To have a successful business in the contemporary economy, you need to have not only an online presence, but you must participate and interact with people over social media. In most cases, people research your company before purchasing goods or services. Make sure that you have an impressive online presence to encourage potential customers to check out your website. Both your website and your social media accounts need to be in the best shape possible. Discover basics about the ultimate online marketing plan for your business.
You must put together your website well, from a marketing perspective, so it helps your customers. Take some time to plan out the content on your website. Then spend some effort to create it.
Focus on Content
Your content adds value and something interesting to visitors who view your site. Create informative content that showcases what your company means to you. Think about what you want to communicate to your visitors. Once you’ve gotten them to your website, you need to keep clients there, and that’s where interesting and quality content comes into play.
Create Navigable Website Pages
Make sure that you have Home, About, Services and Contact Me pages to round out your website. The story behind your company is a great way to help visitors connect with you and your business. Your website helps show the person behind the company. Include testimonials from clients and customers to help build your credibility within your market niche.
Proofread the Content
Since you took the time to create all your wonderful content, you don’t want to irritate your visitors with errors in grammar or spelling. Proofread all of your written content to make sure it sends a clear message. It’s also helpful to have a second set of eyes look over your writing. Another person may locate errors that you glossed over. Another person could also have helpful suggestions for you.
Grab Visitors with Images
The aesthetics of your website are very important. Use high quality, professional photos, images, graphics and videos to upgrade and complement the content on your site. These aspects raise your website to a new level and show the professionalism of your company. By using unique photos, it sets you apart from the other websites that may offer similar products or services. If you sell products, make sure to include photos of them. Your products should be displayed in great light and positioned well. You want to showcase them the best way that you can. Consider adding a short video of your products or services in action.
What About the Fonts?
Along with images, people also notice the font immediately. People may not take note of your font consciously, but it has an impact on them nonetheless. Your font choice is a part of your first impression, and your fonts need to be easy to read so people spend more time on your website. Your font must complement the other elements on your pages, including your photos. It needs to be large enough to stand out, at least 14 pixels and show up in a color that is easy on the eyes.
Whitespace Matters
Whitespace is also an important element to your font. There needs to be enough space between the lines and the paragraphs of your text. If you don’t have enough whitespace, your visitors may have a hard time reading through your page even if the font is easy to read at first.
Make It Mobile-Friendly
This point is imperative as most people look at your website on their smartphone or mobile device. At this point, most people use their phones to surf the internet more often than laptops or desktop computers. Your website needs to accommodate this view. If your website doesn’t view well on a mobile device, you miss out on many conversions. People are busy. They won’t take the time to research your website at another time on a different machine. Your customers will want access at any time and from anywhere.
Update Your Blog Regularly
Many websites maintain a blog. If you have one, it’s important that you make contributions to your blog on a regular basis. Regular contributions keep people coming back and increase your chances at making additional sales. Your blog is about connecting with your potential customers and clients by offering something of value. Make your blog posts interesting. It’s also helpful to plan out posts ahead of time so you don’t fall behind.
A Call to Action Turns Visitors Into Leads
First, you need to decide what you want your call to action button to accomplish. It could be a way to obtain email addresses. It could also be a download or Add to Cart button. It all depends on the nature of your business. This button can be very effective as long as you design it well and differentiate it from the rest of the page.
Use an Easy-to-Find Button
Your call to action button needs to be in a place on the page where visitors notice it. Make it “above the fold.” This term originally applied to newspapers, but still has application here. This means that a story should be on the front page and above where the newspaper is folded. On a website, this means that your call to action button should be where someone sees it on the webpage without having to scroll down. The button should stand out from the rest of the page. You want to use color and white space to your advantage to really make the button pop. You could use the button to offer a free product or service to get more people to click on it.
Get to Know SEO
All the stuff you add to your website is great, but it means nothing if you can’t get people to visit your website in the first place. Make sure that your website ranks high on Google’s search results pages. People aren’t going to wade through page after page of search results. It’s important to target the right demographic within your market niche. Use an SEO plugin through WordPress to help you analyze this aspect of your website. Work with a marketing professional to develop an effective SEO strategy that helps to boost your website ranking over time.
Maintain regular activity on your social media accounts. Your business should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn at a minimum. Find a way to creatively add a YouTube channel for an extra way to add value to your web presence.
Customize Your Social Media Approach
Don’t take the easy way out and use the same post for all social media outlets. Each social media website is designed differently and it’s imperative that you take that into consideration when posting. With Twitter, you can only use 140 characters, so you need to be more selective about your message. With Facebook, you can expand this out and include more information in a single post. Make sure to post updates to all social media sites when you update your blog to drive traffic back to your website.
Add Pics and Interesting Facts
Make your posts on social media count. They need to add value to the experience of potential customers and clients. Use your posts to give customers a reason to visit your website and then your business. For example, if you own a restaurant, it’s a great idea to post pictures of current specials. Make sure the picture is beautiful and really shows off the food. Your product needs to look delicious. You can do a similar thing with other products as well. This inspires those who see it to check out your products further. By posting interesting facts about the company or about the owner, it helps entertain your followers. Showing what other interests the owner has let others identify with him or her and show a lighter side of your company.
Reply to Questions and Comments
In addition to posting on social media, you need to respond whenever someone interacts with your business through social media. This demonstrates your commitment to customer service and shows that you care about your customers. Respond when someone tweets about the company, posts on the page, sends you a direct message or asks a question. Whether it’s a compliment or a complaint, it’s important to respond. Positive word of mouth is essential to growing your business.
Post Embedded Videos Or Videos to YouTube
Posting videos can help you spark even more interest from consumers. Post videos to show what it’s like to work at your company and what the atmosphere is like. Post videos about key employees of the company. This encourages others to work with you, and it also sparks the interest of potential customers and clients.
As you can see, your website, as well as your social media presence, has a great influence on the success of your company as a whole. Make sure to put your best foot forward in both of these areas to engage with more people and make more sales.
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