Four ways to bring your business up to date

Small enterprises are currently undergoing a huge overhaul across the UK, and more businesses are signing up online every day. With online media becoming so effective, it’s essential to have a presence on the internet. We’ve put together some tips to help you bring your company into the 21st century, ensuring that your brand stays visible in a competitive marketplace.

 

Develop a strategy

Creating an online strategy is a lot easier than it sounds, even for those with a limited understanding of how social media works. Start by defining exactly what it is you want to get out of your online marketing – do you want sales, brand development, or just visibility? You also need to know who your demographic is, and make sure that you can create good-quality content specifically aimed at them. There’s a full guide to setting up an online strategy here, and it’s a great place to start before implementing any major changes.

 

Set up social media pages

Once you know what you’re doing, you can decide which social media sites are the right ones for you. Facebook and Twitter may seem the same, but there are very subtle differences you need to be aware of. In general, remember this rule: Facebook followers tend to be existing customers, while Twitter followers will be interested in your content if it is relevant and interesting, regardless of whether they have used your services before or not. While Facebook is ideal for offering deals and promotions, you’re better off sticking to general information about industry news on Twitter, and people don’t like to be directly sold to, and are far more likely to engage with you if they can see that you understand your business.

 

Create a website

Having your own website is essential for brand authority, even if it’s just a splash page with a content form. Many websites will allow you to throw together a quick, free page, but in all honesty it’s relatively inexpensive to have your own domain name, and makes you look a lot more organised as a company when you have your own dedicated website rather than piggy-backing on a third-party provider. Make sure you have contact information on your site, and a little information about your company – think about why people will be visiting your site, and try to answer all obvious queries in the content.

 

Update your printed media

While online marketing is important, you shouldn’t ignore your printed media entirely – after all, there will always be a demographic of people who aren’t as tech-savvy, or would rather take a physical copy of your contact details. Update business cards and flyers with your online information, though, as this is a great way of directing interested traffic to your site – TemplateCloud,com, owned by printing company FlyerZone, is a great way of doing this without needing expert design knowledge! You can do this easily using a QR code, which can be scanned with a smartphone and will direct the user straight to your site. These are also great on business cards for uploading your contact information directly to somebody else’s phone – excellent for networking!