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E-Commerce businesses have a strong online presence. They have to. The Internet is their marketplace. They must have a robust website, strong SEO, social media pages, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, content placement, PPC and retargeting advertising, etc. That makes perfect sense.
But what about companies that provide a product or service that cannot be bought, sold, provided or delivered online? Property Inspector. Aesthetician. Automobile mechanic. Dentist. Attorney. Engineer. It might be a product or service that can’t even be quoted online. Landscaper. Commercial Real Estate Broker. General Contractor. Event Coordinator. Accountant. Such companies get most of their business from word-of-mouth referrals, repeat business and networking. While those businesses recognize the need to have a website, they may not necessarily see the need for a robust, current, active and engaging online presence. That is a mistake.
Just because a business is not selling its products or services online, or even providing quotes online, does not mean that they can afford to have an online presence limited to just a website (or perhaps even no presence at all). That is no longer enough.
Today’s business world is catering to a population that is increasingly among the “constantly connected.” According to the Pew Research Center, in 2019, adults under the age of 50 are at the vanguard of the constantly connected: 44% of 18- to 49-year-olds say they go online almost constantly. By comparison, just 22% of those ages 50 to 64 and even smaller shares of those 65 and older (8%) say they use the Internet at this frequency. While the share of 18- to 29-year-olds who say they use the Internet almost constantly has risen 9% since 2018, it remains unchanged since 2019. Meanwhile, the share of constantly online Americans ages 30 to 49 has risen 14% since 2015, and the share of 50- to 64-year-olds has risen from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2019. Only Americans ages 65 and older have not increased their ranks of those “constantly online”. And all of that was before Covid, which pushed many businesses to enhance their online presence.
Other demographic sub-groups that report almost always being online include college-educated adults, adults who live in higher-income households and urban residents. Over 42% of adults with a college degree or more education are online constantly, compared with 23% of adults with a high school diploma or less education. While 40% of adults with an annual household income of $75,000 or more say they use the Internet almost constantly, only 27% of those living in households earning less than $30,000 a year report being online constantly. And adults who live in urban areas are the most likely to say they go online almost constantly, compared with suburban residents and an even smaller share of those who live in rural areas.
So what do these statistics mean for brick-and-mortar businesses? Half of the entire population is now “constantly online.” It’s unlikely for a business to have no customers who are “constantly online”. And, for businesses that cater to those in urban areas, college-educated adults and high-income households, they are even more likely to be “constantly online”. To reach them, having a strong online presence is essential. “Strong online presence” means more than having a corporate website. Companies should have social media pages on all the major sites that their customers might frequent. They might also want to have at least a blog or podcast where fresh content is posted regularly. And they should probably have staff that are active on the major social media platforms where the business is active. Ideally, if possible, they’ll even have content published on other platforms and reputable sites.
Why is all of that online activity necessary? To begin with, research by Global WebIndex shows that 58.4% of the world’s population uses social media. That means 4.62 billion people around the world now use social media with 424 million new users coming online within the last 12 months. That figure is up 10.1% YOY. In January 2022, the average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 minutes. That means nearly 6 out of every 10 people can be found engaging on social media for a major portion of their day. But besides it being a readily-available audience that is inexpensive to reach, there are business reasons for every company to have a strong online presence.
Reasons Why a Strong Online Presence is a Must
1. Make the Company Accessible 24/7/365
While every business should have a plan in place for what to do in case of an emergency, such as a cyber-attack or plain old termites in the building, there are even bigger issues that can cause a business to shutter its doors for a prolonged period of time. Do your customers have a way to reach you if the company’s physical business is suddenly unavailable due to a major weather emergency, pandemic, crisis or other unforeseeable event?
One needn’t go very far back in history to conjure a laundry list of events that closed businesses for an extended period of time. Business closures caused by COVID-19 is just the most recent example. But, the same could be said for businesses located in the path of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or businesses in Alaska during the 2004 fire season which scorched 6.6 million acres of land, or those located in the 463,000 acres consumed by the 2021 Dixie Fire in California. And, of course, who could forget the flood damage caused by the levee failure during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That caused widespread devastation throughout New Orleans and surrounding areas, with $125 billion in damages and 1,836 fatalities. Beyond weather and disease, there are also geo-political events that can cause a business to be unavailable such as the 9/11 attacks which caused major disruption for months to business at the epicenter of NYC’s financial district.
Small and mid-sized businesses that already have an online presence can continue communicating with customers and letting the public know alternate arrangements the company is making to keep operating. Those without an online presence would suddenly have no way to continue selling or reaching their clients. Building that strong online presence now means the business is always accessible to its customers, no matter what is happening in the world.
Even if there is no crisis happening, having an online presence allows customers to reach a business beyond “business hours.” On the company’s website, a customer can submit a request, download forms, upload documents, and get information regardless of time of day, time zone, holidays or other times when the business is closed. This doesn’t just include having information on the company’s website, but also having a presence on social media channels. But beyond the website, a company is able to answer customer questions, provide informative videos, and generate interest outside of regular business through their social media pages. In fact, a company’s social media page should be considered the remote part of its website.
2. Build a Higher Level of Trust Faster
A reliable website with valuable content establishes a company as a valid business. There, a company can share information about your business that helps people grow trust. It can also share policies and detailed information about the company’s products and services. If the company has a return policy or terms of service, that can be explained clearly on the website, allowing customers to feel more comfortable. That adds to trust. But a company website is the bare minimum. There is so much more a company can do to build trust with customers.
Blogs and social media posts on professional sites such as LinkedIn allows an organization to share knowledge and serve as the thought leader in that space. A podcast allows potential customers to learn and interact with the company on topics of expertise for the organization. And YouTube and TikTok videos allows a company to show customers short videos of what they do and who they are. All of these efforts help a company to establish and build trust with prospective customers and clients alike.
3. Help Control the Message about Your Company
People are talking about businesses online, including yours, whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not. What they say can be positive or negative. Customers leave reviews and ratings about a business on Yelp, Google, TrustPilot, etc. Or they might post about a company on their own social media pages. Companies that don’t have a strong presence online cannot help shape the narrative about the business. By being a part of the conversation, a company can help control what is said and how the company is portrayed. Social media profiles also help craft a carefully brand message for the business.
4. Benefit from Higher Conversion Rates
It stands to reason that an increase in visibility will result in more opportunities for conversion. An easy way for a company to increase its visibility without having to pay for advertising is by actively posting messages, articles and videos on blogs, social media pages, podcasts, etc. Creating content is another good way to increase interaction and visibility as well as affirming the company’s brand. This is another way to achieve positive sales results.
Even something as simple as making helpful comments on other blogs can lead prospective customers to a company’s own website. It can also alert other companies of opportunities for mutually-beneficial collaboration.
5. Improve Customer Satisfaction
Social media pages on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube give a business a more personally-identifiable voice. As a result, this humanizes the business, if it is done authentically. It is well established that people prefer doing business with other people – namely people they know, like and trust — instead of nameless corporate entities. A strong online presence puts a company right in the crux of the conversation. Being active online also allows a business to keep track of their rapidly changing industry. It becomes easier to understand the thoughts and needs of the company’s customers by directly interacting with them.
6. Build Relationships and Improve Brand Loyalty
Finding new customers costs exponentially more than continuing to do business with repeat customers. For that reason, building customer relationships and shoring up customer loyalty should be crucially important to every business. A strong online presence helps to boost loyalty by enabling a company to take charge of its messaging and brand. While some businesses keep their interaction online limited, preferring only to use that space to introduce promotional campaigns and products, studies have found that customers stay loyal to brands that directly engage with them on social media platforms. By establishing a genuine relationship, companies are able to form a bond that creates raving fans. And there is no customer more loyal than a raving fan.
7. Be Findable to Vendors and Partners
It’s not just customers and prospective customers who are online. It’s also vendors and partners… as well as lenders and investors. Companies that need to showcase themselves as reputable, stable and current businesses need to have not just a robust, current website, but activity on other online mediums. It is a good way to find opportunities that might not otherwise materialize.
It’s time to review the company’s entire online presence and identify smart yet affordable ways to be more visible and accessible in the digital realm.
Quote of the Week
“Getting smart about having an online presence is one of the strongest sales tactics you could consider.” Toni Clayton-Hine
© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.
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