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Features your website needs

These are features you should make sure you have on your website:

• Your contact information should be easily accessible. Potential customers should know how to get in touch with you if they want your products or services. 
• Try to have a blog on your website that you update with articles about your business area. This is great for SEO, producing shareable content that gets your name out there, and a way to demonstrate your knowledge to potential customers.
• Having testimonials and case studies on your website will make it easier to increase your credibility and demonstrate customer satisfaction. Case studies will also make it easier for customers to understand how you may be useful for them.
• SEO content throughout the website will bring more customers to you. Make sure you integrate SEO strategising for titles, descriptions and any other content. 
• The live chat function makes asking questions much easier for potential customers. Live chat functions are easy to install and people regularly use them when making online purchases.
• An effective search function on the website can save the customer’s time. Research has found that use of the search function correlates with a website visitor’s conversion rate.

How you can use a webinar for business

Webinars are online conferences that have become much easier to host with technological advances. They are also cheaper and, if used correctly, can be beneficial for your business. 

Build brand authority and trust

Giving potential and current customers the opportunity to speak directly to you allows for transparency which can improve trust. During the seminar you can demonstrate your products and discuss your services and explain why they are better than competitors. Your customer interactions during these seminars will allow customers to ask questions to which you can provide insightful information and show your commitment to the business. 

Improve search engine rankings

Hosting webinars boosts your search engine rankings. Improving your rankings on a search engine can benefit your business as the higher you are ranked the more trusted you are perceived. Not to mention, you are seen by more people and this increases the likelihood of gaining customers.

Generate more leads

Webinars can help you get into direct contact with potential customers. Asking those who join your webinar to leave behind their email addresses if they want to work with you is a chance to form a community. 

Launch new products

Thanks to the development in technology, webinars can be highly interactive. You can host Q&A sessions and conduct demonstrations of new products to familiarise people with them before they launch. 

Improving your LinkedIn presence as a business

Although other social media platforms can be more casual, having a strong LinkedIn presence can be helpful to form partnerships and onboard skilled team members. The steps to building an engaging and professional LinkedIn page for your business is straightforward but will require you to put time aside for it.

• Profile image and banner: Your logo should always be the profile image. You can play around with the image of your banner depending on your brand identity – it can be sleek and stylish or actionable and engaging. Make sure that both of these fit the sizing requirements listed in LinkedIn
• About us: The About us section should not be too long or difficult to read. Keep it engaging, snappy and accessible. It should tell the reader who you are as a brand, where you are based, what you offer, what your values are, what your brand voice is, how people should contact you. Don’t forget to maintain professionalism as LinkedIn is a professional space.
• Fill out the key fields: Connect links to your social media/website, add your address, details of your industry, company size. Filling out all of these will help LinkedIn show your page in response to relevant searches and make you more discoverable.
• Create showcase pages: Your main page will give people an overview of the business, but if you have multiple services, then creating showcase pages will help zoom in on day-to-day activities of each service. This will help people engage with the aspect of your business that is most relevant to them.

How do people use the internet?

Each person uses the internet in a different way. Whether they regularly access the internet for their job or only go on it to watch movies and shows, users have found a way to utilise the internet for their convenience.

One particular convenience that has come from the internet is being able to research a product or services and purchase them online. A snapshot of July 2020 of internet users between the age of 16-64 showed that:

• 81% of users searched online for a product or service that they wanted to purchase
• 90% visited an online store
• 74% purchased a product online

This data shows that the internet has become an important part of purchasing products and services. This also extends to users reading information about what the product/service is, what’s involved and reviews other people have provided.

Taking this into consideration, businesses should be putting in the time and effort to make their internet platforms (website or otherwise) user friendly. Customers should be able to access the information they require easily, otherwise, they will be driven towards a product/service whose information is more readily available.

Set up a website for your business if one does not already exist, and regularly update it with relevant information so that your customers have all the information they need. The more customers have to look for information, the more likely they are to opt for another product/service.

Why you need Search Engine Optimisation

The term SEO gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? Search Engine Optimisation is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of your traffic through organic search engine results. Quality pertains to the types of people that visit your website and how relevant they are to your service and product. Quantity pertains to the amount of traffic your website receives.

But what does that mean for your business?

Save money on ads:

A significant advantage of SEOs is that you don’t have to pay for your website to come first on a search engine. If a website is well-crafted, then it will appear in the highest spots when a relevant search is made on google – without paying a price for it. Being one of the earlier results on a search engine also increases the perceived reliability of your business.

Find your target audience

SEO can help you target the audience that is most relevant to your services. If your page responds to the needs a customer expresses on a search engine, the likelihood that they will visit your website and use your services is a lot higher if your website is shown early. For this, having SEO is extremely important.

Stay ahead of competitors

Using SEO helps you improve your rankings on a search engine, and also helps you move above your competitors. Data shows that the first result on a page gets 20.5% of clicks, and by the fourth one, this drops to less than 9%! Moving up in search results make a big difference, and it also pushes your competitors lower.

Easy to measure

When you make changes to your SEO, you will be able to see how it impacts your website visits straight away! You can use tools such as Google Analytics which help monitor your traffic,

Roadmap to a digital transformation

Digital transformation of a business allows you to reach a wider audience and makes interaction with your business a lot more appealing as it is convenient for customers. This will help your business grow and flourish in today’s atmosphere.

To start off your transformation, you need to know the rules. You should protect your business from cyber threats, and cover any legal essentials that are expected from businesses. Finally, even a digital transformation has real-world work health and safety concerns, so make sure you take these into consideration.

Next, you need to identify the right tools. Moving your business online requires the right software and tools that are most compatible with your business. This might take some research, but the more you plan ahead, the easier the processes from here onwards will be.

Your team members might be skilled in their own professions, but they might require some help to readily use the digital framework. Ensure that you are helping your employees with this change and keeping communication channels open to ease this process.

Your marketing plan will need to be updated according to this change. You will need to integrate your website, social media and other updates into the strategies you choose. This will also be a good opportunity to establish a brand and company identity. You may want to look into marketing tools which specialise in online marketing.

Place your products and services online in a way that is convenient, simple and easy to interact with. The simpler this process is, the more customers will be willing to come back.

Finally, keep updated with technology. It is easy to put these things together and forget about them. But to make the best of your digital transformation, you need to keep updated with technological developments, trends and keep your employees trained to utilise the facilities appropriately.

Difference between website and social media for businesses

Businesses may be questioning whether they need to create a website if they have a social media presence. However, each plays a distinct role in the formation of a brand identity and therefore, both are important.

Social Media

Social media is straightforward and simple to set up, with no maintenance costs. It allows businesses to build brand awareness and interact with their customers in a more casual and relaxed way. Social media is essentially an in-depth marketing strategy which allows for paid advertising and has the capacity to reach many prospective customers from across the globe.

On the other hand, businesses could spend many hours working on content that does not end up reaching the expected audience. A lot of time is required to continually create and post content which receives engagement and loyalty from customers. Although there are no costs with having an account, if you want your content to be targeted to your audience, this requires payments which can be expensive.

Although social media gives access to customers you might not have otherwise had access to, it is difficult to convert these interactions into sales or use of your business services.

Website

Your website means you have full control of the platform. You can create a platform that reflects your business and your values. This also means that there are no external terms and conditions you are required to follow, instead, you determine those conditions. A website is also perfect for referrals, as it demonstrates professionalism and builds confidence in your business.

Owning your own website means that you are able to track all incoming traffic and monitor the characteristics of your audience. This will provide you with a clear indication of what facilities you need to have on your website.

However, maintaining a website that is heavy in content can be time and money consuming. There are also a lot more details to be weary about when it comes to marketing – but considering the amount of customisation you can have on a website, this is no surprise. Finally the design and set up of a website can be quite complex, and isn’t necessarily something you can or should tackle on your own.

In summary, you should have both a social media presence and a website. Social media is an excellent marketing tool but a website is the heart of your brand’s online presence.

Running a successful email marketing campaign

Email campaigns are important because research shows a large percentage of both adults and teenagers regularly use email. Running a successful email campaign can significantly contribute to customer interactions and generate sales in the long term.

How to run a successful campaign?

• Know your goals: Email campaigns can serve various purposes including nurturing existing customers or welcoming new ones. The email itself should have content that is relevant to the purpose it is serving and encourages the recipient to take the intended actions.

• Build a targeted email list: Your email list should contain customers who are interested in your products. A simple way to do this is to ask visiting customers, both online and in person, if they would like to receive emails about new products and sales.
• Understand the types of emails: Promotional, relational and transactional emails each play a different role. Knowing what the purpose of these emails is will help build the email campaign to serve that purpose.
• Know your audience: Use your data to understand who your customers are and what they are likely to be interested in. This will help curate email campaigns that will engage the customer.
• Create engaging emails: The campaigns should be structured and designed in a way that they keep the customer connected. For example, if the campaign is promotional, the header should be eye-catching, followed by some of the best products, and finally, directed to the website where they can find other products in the promotion.
• Plan emails and follow-ups: The content, purpose and goal of your email will determine the frequency of that campaign and whether follow-ups are required. Often, this requires finding a balance between reminding the customer of promotions or actions they need to complete, and not overwhelming them with emails.

Protecting your business from cybercrime

Having a digital presence nowadays is crucial to getting the most out of marketing your business. However, being online puts you at risk of being a target for cybercrime, which means that you and your customers are at risk of being scammed, hacked, harassed or stalked. Business owners have legal responsibilities to ensure that their business and customer information is safe. For this reason, it is vital that you take precautions when putting anything online.

While social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have policies in place to prevent people being victim to cybercrime, it is still possible for hackers to dodge these measures and attack your business. It is therefore important that you implement your own safety measures to reduce the risk of being targeted.

Many cybercriminals target business’ social media accounts to get access to a large following of people they can trick or manipulate. It is crucial that your business account has a strong password consisting of at least 8 characters, with a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Ensure that only authorised users have access to the business’ social media accounts.

Create a social media use policy for your staff to ensure that they are aware of the consequences and risks of sharing account information and being careless with social media handling to reduce the risk of misuse and security breaches. It is also useful to provide a cybersecurity incident response management plan to help your business prepare for security breaches and know how to respond to them quickly and effectively to prevent them from escalating.

When planning a social media campaign, think about ways you can prevent your campaign from being hijacked by hackers to keep you and your followers safe. For example, if your campaign is a competition that involves participation from your followers such as them uploading a photo, think about ways to keep them safe from hackers. Perhaps you can provide guidelines for entering the social media competition, such as discouraging them from geotagging their location and ensuring they don’t have their house or any other personal details evident in the picture.

What does a social media strategy involve?

The right social media strategy can boost customer interaction and improve customer relationships. A social media strategy will help plan out the type of content that needs to be made, when it needs to be posted, and which platforms are best suitable for your business.

1. What are your social media goals: What do you wish to achieve from your social media presence? Goals should be specific and measurable i.e. if your goal is to grow brand awareness, you can measure this by the amount of followers gained per week.
2. Who is your target audience: Identify the age group that you are marketing your brand towards. This will be helpful to select the social media channel you focus on and you can create content which that group will interact with the most i.e. if your target audience is young adults, you might choose Instagram as your main channel, and create content that references different trends in social media.
3. Which metric is most important to you: The number of likes for a post might not be relevant to your business, because this does not reflect the number of people who are utilising your business. Your metric might be the number of people that visit your website through social media, so you customise your social media promotions to show your website first.
4. What is your social media timeline: Establishing a firm timeline for social media posts beforehand is extremely important. It allows you to create awareness and excitement about a new product or service before release. Ensure that your content is ready to go in advance so that you can stick to timelines.

All of these factors will determine your brand’s online presence, the visual content and how you interact with customers online. Make sure you think about these factors beforehand.