It’s very easy to get caught up in the pomp and pageantry of being online if you don’t have a focus.
Very often I get asked what needs to be done to get a business online. What are the first steps that the organisation needs to take?
There are a couple of first steps that cut across all types of organisations, but before I outline them, I’ll need to ask you a critical question. What are your goals for being online?
It’s very easy to get caught up in the pomp and pageantry of being online if you don’t have a focus. The best way to avoid it is to have clear goals so you can decide what methods are not for you, what methods you can experiment with and what methods you absolutely need to use.
Below are examples of a few key goals for getting online.
- Getting your business found by a relevant search
- Getting access to a larger audience.
- Targeting a specific location with your business and your ads
- Giving customers a better experience of your products or services
So how do you get started. Now that we have a clearer understanding of the goals you should be thinking about, how go through the basic first steps.
- Google My Business: I can’t say this enough. If you have a business, this is the very first thing you should set up. It will also allow you add a Google Maps link as well as your contact details. You can add pictures and customers are allowed to leave ratings and reviews.
- Website: Your website is your property. You can use it to tell the full story of your business and its offerings without the standard limitations that come with other platforms. Make sure you optimise your website to tell your story and showcase your products. A website isn’t always necessary for every business, but you should at least own your own domain and have it hosted. There’s a ton of things that you will need these for, and I will write about them later and update this post.
- Social Media Pages: Depending on your goals and where your audience or customers are active, social media pages are key. Facebook Pages are usually the most important for most businesses because the platform offers lots of great tools.
- Nomenclature: Make sure that your name as written on the previous three platforms is the same. It helps make finding you easier if there is consistency in the name.
- Optimise for mobile: Mobile accounts for more than 50% of all website traffic globally according to Statista. Whatever your efforts, you need to make sure it can be easily accessed via a mobile phone.
There are a couple of other things you could do, that are specific to your organisation. Let’s have a conversation, send me a message via my contact form.
All the best in your digital endeavours.
The force be with you!
