In today’s world, an online presence is important for any business. But why is that? Well, depending on your type of business you can benefit from it in a multitude of different ways. However, whatever your business – being online is paramount to successful marketing. Social media is one of the biggest tools we have at our disposal for marketing, especially targeted marketing.
In 2019, the Yellow Pages ceased the printing and distribution of their famous bright yellow directories, having moved from print to digital. This goes to show that customers are now searching online for businesses and products rather than picking up the phone book. So, let’s look at how much further a website and a strong online presence can take your business.
For this example, we will say your business is a painting and decorating company. A potential customer goes online and searches “painter and decorator in my local area”. The top result may well be yell.co.uk, in which case there will be contact details for various companies in the area. For some – that’s as far as online presence goes.
However, you appear in the top 5 Google results. The customer goes to your website. On your site is information on your company, the services you offer, perhaps some guide prices, a photo reel highlighting some of the work you’ve done previously and of course – positive customer reviews. There’s also links to your social media feeds. Facebook shows more customer reviews, comments, likes, shares of your work. Constantly reaching a wider audience. On Facebook you can join the local community group and post details of your business there.
The “shareability” of social media makes reaching thousands of people very easy to do and can be very cost effective.
A survey carried out in 2019 showed that 90% of people use the internet to find local businesses, with 33% looking daily. 82% of customers read online reviews for local businesses and 97% read the businesses’ replies to the reviews.
There has never been a more important time to ‘go online’ as a business. Contact Dark Cherry today to discuss how we can help you further your customer base and assist you going forward.