How to Build an Online Presence for Your Beauty & Wellness Business
If you are a small business in today's digital world, it is becoming increasingly hard to differentiate yourself from competitors and build a solid online following. As a beauty and wellness brand, offering a fantastic product and service is not enough to drive awareness and make your brand shine. According to Adaptive Marketing, "97% of consumers use the internet to find a business." With the rise of the internet, having a robust online presence has become vital if you want to position yourself as a key player in your field and stay top of mind in your audience buying journey. In this post, we'll provide five suggestions if you're new to digital marketing and want to build your online presence fast.
What Is an ‘Online Presence’, and Why Does It Matter?
As stated by Hubspot, "An online presence can be defined by how easy it is to find a brand or company online. It's important for building your brand's reputation, increasing brand awareness, and providing visibility to your products or services when users are searching for related keywords." Building an excellent digital presence is vital to your business's success. It allows users to find your business, learn about what you offer, and develop a trusted connection with you.
Invest in a Business Website
A website is your business's digital storefront and one of the first things users will see when searching for your business online. Consider investing in a mobile-friendly professional-looking website that includes all necessary information about your business (location, services, products, pricing and contact details) and helps you showcase your brand personality and values. Since "81% of consumers conduct research online before making a purchase", the first step to an excellent online presence is to establish credibility and trust with a well-designed website to increase your online visibility.
If you want to create your website on your own, I recommend an easy-to-use website building like Squarespace or Wix. Don't want to add to your to-do list? Fiverr & Upwork are great platforms for hiring expert website designers to help you bring your vision to life.
Learn How to Optimize for SEO
If you want to increase the odds of potential buyers finding your business online, making SEO a priority is necessary. Essentially, SEO stands for search engine optimization and “is aimed at improving your website's visibility in search engines (such as Google). All with the goal of getting more organic traffic." Since "Google currently holds 92.58% of the total search engine market share, and 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.", SEO can make or break your online business.
But where to even start? Focus on these three steps:
Create long-form content: Developing long-form content (any copy over 1,000 words) signals to Google that you can provide real value to your audience. This content can be blog posts, how-to guides, video content, e-books, studies, etc. and is the first step in expanding your ranking potential.
Research and use relevant Keywords: Use keyword research tools (such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trend & Answer The Public) to research pertinent keywords for your industry that your target audience is using to find similar businesses as yours. Once you develop a comprehensive list of your relevant keywords, use them strategically throughout your content, whether on your website, social media & newsletter.
Build links on your website: There are three link-building methods to build links to improve SEO. First, you can include internal links leading to other pages on your website. Second, you can include external links on your website content that lead users to other external resources. Lastly, you can include backlinks, defined as links from other websites leading back to your website. Link building is a great way to improve your search engine ranking and signal to Google that your website is relevant.
Build Your Social Media Following
Social media platforms have become the new search engines for users to find new businesses online and become loyal customers. Hootsuite's global Social Trends 2022 survey states, "62.3% of Instagram users worldwide say they use the platform to follow or research brands and products." It is one of the reasons why increasing your social media following has become crucial in developing your online presence.
By posting regularly on your social platforms and engaging consistently with your audience, you can reach millions of users interested in discovering your business. Establishing your content marketing strategy is the first step, along with having branded designs and engaging social media copy that make you stand out. Do you still need to figure out where to even start? Check out our services.
Produce High-Quality and Consistent Content
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), "Content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing but costs 62% less". Users are more interested in connecting with a brand through educational and authentic content rather than being pushed product-related promotional messages.
Investing in high-quality content is the most cost-effective way to grow your brand awareness online and position yourself as an expert in your industry. Digital content can be videos, gifs, blog posts, website text and more. Here are some examples.
By implementing these four strategies, you will effectively build your online presence, attract new customers and take your business to the next level.
Tips and Reminders
Have a clear brand identity
Provide value to your audience
Keep up with the industry trends
Stay consistent & flexible
Building your online presence is necessary to position yourself as a leader in your field and grow as a small business. Check out our services if you need support creating high-quality digital content representing your business essence. I can help you establish your content strategy, develop graphic designs for your brand, write your social media & website content, and connect with your audience with UGC content.
