Building Online Presence

3 Strategic Elements for Building Your Online Presence

Part One

Element #1 — The SEO-Optimized Website

So, somebody told you that you should have a website for your business. “Building an online presence starts with a website. Get yourself out there on the internet, so people see you, and you’ll attract more customers and sell more products and services.”

Now what?

Here are a few options you could choose from:

• Create your website on your own
• Hire a website developer to build one
• Ignore the advice

Let’s break this down and analyze possible scenarios for various business owners. 

4 Possible Approaches to the Website Debate

Business Owner #1 — Create, launch, let it be

You created your website, launched it, and left it alone. You have a minimal online presence, and you haven’t seen a significant change in your business growth.

Business Owner #2 — Hire, launch, let it be

You hired a website developer to build and launch your site. Either that person or you wrote the content for the pages. Then you left it alone. You haven’t seen a notable change in your business growth either.

Business Owner #3 — Create, launch, write articles

You either created your site by yourself or hired a developer. You wrote the content and continue to write some blog articles. You’ve achieved a moderate online presence and seen some business growth, but it’s erratic, and you don’t know how to capitalize on your website’s potential.

Business Owner #4 — Continue thinking

You’ve ignored the advice so far, but you keep thinking about it and what it could do for your business growth.

The Major Stumbling Block to Building Online Presence with a Website

Other scenarios exist, but I can pretty much guarantee one thing. If you have a website but you’re not a trained copywriter and don’t enjoy writing, your website is going to sit there, a middle-of-the-road online presence with untapped potential.

If you don’t have a website…well…must I go on?

That said, I’d like to hazard a guess regarding the lucky business owner who has a website. If you’re writing articles and posting them to your site, you’re probably getting weary of this chore. You didn’t sign up for this when you started your business. You’re not a writer; you’re an entrepreneur—and you have more urgent tasks to tend to as you run your business—and your life.

That’s where we come in with our SEO Website Design and Management services.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A Critical Component to Building Your Online Presence

Your website serves as a critical component for building a difficult-to-ignore online presence. Whether it’s your internet storefront, reception room, or office, your website reflects your vision and mission. More than a business card or signpost, your website accelerates awareness for your brand—and before you say you don’t need a brand…

Your brand holds everything together. It’s the tie that binds you to your audience and keeps your business top-of-mind with your ideal clients, whether you sell products or services, or promote a worthy cause. Your brand helps your target audience connect your business with a meaningful symbol of who you are, what you do, and your reputation in the community, marketplace, or industry.

For instance, my logo and my tag line say it all for The Wellness Connection Copywriting brand. A human made of water and plants—a nature human—greets you when you enter my online reception area. This little persona ties it all together—human health and planet health are intertwined.

Healthy People = Healthy Planet ~ Healthy Planet = Healthy People

Look a little farther down and you see the tagline which also ties everything together. I wrap my mission, my belief system, and my desired impact on the world into this logo, and this is how I want my clients to think of me and my copywriting business.

Mind + Body + Spirit + Planet

It takes careful thought and planning to carve out your niche. From identifying your ideal client to finding your voice—your unique communication style—and everything in between, branding holds the key to establishing yourself and your business.

SEO’s Role in Building Your Online Presence

Let’s get back to the lucky business owner who has launched a website. “Yay! You’ve taken an important first step, and it’s time to celebrate!”

“Perhaps not,” you reply. “I haven’t seen a significant increase in business growth.”

“Have you optimized your site for SEO?”

“I don’t know. What’s that?” you ask, raising one eyebrow, skeptical of acronyms invading the conversation uninvited.

“Well, now,” I reply, with a conspiratorial glint in my eye, “SEO is the key to building awareness for your business—the key to establishing a meaningful online presence that results in business growth. Your clients won’t know about you,” I add with a dramatic, weighty pause, “unless they can find you.”

Optimizing your website for search engines attracts free, organic traffic, but that’s not all.

5 Outcomes of SEO Optimization

1. Raise awareness of your brand

Again, your ideal client won’t know about you, your business, product, or service unless he can find you. Optimizing for search engines improves your chances of finding a spot at the top of the search engine results pages when your ideal client is looking for that unique something that you provide.

2. Establish trust and authority

A large part of establishing your online presence involves sharing knowledge and expertise in your field. Your website provides the perfect place for you to do that. SEO-optimized blog posts and articles launch your knowledge and expertise onto the search engine results pages. Solve a problem your ideal client wrestles with, and you’ve taken a considerable step toward building trust and authority.

3. Generate leads

SEO-optimized landing pages, squeeze pages, and lead magnets offer your ideal client something she values. You might be solving a problem, offering tips, or steering her to coupons. Whatever it is, she’ll willingly give you her email address in exchange, offering you the opportunity to follow up with her and begin to establish a relationship.

4. Make more sales

Gain and hold the attention of your ideal client and make a sale. Again, it’s hard to buy something from you if I don’t know you exist, and it’s more likely I’ll buy something from you if I trust you. Use your website to educate, engage, and solve problems, and you’ll gain that trust, building a solid reputation and online presence that brings results.

5. Increase retention and loyalty

Build your online presence with a top-notch customer satisfaction component on your website. SEO-optimized “How-to’s” and other tutorials help your customers take full advantage of the products or services they’ve purchased. Answer their most pressing questions with SEO-optimized FAQs. And continue to use your SEO-optimized articles to inform, educate, and entertain.

Conclusion to Part One

To sum up, a well-planned SEO strategy can facilitate business growth.

• Foster awareness of your brand
• Establish you as an authority in your field
• Build your credibility
• Nurture your ideal clients
• Encourage trust, resulting in increased sales
• And more!

We all know by now, but it bears repeating.

People do business with people they trust.

SEO Copywriting Specialists — Your Ace in the Hand for Building Your Online Presence

Again, that’s where we come in. SEO copywriting specialists know a thing or two about optimizing your site’s core web pages and blog articles for picky search engines. And we do it with flair, engaging your audience with conversational content that informs, educates, enlightens, and entertains.

Please look at our SEO Website Design and Management services and then schedule a free online or phone consultation. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, even if all you come away with is more knowledge and stronger motivation to make things happen.

After our consultation, if we’re a good fit for each other, I’ll send you a proposal based on the goals you’ve set for yourself. It could include the entire package or only specific services. You choose what you need, and we’ll take it from there!

Check out our SEO Website Design and Management services right now and see what an SEO Copywriting Specialist could do for your business!

3 Strategic Elements for Building Your Online Presence

Part Two

Element #2 — Social Media

Building your online presence involves more than just creating a website and publishing SEO-optimized core pages and articles. It helps to think of your website as the online version of your brick-and-mortar store, service center, or office.

What would happen if you create your brick-and-mortar space, fill it with products, services, and messaging, and then walk away? Would the customers, clients, or volunteers flock to the site and help themselves to everything your brick-and-mortar site offered?

Of course not.

The success of a business or organization depends on human interaction. Without that human touch, the venture would fail.

Building Online Presence and Trust with Social Media

And that’s where social media comes in. A critical aspect of building your online presence involves setting yourself up with online social media platforms in our increasingly digital world.

These are the places your audience hangs out. It makes sense to establish a presence there. Joining them allows you to explore how they perceive the world, what they need, and how they communicate with each other. And it provides the opportunity to interact with them.

As you engage with them, you become real. You’re no longer just some company or organization with a website online. You’re a person, someone they can relate to and, potentially, someone who shares their values, understands them, and offers solutions to their problems. You’ve moved beyond building an online presence—you’re creating and nurturing a relationship. And, in so doing, you’re establishing your authority in the space and gaining their trust.

6 Social Media Platforms for Building Your Online Presence

1. Facebook

Effective Use

• Engage your audience
• Collect reviews
• Provide customer service
• Advertise

One of the largest social media platforms on Earth, Facebook was also one of the first to offer advertising for businesses. Creating a Facebook business page and regularly updating it is critical to building an online presence for your brand.

2. LinkedIn

Effective Use

• Reach B2B prospects
• Attract & communicate with potential employees

Recognized as a social network for professionals, LinkedIn is a useful tool for reaching B2B prospects. Not that it isn’t helpful for B2C businesses and non-profit organizations! It is. The users LinkedIn attracts need products and services and care about charitable causes.

A business account on LinkedIn can also help you find applicants if you’re hiring. And sharing updates about your company and employees gives potential candidates a snapshot of what it’s like to work in your organization.

3. Twitter

Effective Use

• Build authority in your industry
• Provide day-to-day, moment-to-moment life updates

Twitter’s fast-paced platform is known for providing up-to-the-minute updates and newsflashes. It attracts users who want to stay on the cutting edge of social and political events. As such, it’s a useful platform for organizations that regularly publish original content.

And it’s easy to share links to your new articles and website pages, ensuring that your audience or tribe frequently visits your website to read your latest material.

Additionally, if your strategy includes sharing helpful content from other sources, building your online presence here will go a long way toward establishing authority in your industry.

4. Instagram

Effective Use

• Build your brand
• Analyze stats using the free insights tool to see how your audience interacts with your content
• Partner with influencers to increase your reach

The Instagram platform’s success comes from sharing photos and videos. It’s not heavy on text, and links in posts are not allowed. That said, you can build your brand’s identity and online presence through memorable imagery and stories. And adding hashtags extends your visibility, expanding your social presence.

5. YouTube

Effective Use

• Highlight company culture
• Create tutorials
• Provide demonstrations

As one of the largest internet sources of user-generated content, you build your online presence on YouTube by publishing videos. This, in turn, provides you with an opportunity to connect with other users.

You’ll attract views on the YouTube platform, but you can also embed your videos on your website. Visual content engages site visitors, so it’s well worth the effort!

6. Messenger

Effective Use

• Communicate directly with customers
• Generate leads
• Improve conversions

Messenger, affiliated with Facebook, helps you build your online presence directly with your audience, one-on-one.

Whether you respond to users’ messages yourself or utilize a chatbot to provide an immediate response, Messenger allows you to engage with your audience.

Also, a well-constructed conversational chatbot can handle thousands of customers at a time yet still feel personal to the person seeking help. It can answer questions, track shipments, book appointments, take orders, and more!

Building Online Presence with Google My Business

One of the best platforms for building your online presence, Google My Business (GMB), a different form of social media, positions you front and center with your audience.

Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others, traditionally focus on the top of the sales funnel. They facilitate engagement with your audience that makes them aware of your brand, mission, products, and services.

Google My Business, on the other hand, just like search engine optimization (SEO), focuses on the bottom of the sales funnel strategy. Users are already aware and are looking for the best product or service to meet their needs.

And that’s where Google My Business shines. A potent conversion force, GMB works because millions of people fill out surveys and talk about businesses they love (or hate). From companies right next door to businesses they visited somewhere else in the world, GMB allows them to make their opinions known.

Google My Business Features

• Submit reviews
• Post videos and pictures
• Send direct messages
• Reply to people’s questions
• Access posts
• Take advantage of special offers
• Follow businesses and receive updates

Arguably one of the most powerful forces in building your online presence, yet less time-consuming to manage, Google My Business should rate a top spot in your marketing strategy toolbox. If you take some time to get it set up, then add to it, monitor activity, and reply to commenters, you’ll enjoy a much higher conversion rate than relying on top-of-funnel social media platforms alone.

Conclusion to Part Two

A well-planned social media strategy builds your online presence and grows your business.

• Build brand awareness
• Establish you as an authority in your industry
• Build your credibility
• Nurture your ideal clients
• Encourage trust, resulting in increased sales
• And more!

Since people prefer to do business with people they trust, building your online presence through social media will go a long way toward increasing sales, attracting new clients, and encouraging potential volunteers to help promote your cause.

The Social Media Specialist — Your Strategic Partner in Building Your Online Presence

Again, that’s where we come in. Social media specialists can write articles to post on your platform, create intriguing invitations to read the latest content on your site, and even communicate with your audience for you. And we do it with finesse, engaging your audience with conversational content, messaging, and comments that inform, educate, enlighten, and entertain.

Please take a moment to explore our SEO Website Design and Management services, where you can learn more about the social media management segment. Then schedule a free online or phone consultation. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, even if all you come away with is more knowledge and stronger motivation to make things happen.

After our consultation, if we’re a good fit for each other, I’ll send you a proposal based on the goals you’ve set for yourself. It could include the entire SEO Website Design and Management package or only specific services. You choose what you need, and we’ll take it from there!

Check out our SEO Website Design and Management services right now and see what an SEO Copywriting Specialist/Social Media Specialist could do for your business!

Part Three

Element #3 — Value-Added Content Marketing

Before I get into value-added content, I want to tell you a story that will help you understand why this should be a critical aspect of building your online presence.

I first met my husband on a dating website. We exchanged some emails, text messages, and a phone call, then decided we’d like to meet face-to-face.

We were full of questions that provided fuel for the critical give-and-take reciprocity that has to happen if you hope to establish a relationship. In the psychology world, we call it self-disclosure. We share stories about our lives and add more and more details incrementally as we get to know the other person better.

We talked about our families, our childhood school days, activities, and friends. We talked about our careers. And the more comfortable we became, the more we shared. That comfortability factor involves increasingly deep or personal revelations, and they typically occur in responses that match the level of intimacy the other person offers.

A year later, we got married. And I’m happily in love with him to this day. There’s more to this story — and we’ll get to that later.

The Know, Like, and Trust Factors

Nobody is going to marry someone they don’t know, like, and trust. At least they shouldn’t, but let’s not get off on that tangent!

It’s the same with business.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Your customers have undertaken a journey, or you’ve initiated a journey for them. Either way, you need to provide compelling content to help them get from unaware to becoming product ambassadors (buy-in and beyond).

You can’t just throw together some pieces of content that say, “Here we are. This is what we do. These are our products. You should buy them.”

How are you helping your potential customers get to know and like you, understand your vision and why it could make a difference in their lives, and make yourself approachable? Where’s the credibility? How are you building trust?

It takes time, patience, and skill to create value-added content that positions you as approachable, establishes you as someone with similar ideals and goals, and shows how entering your world could help them.

It takes research — and the ability to understand and help others understand that research — to establish credibility as an expert in your niche or industry.

Your potential customer and current customers are on a journey. Part of that journey is to find you, your product or service, or your organization. Eventually, you want that person to buy your product or service, continue to buy it, and be so happy that they’ll tell other people about it. Consequently, taking the time to develop the patience and skill to create value-added content is critical as you build your online presence.

5 Stages of the Customer Journey

The fives stages of the customer journey apply to potential and current clients, customers, donors, volunteers, and more.

1. Awareness: They need to know that you, your product, service, message, or mission exists.
2. Consideration: They need to process and analyze if this is a good fit.
3. Purchase: They decide to give it a try.
4. Retention: They like the fit so much that they stay with it.
5. Advocacy: They’ve bought into it to the point that they happily tell others about it — brand ambassadors.

Value-Added Content for Each Stage of the Customer Journey

Ideally, it would be best to create value-added content that helps guide the client at each stage of their journey.

You’ll need content that enlightens them about the problem you’re solving and how you’re solving it.

You’ll need content that encourages them to try it out to see if it’s a good fit.

You’ll need content that engages them, appreciates them, and encourages them to stay with you.

And you’ll need content that stimulates their desire to share it with others.

But What is Value-Added Content?

Value-added content is information you share that meets your customer at each point of their journey and gives them value in their life. It should provide value regardless of whether they purchase, donate, or volunteer.

And, if your topic covers complex information that involves science or other academic subject matter, providing resources for a deeper dive will back you up and enhance your credibility.

Types of Value-Added Content for Each of the 5 Stages in the Customer Journey

Awareness

• Core Website Pages
• Problem/Solution Website Articles
• Problem/Solution Blog Posts
• Social Media Articles
• Social Media Posts
• Email Marketing Series
• Videos/Webinars/Live-Streaming Events
• Newsletters
• eBooks/Special Reports
• Online Ultimate Guidebooks
• And More

Consideration | Purchase | Retention | Advocacy

• Core Website Pages
• Problem/Solution Website Articles
• Problem/Solution Blog Posts
• Direct Response Landing Pages or Sales Letters
• Comparison Website Pages (your solution vs. other brands)
• Continuing Education Articles & Blog Posts
• Sales Events
• FAQs
• Testimonials (Social Proof)
• Chat or Phone Access to Sales Staff
• Offers, Calls to Action
• Guarantees
• Coupons/Incentives
• Infographics
• Social Media Articles
• Social Media Posts
• Email Marketing Series
• Newsletters
• Videos/Webinars/Live-Streaming Events
• eBooks/Special Reports
• Online Ultimate Guidebooks
• Customer Rewards Programs
• Chat or Phone Customer Service Access
• Customer Surveys
• Friends & Family Discount Coupons & Events
• And More

Maintaining Momentum with Value-Added Content (Marketing Strategy)

Creating value-added content to establish, build, and maintain your online presence takes time, effort, and skill. Once you start, you need to continue creating consistently. Strategies for preserving momentum vary, but there are some tools every content marketer should employ.

Content Marketing Strategy Tips & Tools

• Content Calendar: Create a content calendar to schedule regular content.
• Brainstorm Topics: Schedule content types & topics ahead of time to write about throughout the year.
• Write Content: Try to write the content a week ahead of schedule, so emergencies don’t prevent progress.
• Social Media: Base your social media posts on the content you’ve published that week (thin slice the original content into small, bite-sized posts).
• Calls to Action: Remember to include a call to action at the end of every piece of content (even videos). And make sure your social media post calls to action point to the original content.

How Does the Busy Entrepreneur Keep Up with Content?

Let’s be realistic. Most busy entrepreneurs can’t keep up. They prioritize their time, and, more often than not, their time goes into the day-to-day business operations that keep them — well — operational.

But neglecting content marketing is bad for business. It’s the most cost-effective, productive form of marketing. If you’re not doing it, you’re probably paying some company to place ads for you. That’s a much more expensive form of marketing, and it doesn’t pay off nearly as well as content marketing.

And advertisements, though useful to establish brand awareness, are brief distractions and interruptions that many people tune out. If they can, they fast forward through them on TV. They block them with internet ad blockers. And they quickly close website pages that shove ads in their faces or blast video ads at them. In essence, if people aren’t blocking ads, they’re often running away from them.

The question then becomes, do you want to build a relationship? Do you want to leverage the Know/Like/Trust factors?

If the answer is yes, do yourself (and your customers and prospective customers) a favor. Limit the intrusive advertising, and offer value-added content instead. People are constantly searching for information, answers, and solutions online. Give them what they need.

They’ll thank you for it with purchases, donations, and volunteer work. And they’ll even tell their friends and family.

So, if keeping up with creating, publishing, recording, and posting value-added content isn’t your cup of tea. . .

If you’re too busy to produce content. . .

Or you don’t believe you have the skills to do it well — after all, not everyone is a writer. . .

Hire a full-time staff marketing assistant, or hire a freelance copywriter for piecemeal work. Talk with them about a monthly retainer if you think you’ll need them to continue writing for you.

The Rest of the Story

If my husband and I had gotten married, then went right back to business as usual. . .

If we’d stopped “getting to know each other. . .”

If we’d discontinued spending quality time with each other. . .

Do you think we’d still be married today? I know. That’s a loaded question. It depends on our values, how we feel about commitments, and more. But I’ll tell you something — if we had stopped spending quality time together, stopped learning about each other, that would speak volumes about our values. Wouldn’t it?

And it sure would have made our marriage a sad, sorry place for both of us.

Establishing a relationship takes time, commitment, and engagement. No matter what type of relationship, you’ve got to take the time to develop and maintain it. Customers, clients, donors, and volunteers are no different.

Quality value-added content establishes, builds, nurtures, and maintains those relationships.

And that’s where The Wellness Connection Copywriting shines.

I encourage you to please take a moment to explore our SEO Website Design and Management services, where you can learn more about our SEO articles (and more), email, and social media content marketing solutions. Then schedule a free online or phone consultation. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, even if all you come away with is more knowledge and stronger motivation to make things happen.

After our consultation, if we’re a good fit for each other, I’ll send you a proposal based on the goals you’ve set for yourself. It could include the entire SEO Website Design and Management package or only specific services. You choose what you need, and we’ll take it from there!

Check out our SEO Website Design and Management services right now and see what an SEO Copywriting Specialist/Social Media Specialist could do for your business!

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