6 Steps to Showcase Your Business Online
Posted on 26th April 2021
Starting your own business is an adventure. You’re excited about the future and the joys and challenges that come with being your own boss. Everything is in place, and you’re ready to begin your startup journey.
You have a business name; you’ve hired your staff, sourced your products, planned your services, and your business bank account is set up and ready to go.
Now you need to let people know that you are open for business. You need to consider how your potential customers are going to find you and how your business will be perceived when they do.
Visibility and perception are important when trying to establish a new brand or product. Your marketing activities are a vital element to the success of your business.
What is your plan for marketing your startup?
How are you going to draw customers and drive sales?
If you are looking for some ideas of how best to market your startup, here are 6 steps that will help promote and showcase your business in a professional light.
Step 1: Get a professionally designed website
Of all the tools necessary for showcasing your new business, a dedicated website is the most important by far.
Your website is the hub of your business’s online presence. This is where customers will go to learn about your business, find the latest news, book appointments, browse and buy your products and services.
You want to make sure that your website is well-designed, easily navigated and has all the information required; including product details, purchase options, terms and conditions and FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions).
Building a quality website that looks great, functions well and contains all the required business information is time consuming and can be challenging. It’s a good idea to hire a professional web design company to create your site so that you can focus on running your business.
If you are searching for professional web design for startups that won’t break the bank, it’seeze Horsham creates bespoke professional websites at prices most web designers charge for template-built sites.
A professional website gives you the best possible starting point for your business to grow. Once your site is up and running, you can move forward with the rest of your marketing plan.
Step 2: Grab a professional email address
Once you have a fully functioning, impactful website, you will want to get a domain-based email address (or multiple addresses) for customers to contact you with enquiries.
What’s a domain-based email address? It’s an email address that includes your site’s domain name.
For example; if your website domain is www.xyzwebdesign.co.uk, your email address will be info@xyzwebdesign.co.uk - or something similar - as opposed to a free address such as xyzwebdesign.co.uk@gmail.com.
A professional email will ensure your business is perceived as such. Yes, you can use a free personal email address such as outlook or Gmail, but that doesn’t exude professionalism.
To save you time and money, all websites designed by it’seeze Horsham come with five business email addresses with a 1GB mailbox.
Step 3: Set up a Google My Business page
Google is the number 1 search engine in the world, with a 92.26% share of the search engine market worldwide. When you sign up for a (free) Google My Business (GMB) account, you instantly improve your chances of appearing in local search results and on Google Maps.
A GMB profile supplies information about your business to users, such as opening times, contact details and location. If somebody searches ‘web design Horsham’, your company will appear in a listing on the search engine results page (SERP) and on Maps. The opportunity to improve visibility in search is a great reason for you to create a Google My Business page.
Step 4: (Free) listings on relevant online directories
Just like Google My Business, online business directories are a great way to expand the reach of your business. Listing your company on online directories will improve your search ranking, and provide more destinations from which people can learn about your business.
There are many online directories available for you to list your business on. Many list a variety of business types, whilst others focus on a particular sector or location.
Many directories are completely free to list on. To maximise the reach of your business, list your business on multiple directories - a mix of broad and industry-focussed sites - and be sure that information is consistent and up to date across the board.
Step 5: Marketing your startup on social media
Social media is a powerful tool that your business can use to create brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. 3.6 billion people use social media globally, so you can’t afford to ignore it.
There are plenty of options to choose for your social networking: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok to name just a few. The key is to focus your attention on just a few rather than all of them.
Which platform you use will depend on your business type, target demographic and planned content strategy. However, as a startup business you should definitely have a presence on LinkedIn. This is the social media platform for business, so it’s a must have.
Step 6: Create business cards
Yes, the world may be online, but it’s offline too. Don’t neglect the good ol’ fashioned ways of business networking - talking to people in the real world.
You never know when you may meet a potential customer or possible business associate, so make sure you have a few business cards to hand at all times.
Business cards are a simple, cheap and effective way of promoting your business, so be sure to add this to your startup marketing plan.
That’s a Wrap
There you have it, 6 steps to promoting and showcasing your business in a professional light - both online and offline.
If you are just about to embark on your startup journey and in need of a professional website, check out it’seeze web design and the services we offer for web design in West Sussex and beyond.
it’seeze Web Design Horsham offer affordable web design services that are ideal for local businesses, and we provide ongoing website support for all our clients too. If you're looking for a reliable Sussex web design company, we'd love to hear from you.
Tagged as: Online Marketing
Share this post: