Virtual Assistant Business Outsourcing

Having a successful small business these days means a web presence is essential. Your customers should see you online, as most of them spend a lot of their time on the web. With that said, you should be aware of the most important features that will help you not only create an online presence but also stand out!

First step: outline your goals for your website. What you’re basically aiming to do are three things.

Establish your online presence. The main reason for setting up a website for your business is that you want people to know you’re online. Meaning, your website should have information about your business: why you’re special, what your business is about, and how your customers can contact you.

Make your business stand out. Making people notice your business above all the other similar ones can be a bit tricky. One way of differentiating your business is to have your own company blog that discusses your views and thoughts. This creates a bond between you and your customers and helps them relate to the business more personally.

Generate leads. Generating leads is another benefit a good website can give. When done right and done well, your site can be a community where you can connect with potential customers and market to them.

When you have your goals all clear and set up, you can start focusing on the four main elements of successfully making your presence known online.

Your Website

There are many essential factors that help create a great website. But the basic are the following:

A decent homepage. This is usually the first opportunity you have of creating a great impression with a potential customer. For your homepage to work, it has to provide the three basic things customers want to know at that point: who you are, what you do, and why they should trust you. You have a short time of convincing them, and you need to do that in one page, else they go to another site.

An ‘About’ page. You want to strengthen the trust factor, and this can be done by having an ‘About’ page that explains, in detail, everything about your company (goals, history, what makes you special).

A ‘Contact’ page. You want your site visitors to come and do business with you. Make it easy. Provide the ways you can be contacted: phone number, email address, physical address. You can even go a step further and provide directions with the help of Google Map.

These three will help you in establishing an online presence, no more. If you want to accomplish your second goal and let people know your business is different than the rest, you’ll need the second element: a blog.

Your Blog

Think of your blog as the ‘News’ section of your business. It functions the same way as any news sections do – post updates on anything new about a site or a business.

Why is a blog important? There are many reasons why a blog can be a great use for your business. One, it’s an opportunity to show your expertise in your line of business. Two, blogging means you need to update as often as possible. Fresh content encourages your readers to come and check your blog regularly. The more interaction and communication you have with your readers, the more opportunities to market.

It is now very common for consumers to search for the information they need. They will want to know not only how your product works, but also how other people are using it and how it can make their lives easier.

When your site has all the three mentioned parts and a growing blog that always has fresh content, there will definitely be an increase in your site traffic. More traffic means more potential customers. More customers mean more opportunities to capture leads, which brings us to the two elements you need for successful lead capture: a newsletter and social media accounts.

Your Newsletter

One of the best ways of capturing leads is email marketing. Having a well-run site and blog gives you a lot of opportunities to get your readers to sign up for your email list. This way you don’t need to wait for your customers to seek you out, you can go to them. Offering perks is a great way of increasing your email sign ups.

You can write the actual newsletter and just get an application that can handle your sign ups and delivery. Aweber can be a great tool for that.

Your Social Media Accounts

Besides email marketing, creating and maintaining social media accounts is a great way of capturing leads. Facebook and Twitter make it easier for you to link to and contact your core consumers. The best way of making use of this strategy is to establish your blog as your social media central hub. You get your blog readers to your social accounts and create a connection.

If you have a Fan Page on Facebook for your business, you can put a Fan box in your blog to make it easy for your readers to access your business page.  If you’re an active Twitter member, you can add a ‘Follow me on Twitter’ button on your blog as well.

In the process of establishing an online presence for your business, the four elements are necessary. Maximize the effectiveness of your website by making sure you have the necessary pages and a frequently updated blog. Then follow it up with a little bit of email marketing and strengthen the connection with your consumers by connecting with them on social sites.

Do you want to maximize your website’s productivity? Our virtual assistants can help you!