Digital Presence – What Is It and Why Does Your Business Need It?5 min read

Driving a strong online brand through consistency and mobile optimisation to guide new customers to your business.

We live in a digital era where you can do pretty much anything and everything online. In many scenarios, that also includes people discovering your business. Digital presence is essentially self-explanatory – it’s the presence your business has on the internet, everything a person searching for your business online will find.

But a strong digital presence is about more than one thing – it’s a whole collection of things that come together to make sure your business is visible to anyone who’s looking for the high quality services you offer, regardless of what those services are. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what makes up the digital presence of your business and why you need to pay attention to it.

 

What is Digital PR Composed Of?

Your online presence is made up of a few things, but there are some that are far more important than others. And arguably the key one, where the customer journey begins, is your website. This is where any potential customer should be able to get all the information they need about you and your business. Unfortunately, it is also an often overlooked aspect, because a good website can be expensive to make and businesses just don’t see it as an investment. And that’s mistake number one.

Mistake number two is neglecting the other huge part of digital presence – business social media accounts. People like to engage, and the easiest way to engage with them is on social media platforms. We’re talking about your Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as your Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Yes, even TikTok – everything is ‘viral’ on there nowadays. Social media is a very flexible tool that you can use for a variety of purposes, from press releases to advertisements and marketing to customer support and after-sales assistance.

While these are the two main aspects of your online presence, there are a few other factors that come into play with a digital PR strategy. We’re talking about your location on Google Maps, your online reviews on websites such as Yelp or Google Reviews, referral traffic, brand mention as well as any other ads you might be running on Google Ads or social media, and any mentions in the media. All of these things are key, and if you play your cards right, all of them can be used to guide new customers to your business.

 

How Do You Recognize Good Digital Presence?

In today’s landscape, it’s about a lot more than just having an online presence. You want it to be refined, you want it to be useful, and on top of everything, you want to make sure you’re making the most of it. So, here are a few pointers that should show you how to achieve a digital presence that makes a difference for your business.

Make sure everything is consistent. Consistency is key when it comes to raising brand awareness and making sure your customers know who you are and what you do across various channels. We’re talking about every aspect you can control, from the color scheme you use on your website and social media posts to the taglines, tone, and style of the content you publish across channels. Aligning all of these things across your channels and platforms makes sure customers know exactly which brand they’re communicating with.

Even though we’re talking about the digital world, it’s also worth mentioning that the physical aspect of your business (provided there is one) can help solidify your online presence. If you have the opportunity to do something like that, an interactive retail solution that combines the digital with the physical can go a long way towards improving your brand awareness. If you want to strengthen your brand and how potential consumers view it, try to make use of such combinations as much as possible.

Last but not least, put an emphasis on customers that access your brand via their mobile devices. There are far too many mobile users, and that’s why every good digital PR agency will tell you that good performance on mobile is absolutely critical in today’s world. If a website isn’t optimized for a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet, it’s going to be frustrating for your customers at the very least, and this is something you want to avoid. True, mobile design can be somewhat challenging, but it’s very much worth it for the opportunities it presents.

 

How to Boost Your Digital Presence

The easiest way to do so is to hire an agency that specializes in digital PR services – they not only have the knowledge to take care of all your needs, but they also have experience in tailoring that knowledge to what you and your business requires. That being said, if you’d rather do some things on your own, here are a few pointers on where you could improve.

• Don’t neglect the details. You’ll be putting a lot of effort into producing quality content marketing, but you should also make sure that you have your business hours, contact information, and exact location is accurate across other channels too.
• Go the extra mile. Most businesses will stop at the bare minimum, which makes it easy to go further and beat them at their own game. The simple solutions to this are guest posts, media coverage, as well as email campaigns and newsletters, for example. Necessary? No, but a great way to solidify your presence.
• Remain active across any social media channel that you have a profile on, and keep things suited to the platform. For example, Facebook and Instagram are perfect for amplifying blog posts and communicating with your target audience, but you might want to switch to LinkedIn for B2B communication.  

 

Should You Do It Yourself?

Establishing a digital presence may not sound like a complicated affair, but if you want to do it properly, it’s not the best idea to do things yourself. Instead, hiring a digital PR team and skilled SEO and digital marketing experts that have worked on digital marketing strategy tailored to various businesses and brands, is the way to go towards establishing your business and giving it authority in the industry.