According to Google, 97% of consumers use the internet to search for  businesses – and if the vast majority of your potential customers are online, you should be, too. Having a strong online presence is important for your marketing strategy, no matter what size your business is or what industry it belongs to.
We live in a world of technology, where people are connected to other people via social media, and now brands are also part of the community of social media because we are in the Web x.0 world and everything is connected. Brands are now expected by their consumers to create a total holistic experience for them through the brand’s activities, advertising, image, etc, where everything is aligned.
An online presence is vital for marketing because it reinforces your brand and what you offer to your target market. Once you’ve communicated with your audience, you’ll need to have an online presence that helps shows why what you offer is so great – because that’s the stop for the majority of your potential customers.
So long story short we are in a digital age where digital presence is pivotal because great online content will help attract customers even if they haven’t heard of your brand.
The three of the first things that can improve their online presence is building, engaging and activating.
Build
Brands can start off by listening and engaging in a human way, so the engagement does not seem forced. Brands can build by just being available, interested and authentic.
Engage
To create engagement you have to know who you are talking to, so brands can get to know their audience. Use of colloquial language is advised, as it creates a comfortable and less formal environment. Q&A with its audience, general conversation about its products. Small media interventions like competitions can increase engagement. Also, brands can listen and analyse things like how their engagement is being driven, if the communication has a human tone, do they create conversation around the brand.
Activate
Today, consumers are prosumers (a consumer who becomes involved with designing or customizing products for their own needs), so brands can elaborate on that by continually involving its audience in their business. In this case, brands will not be talking to the consumers but having a conversation with them. Building brand activists or advocates, those who will stick up for the brand when things go wrong is essential because those people can influence the public.
From those three steps above, brands can utilise the steps on their websites, social media platforms and they can make use of SEO (search engine optimisation) which you can read more about here.
