SEO Optimization
We harp on this all the time, but optimizing your business’s profile in search engines, and particularly on Google, is the best way to drive more traffic to your website. Your position in Search Engine Page Rankings (SERPs) has a major impact on how many people are finding and visiting you online. In bygone days of the internet, SEO optimization often consisted in repeating keywords as often as they could be jammed into a page, but (fortunately) search engines in general, and Google in particular, have become much cleverer at analyzing content. There’s more on that in the next article, but one of the things that you can do is to provide new copy on a regular basis, to integrate your copy on your site and link to anything relevant elsewhere on the internet, and to vary the kinds of content, such as with illustrations, graphs, video, audio, and the like. SunAnt can help you get the most out of your online presence.
Optimization for Mobile Devices
If you have not done this, you are missing out. More and more people are conducting searches for goods and services on mobile devices, and everything here is about convenience. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile access, then people are taking their business to sites which are easy to access and use, and which are attractively laid out. In the past, making a site accessible was a complicated matter. No more. Whether you are due to upgrade your site from the ground up or not, SunAnt can help you tap into this rapidly expanding customer segment.
Social Media
A social media presence may be valuable for your business. Customer queries on your site are liable to be more detailed than what you would see on Twitter, for example, but people like to have a variety of ways to get in touch, and there is something immediate about Twitter that appeals. You do have to stay on it, and many communications will play out publicly. A presence on Facebook is perhaps a little bit less knee-jerk, and it allows you to post essential information, promotions and other things that might be of use to customers or potential customers, but again, many interactions are public, and you must have a commitment to managing the page.
As we have all seen, social media sometimes doesn’t exactly bring out the best in its users. It can work for you, if you are a good off-the-cuff written communicator, or if you have one or more employees who are gifted this way, and who have your implicit trust. Otherwise, you might be better off sticking to email and on-site messaging, where there is less chance of instantaneous misunderstanding.
Online Influencers
Like a social media presence, online influencers can be a two-edged sword. They are kind of niche market celebrities from the virtual world. They can be helpful, or harmful. If your target audience is younger/hipper, and you can find someone who is willing to represent not just their personal brand, but yours, you may have something. If your target audience is a bit staider, it may actually be counterproductive.
That said, there may be bloggers, local, national, or international, who attract your target audience, and they are often quite willing to give you a bit of space on their pages, and there are pay-per-click and other options as well. SunAnt can help you consider the best fits.
Blogging
As we mentioned in SEO, above, new content is essential to rankings, and blogging on your business site is a way of providing that content–as I am doing right now. Sometimes this takes the form of information about new products and services, sometimes about trends in your field of business, sometimes how-to content about how customers can get the most out of what it is you sell, and sometimes responses to customer queries that might be useful to other customers. It could be special promotions or upcoming events.
Whatever it is, it shows your customers that you are engaged with your business and with them. And it helps boost your page rankings, as noted above. Some business owners will be happy to generate this content themselves, or to do it in house. In other cases, businesses may wish to turn over the task of content creation to an outside agency. In any case, SunAnt is there to help set things up, to consult, and to do as little or as much content creation as you wish.
Email Marketing
Especially for the matured demographics, email marketing can be a powerful tool. You can keep customers abreast of new developments, products, offers, events, promotions, in a relatively non-intrusive way. Nobody likes to be spammed, but if you send out periodic notifications via email, your customer can decide whether to open it or nuke it on the spot, which makes it non-invasive.
Like blog pages, emails can be attractive or unattractive, static, or interactive. For those who choose to opt in, they can remind them why they were initially enthusiastic enough about your product or service to choose to receive them. Just be careful not to get too demanding about customers’ time and attention–they will disengage if they ever feel you are being pushy or manipulative. Tactfulness is essential.
An Integrated Approach
Combining the approaches that make sense for you will help you get the most from your online presence. SunAnt can help you figure out what’s best for you and support you in the ways that will make the most impact on your bottom line. Give them a call.
