their business into the online market place, and just how much of an opportunity they are losing with this decision. It is not difficult to create an online presence for yourself and if you want to do so with your business then here is how.
Website
The first step is to get a website for your business, even if you do not plan on necessarily selling anything online, it is important that you have a great looking website as this will be your shop window in the internet. A website does not have to be anything which is going to change the online world, it just needs to be informative and good looking so that when potential clients want to know who you are and what you do, they can find out about your from your website.
Social Media
One of the keys to unlocking the online marketplace is social media and at the very least your business should be operating on Facebook and Linkedin. You do not have to spend all day searching through social media and sharing anything which happens to be relevant to your business but at the very least you should be taking time to grow your followers and to share high quality content which will make people interested in who you are and what your company is all about.
Review Sites
Review sites such as Google and Yelp are the new form of word-of-mouth and if you are confident about the quality and service that your company provides then you should sign up to these sites and open your business up for feedback. Not only is this a great way of bring more people through your doors, it is also an excellent way to understand what customers think about your business. Through these sites you will have the opportunist to respond to any complaints which means that you can minimize the effect of any negative feedback that your business receives. Many people use review sites to decide as to whether or not they should take their business to a particular company and if you have excellent reviews, you could see a spike in customers coming to you for business.
With just these three simple tips you can quickly begin to develop your online presence and help to not only create your brand online but also expose your business to many new customers who would never have known about you were it not for the internet.