These days, your business presence can't be solely bricks and mortar - you need a digital presence to support your offering and provide a further boost to your performance. The online world provides endless opportunities for your business to expand, reach new customers and find innovative marketing avenues.
To help you on this journey, we've assembled five different strategies that small businesses can pursue to become a truly effective digital organisation.
1) Build a website
If you haven't already built a website, it's probably time you constructed one. Your company's website works as the hub of your entire presence online and is the cornerstone of any digital strategy.
How your website operates will depend on the industry you are working in and the functionality it needs. At its most basic, a site should contain information on your company, the products or services you offer, a blog or news page to regularly update your site and contact information for your company.
There's a lot of further functionality you can get into your site if you want to. An e-commerce platform can be tricky to set up but it also gives you the opportunity to very easily sell products directly to your customers.
Free tools to help you get started: Wix.com and Weebly.com allows you to build your own website or online store for free.
2) Develop an online marketing campaign
As well as helping people to contact you and your business, the internet offers an unmatched ability to reach out and talk to them. Mastering this two-way street requires you to build a marketing plan to really get the most from this opportunity.
Ultimately, the end goal depends on what you want to get out of your online presence. If you're looking to build a loyal client base, try an email newsletter. If you're looking to attract new customers, consider starting a blog or writing an ebook that people can download before they get in contact.
Each of these small marketing efforts can add up, helping your business to reach its broader objectives.
3) Start posting on social media
Again, there's a good chance that your business is already active on social media, but it's important that this presence is optimised and is helping your company to grow.
Start by thinking about the platforms that are right for your company. B2B companies will often turn to professional sites like LinkedIn first, but there is still value in posting on other social media channels.
Beyond building awareness and engagement, social media is a great way to direct people back to your own website, so think about how you can use these platforms creatively to expand your reach.
Free tools : You can create business page for free on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Creating and sharing posts on these platforms helps to increase awareness and generate leads for your business.
Hootsuite, the social media management platform, is offering free access to its professional plan until July 1st.
4) Look at your personal social media presence
Small-business owners have a big role to play in the success of their organisation, and this is especially true when it comes to an online social presence. On platforms like LinkedIn, your own position as the owner is going to be just as important as establishing your company as a leader in your industry.
Think about posting articles and information on your own profiles that reflects your expertise and those of your business as a whole. You don't have to be salesy, just remember that people will be looking at you just as much as they will be examining your company's own profile.
5) Think about safety
Cybersecurity is among the biggest threats now to business performance, ranking at the top of a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report into Australian business risks. In fact, safety online has jumped 13 places compared to two years ago.
For a small business, it's important to look at the activities you are performing online and if there are any security issues. Protecting a company's wireless network is an important starting point, while poor data security online is also a major risk. This is especially true if you are collecting customer payment data through your website.
Building your business's online presence is just like any other new venture - it calls for you to balance the risks with the opportunities. For those companies that can get this balance right, the potential is near limitless.
If your business needs any help with working capital management via a business line of credit, debtor financing or equipment financing, contact Earlypay’s helpful team today on 1300 760 205 or visit our sign-up form.
If you'd like to learn how Earlypay's Invoice Finance & Equipment Finance can help you boost your working capital to fund growth or keep on top of day-to-day operations of your business, contact Earlypay's helpful team today on 1300 760 205, visit our sign-up form or contact [email protected].