Your business’ survival could depend on how often you leverage your online presence. 

But it’s not just about posting funny videos of cats. In fact, 64% of consumers want to connect with their favourite brands online and 70% trust a company more when the CEO is active on social media. So, you need to establish a trustworthy and consistent online presence that turns clicks into paying customers. 

Optimising your online presence can be a big task, especially for a small marketing team. This guide will teach you all you need to know about boosting your business’ online presence.

Define goals and objectives

Stop! We know we said to put a pause on the cat videos, but don’t jump straight into rewriting your whole marketing strategy without defining achievable goals and objectives. 

First, ask yourself, do you want to… 

  • …boost brand visibility? 
  • …increase store visits? 
  • …get more phone calls? 
  • …generate more leads? 
  • …maximise customer engagement? 
  • …grow a community?

Analyse, evaluate, and audit

Step 1: Analyse the competition

Comprehensive competitor analysis is important in order to get ahead and find your gap in the market, enhancing your own strategy. Here’s a four-step approach that we recommend:

1. Identify direct and indirect competitors – Select 5-10 competitors to look at. 

2. Review competitor online activity – What social platforms are they on? What is their tone of voice like? How does their web copy support the customer journey? 

3. Analyse their user engagement – It’s not just about followers, engagement matters. Identify the activities getting the most interaction for your own content inspiration.

4. Conduct a SWOT analysis – Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your competitor’s online presence.

Not sure where to begin? Our Marketing Radar is on hand to make things simple.

Step 2: Evaluate website performance

Your website will influence potential customers’ purchasing decisions. 

If it takes too long to load, doesn’t have the right information accessible, or isn’t visually appealing, you’re likely to turn visitors away. Here are a few things to consider to create a seamless user experience:

  • Is your contact information easily accessible and up-to-date?
  • Are your plugins set up correctly and working?
  • Is your website visually appealing?
  • Are branding and messaging consistent across your website? 
  • Is your website optimised for mobile users?
  • Does it load quickly? 
  • Is your website easy to navigate?

If any of your answers is ‘no’, you need to address the gaps. Stay on top of performance metrics and analytics with tools like:

  • Fasthosts Online Marketing Suite
  • Fasthosts Website Builder
  • Google Analytics 
  • Google Search Console 
  • Hotjar 
  • SEMrush

Step 3: Audit your content

Content creation is a high priority for marketers for good reason. Consistent, quality content inspires brand loyalty, improves customer retention, increases social media impressions, and gets you closer to Google’s top spot.

But more isn’t always better. Churning out content for content’s sake will only complicate the customer journey. 

Instead, a content audit will help you understand the content you already have, its performance, and how you might reuse it on other platforms. 

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Top tip: Removing any irrelevant and draft content from your website will increase its speed.

Step 4: Research keywords

There are plenty of tools on hand to help you identify the most effective keywords for your site – from Google Ads to Ahrefs and SEMRush to Ubersuggest. But nothing is stopping you from using the search engine itself to get started. 

Type a few relevant keywords into Google to see where your site (and your competitors’) ranks on the SERP. Remember, bigger companies have bigger budgets, so focus on optimising for local SEO before anything else.

Step 5: Focus on relevant channels

While you might have dreams of making it big across all social and advertising platforms, each one takes a lot of time and energy to get right. So, it’s best to start small. Build your presence with a few relevant channels – most businesses focus on SEO, Facebook, Instagram, and email marketing. As you grow, develop your online presence elsewhere.

Optimise, maximise, and boost

You’ve identified your business goals and understood your current business performance, competitors, and content capabilities. Now, you can use this information to boost your online presence. 

6 steps to maximise your online branding:

1. Define your brand identity 

  • Identify a gap in the market with your competitor analysis
  • Understand your customers and the problems you’re solving 
  • Think about how you want people to describe your brand
  • Create brand guidelines that outline your tone of voice, brand style, and where you want your brand to be visible

2. Create a consistent brand experience across all digital touchpoints 

  • Update your messaging and tone of voice across all platforms
  • Have a consistent and identifiable visual brand
  • Make sure all touch points link to your website

3. Create engaging content

  • Audit your content to repurpose content 
  • Use Google Trends to identify relevant topics 
  • Decide where to display your content, e.g. a blog or social media platform
  • Create a content calendar to schedule and track your content
  • Plan regular brainstorming sessions to keep your content fresh

4. Social media presence

  • Decide which social media platforms are most relevant to your brand
  • Create a comprehensive social media content strategy
  • Stay on top of trends, research, and the latest industry news 

5. Email marketing 

  • Direct website visitors to leave their contact information for further marketing opportunities
  • Create an engaging and valuable newsletter to regularly send to potential customers 

6. Measure and refine

  • Use website, email, and social media metric tools to make sure your output is boosting your business
  • Identify what works and adjust your content accordingly

We can’t guarantee you’ll go viral overnight, but keeping a constant eye on your online branding could be the difference between standing out from the crowd and blending in.

Connect, engage, and manage

Build a community

If you’re trying to connect with your audience without first building a community, you might need to take a step back…

  • Group your audience by age and other demographics. The more you understand them, the better you can connect.
  • Consider your language in targeted advertising to engage your audience. 
  • Create a targeted email campaign – a personal subject line is far more likely to catch attention.
  • 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase based on personalised recommendations, so tailor products, services, or offers.
  • Stay on top of community management by replying to comments, DMs, and manual outreach.
  • Personalise your products – think of Coca-Cola’s successful “Share A Coke With…” campaign.

How to incorporate customer feedback

Customer advocacy is another powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. In 2022, 93% of shoppers were influenced by customer reviews, positive and negative. Including what others think could help to make your brand seem more trustworthy.

1. Encourage reviews

Incentivise customer reviews by offering a discount code, special offer, or competition entry. Customers are more likely to take the time out of their day to shout about how much they love your products if you reward them for the effort.

2. Conduct surveys

Surveys are not only a great way to encourage customer engagement but can also provide helpful insights for your marketing or sales team. Start small with an Instagram or LinkedIn poll. Once you have the time and budget, consider doing a comprehensive research report into consumer habits that can be repurposed into branded content.

3. Collect testimonials

If you’re looking for a more detailed view of your company’s reputation or activities, try collecting customer testimonials. If you have permission, you can share them on your website, in blog content, or on social media to promote brand trust.

How Fasthosts can get you started

A lot of effort goes into maintaining and optimising your brand’s online presence, but you don’t have to do it alone. We offer plenty of tools to help make things more efficient without costing the earth.

  • SEO Manager – Identify the best keywords, track SERP rankings in real-time, and analyse the competition.
  • Listings Manager – Sync listings across more than 34 directories, track reviews from a central login, and increase your backlinks to boost SEO.
  • Marketing Radar – Scan the web for real-time insights into your brand, track keyword opportunities, and get email alerts with relevant industry updates.
  • Ads Manager – Generate ad ideas for your brand, check campaign performance, and adjust ads whenever you need to.

What are you waiting for? Improve your online marketing strategy with Fasthosts. Find the right package on our website or speak to our team of experts today.

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