How To Create a Strong Online Presence For Your Brand

Recent studies show that over 90% of people always look up a business online before they decide to make a purchase. It shows how vital it is for any brand to build a strong online presence. The times have gone digital, and so should your business. Without an online presence, your products or services could go unnoticed. Whether you are a small business owner or have a multimillion-dollar empire, establishing your own digital presence will take your ROI to new heights.

Understanding Your Audience 

The first step towards building your brand’s online presence is to understand the audience that you want to target. This includes knowing who your consumers are and their needs and interests. You should also research their purchase history and behavior. Understanding your audience also involves knowing their gender, cultural contexts, and geographic location. By learning this, you can personalize your strategies according to your potential customers’ likes and dislikes. This will allow you to not only choose the right social media platforms but also customize your content. 

Let’s take Nike as an example. Nike’s Dream Crazier campaign targeted young athletes. These purposeful campaigns encouraged the aspirations of young female athletes. In this campaign, women were shown overcoming challenges in sports against all odds. This resonated with their target audience and portrayed Nike as a brand that supports women’s empowerment and breaks stereotypes. 

Another example is Spotify. Spotify is a very famous music, audiobook, and podcast streaming application. It even allows you to download your favorite songs and podcast episodes. Spotify collects data from its own listeners and subscribers. It analyzes its users’ listening and browsing patterns. Based on that, it provides personalized playlists like “Discover Weekly” and “Wrapped.” This customized approach connects the user to the app. Spotify not only builds its consumer base on this strategy but also keeps its existing consumers loyal to its application.

Creating a Professional and Functional Website

A professional website is the foundation of any brand’s digital presence. It is often the first interaction that people have directly with your brand, so it is important to make a great first impression. The website also makes your business credible. But you should not just create one from anywhere. Your website needs to go with your brand’s theme and official colors. It should be complimentary to your social media presence and your logo as well. Other than that, it should be very smooth to browse and purchase. It also needs to be mobile-friendly since a lot of people now exclusively like to shop from their mobile phones. Your brand’s website also should have a very effective and clear call to action. 

Let’s take the example of Shopify. Shopify’s website is designed to make sure that user experience is flawless. The interface is simple, uncomplicated, and user-friendly. You have the option of templates and customizing fonts and themes. That makes it easier for the user to start with their own online store. Shopify also assists users with quick access to features, tutorials, and customer support. Shopify is also very proactive whenever its users face any issues. So, its functionality, ease of use, and customizable design options make Shopify a leading e-commerce platform, especially for small businesses. 

Similarly, Squarespace is famous for its stunning website designs if you want to do something more creative. It offers beautiful and very aesthetically pleasing website templates. Their templates are also very user-friendly and easily navigable. If you are in a creative field, like a designer, artist, or photographer, you can create a website that not only fits your aesthetic but is also easy to use. This can be especially useful if you want to include your digital portfolio. 

Using Social Media Platforms to Your Business’ Advantage

Your online presence doesn’t end with just building a really cool website or online e-commerce store. Social media platforms are just as important. It is an effective marketing strategy and ensures you boost your online presence. That is why having your business active on social media platforms helps your brand’s visibility even more. With social media, you have the creative freedom to engage with your audiences in a very casual and friendly way. Some brands use witty responses and humor in their replies. You can create your own social media voice after deciding which direction to go. Not to mention, it allows you to share any upcoming sales and new launches, and also it is a 24/7 promotion campaign for your brand. However, you must remember that your brand only stays relevant on social media platforms if you are consistent with your marketing and staying relevant to the trends. 

A very recent trend is Gen Z writing scripts for the older, Gen X, and Boomer generation to advertise in videos. It started with a Gen Z daughter writing a video ad script for her mother’s guest house business. And it became a success overnight. Official social media accounts of museums, hotels, and tourist attractions now follow this marketing trend to advertise their businesses. These videos feature Gen Z slang words like ‘Slay,’ ‘Menty B,’ etc. This trend is so viral that over 4000 videos have been made using this marketing format, with millions of views on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Other strategies for a memorable digital presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok include building a community through Q&As, Polls, short-form videos, and stories. You can start campaigns to reshare consumers’ photos wearing, using, or endorsing your brand. Similarly, you should also always interact with your comments and suggestions.

Optimizing for Search Engines

If you want to improve your online visibility, you need to make sure that your brand ranks high on search engines like Google. Optimizing your content and website as per SEO trends and strategies is the best way to go about it. However, you need to understand that only written content doesn’t matter. You need to combine on-page, off-page, and technical SEO techniques. So, with relevant keyword research and application, you need to ensure that your website has less than three seconds of loading time. Your website should be crawlable and indexable for search engines because that builds its authority and credibility. Local SEO is also vital if your brand has a physical location. It allows your consumers to not only locate you better but also increases the foot traffic in your physical location.

Backlinko is the ideal example of a combination of how SEO strategy works with content creation. The founder of Backlinko, Brian Dean, used a method that he called the ‘Skyscraper Technique.’ He created long, informative, and detailed content in a conversational and engaging tone. This content was optimized for SEO, and it also included backlink building. This helped Backlinko rank high for competitive marketing keywords. That is why they are always on the first page of search engines if you even google blogs about digital marketing. 

Another example is the New York Times. They optimize every article for search engines to ensure that their content remains visible and relevant. They use long-tail keyword strategies to rank for specific news topics, which also helps their articles reach a wider audience. That is why, even in a very highly competitive news market, they have kept their position on the top. 

Using Email Marketing

Email marketing is a very old but tried-and-tested strategy for building your online presence. It is one of the most effective ways to maintain engagement with your audience. You can send regular newsletters, updates, and offers to stay at the top of your customers’ minds. You can use techniques like email segmentation to divide your audience based on their needs and interests. Mainly, it is based on age, gender, location, and especially on your audience’s past purchase behavior. Additionally, by using automation in emails, you can automatically send emails. For example, on your audience’s birthdays, anniversaries, holiday sales, special offers, etc. Personalizing your email content effectively increases open rates and drives engagement.

Buzzfeed is a great example of email marketing. Its newsletters are famously interesting and engaging, and it creates them for different segments of audiences. The content of its emails is also personalized according to its subscribers’ interests, which has led to really high open rates and engagement from its subscribers. Grammarly also retains its customers through its educational emails. It uses email marketing to educate its users on tips on writing and grammar usage. It also sends personalized writing insights and suggestions to its subscribers. That is how Grammarly adds value to its customers’ writing adventures. It also encourages its users to keep using Grammarly’s services and helps retain their customers on its subscription model. 

Producing Quality Content 

One of the most effective long-term strategies to strengthen your brand’s online presence is through creating valuable content. The content also needs to be relevant and up-to-date with the current trends. This kind of marketing includes blog articles, videos, infographics, presentation formats, and more. The goal is to offer useful content to your consumers that solves their problems and answers their questions. That is how that content becomes valuable. It also establishes your business as an authority in your industry. 

For example, HubSpot is a popular website for educational blogs and resources. It has built a huge content marketing platform within its website. It offers free educational resources on digital marketing and marketing-related blogs, whitepapers, and webinars. It also focuses on high-quality and valuable content only. That is why HubSpot is considered a leader in inbound marketing. It is also how it can easily drive millions of traffic to its website.

Neil Patel is a big name in SEO, digital marketing, and content creation. He creates long-form content that is not only thoroughly researched but also very detailed. He usually gives tips and tricks and also offers insights. His strategies always work very well, and that is why he has millions of followers. Any entrepreneur or marketing expert who wants to improve or build on their skills knows how to use Neil Patel’s blogs as a resource.

Take Customer Reviews Seriously

Customer reviews are a very good tool that can be used to improve your brand’s online visibility. Chances are that if your products and services are good, people will leave positive reviews. You can also encourage reviews from your repeat customers. Whether you get a good or bad review, you can use both to boost your brand’s visibility and reputation. If you promptly resolve any issues that your customers are complaining about, you will build trust. In the same way, if you have good return, exchange, or compensation policies, it will also make you very popular among your target audiences. Remember that your customers are the backbone of your business, and your brand can’t literally exist without them. 

Amazon is a globally established e-commerce platform that uses customer reviews to build trust. It guides other potential buyers to make a purchase decision. Amazon also adds an extra layer of trust by adding verified purchase badges. That also encourages other users to leave regular reviews. It is no secret that positive reviews directly affect product sales. In fact, Amazon reviews are often used as a verified method to make a purchase on social media platforms or via word-of-mouth. That is why Amazon proudly displays these customer reviews on their product listing pages. 

Similarly, TripAdvisor has built its platform around customer reviews. By allowing travelers to rate hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions, TripAdvisor helps guide others in making decisions confidently. Their ranking system also depends mostly on the customer reviews. That also helps them to feature the best reviewed deals and businesses on their top pages. This makes them reliable in their niche and also has established them as a credible service provider in the traveling industry.

Collaboration with Influencers

Collaborating with influencers is not a new strategy for building an online brand. In fact, this idea can be traced back to regular TV ads featuring famous celebrities or socialites. But, hiring influencers for brand collaboration has a lot more advantages. Influencers have their own defined niches, so you don’t need to make extra effort in that regard. Their followers usually trust them and their recommendations. Their audiences are also engaged and interested in their content. All these factors make influencer marketing a very effective way to introduce and market your brand to new customers. That is why collaborating with influencers is a fast-growing strategy for building an online brand. 

One of the most famous examples of influencer marketing is Daniel Wellington. They use influencer partnerships to build brand recognition. They send free watches to influencers on Instagram in exchange for posts. This strategy generates a ton of user-generated content and reaches new audiences. It also helps build their credibility as a brand through social media and establishes their online presence. 

If you watch YouTube regularly, you must have noticed sponsored posts by Hello Fresh on your favorite YouTubers channel. They also used Instagram influencers for this marketing campaign. Its subscription-based service sends you recipe cards with measured and pre-calculated ingredients. Influencers used these boxes in their ads to create recipe videos, unboxing videos, and give honest reviews. That is how influencer marketing promoted Hello Fresh in a way that increased brand visibility and improved sales. 

Utilize Paid Advertising

It is no secret that organic growth via organic advertising is very important. At the same time, paid advertising gets a really bad rep. In fact, it can really jumpstart your online branding and marketing. Targeted Ads and Pay-per-click advertising are both very effective in making you visible in your niche market in a very short amount of time. Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram offer targeted advertising options. These can not only help your brand reach your specific audience but also drive your conversions much more quickly. 

Allbirds is a sustainable shoe brand that uses Google and Instagram to reach its target audience, which is environmentally-conscious consumers. Its ads have a specific theme and are eco-friendly. It uses sustainable materials and has a minimum carbon footprint, which is how it connects with its target audience. Its ad campaigns not only help raise awareness of climate change but also increase sales. 

Similarly, Peloton has also used targeted advertising on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They promote their fitness products on social media by featuring customer testimonials and reviews. They also include video demonstrations on using their products in the best possible way.  That is how they used paid ads to increase their sales as well as make themselves visible in their market. There is also a very famous episode of an HBO show called “And Just Like That” that features Peloton as a main character. Even though it was slightly controversial, it helped bring them brand awareness.

Tracking and Monitoring Your Marketing’s Performance

It is not enough to just design a marketing strategy. To make sure that your strategies are effective, you need to monitor and track your performance metrics. Most ad platforms give you built-in metrics that you can monitor to see measurable results. Google uses Google Analytics, Facebook has its Insights and Meta Ads Manager, and, similarly, there is SEO tracking software. These tools help you monitor how well your website is doing with respect to visitor traffic, conversions, sales, and bounce rates. These tools also show you how your social media and content are performing by tracking interactions and engagement. With this data, you can create a strategic marketing plan. You can replicate and recycle the methods that work. You can also change, alter, or adjust the methods that are not working positively for your online presence. 

Slack is one such example of a brand that uses analytics to improve its customers’ experience. It is a cloud-based communication platform that helps you connect with your team faster and more securely. Slack tracks user behavior and engagement, identifying any areas that need improvement. That is how they ensure that their service is growing according to their customer’s needs, interests, and demands. 

Another example is Netflix. Netflix is a subscription-based streaming platform that works globally. It uses its subscribers’ watch history, likes, dislikes, and save-to-watch-later lists to create a customized feed for them. They use this data to personalize suggestions and recommendations to their users. That is how they have successfully kept their audience engaged since they launched their platform online. 

Conclusion

Building a strong online presence needs an approach that is not only clearly defined but also has multiple aspects. All strategies, including understanding your audience, creating your email marketing campaign, optimizing your website and content, paid ads, and influencer collaborations, play a role in your overall marketing and branding. However, these strategies won’t work that well if you do not carefully design them. All these facets need to be individually focused on. More than that, you might need a lot of trial and error to get one successful campaign out of many different ones. If you track your performance metrics religiously and regularly, you can have data that you can use. This data creates a shortcut towards refining your marketing campaigns. You can compare and contrast your strategies to make sure that your brand will get the visibility and attention that it deserves. 

If you think this is all too complicated or you have no idea where to start, you can reach out to us. At bmymarketer, our digital marketing experts have been building a successful and strong online brand presence for many brands for years. Whether you want to start a new business or you are branching out in a new niche within an established brand, we can help you carve out a plan. You can work on one of these strategies or even combine them all. We will help you figure out what works best for you and your business. No matter if you want to create a website from scratch or a social media business page, you can book a free consultation and demonstration with our digital marketing experts. 

Share it :

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Bmymarketer Unsolicited Cold Call Report Form