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By Lina Martinez

If you’ve been in business for a long time, it’s hard not to agree that being online is everything at the moment. Whereas once, your online store or physical advertising would have been your most valuable asset of all, everything has changed. Now, it’s more important than ever to have a killer online presence. If you want to resuscitate your business, or launch a startup and set off on the right foot, it’s time to read up and take action, because your online presence might just make or break your business.

Be Found

When you start to think about your online business or the online profile of your physical store, you should always think about search. Search engines are often how we are found, but social media plays a large part in this too. Whether it’s time for you to know all about the changes to search marketing in 2017 or get to grips with the main social channels, you need to be found, and both channels are important ways for your customers to discover your business.

Build Your Brand

Branding is crucial. Without it, customers can’t tell if you’re right for them. With branding, you can portray the right image, and customers can make a decision on what you offer. Online channels allow you to brand your business in whichever way you choose. From the language you use to the channels you’re available on, every choice you make will contribute to your brand. So, start to take your brand more seriously and make sure your online presence matches up.

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Communicate With Customers

In the good old days, the only way you could ever talk to your customers would be to actually talk to them. You’d either see them in your store, or they’d call you up. Now, your customers are everywhere - all around the world - and they’re talking to each other, thanks to the internet. You’d be crazy not to want in on that action. Not only can you offer customer service through your online presence, but you can also do your best at controlling what your customers think about you - or at least listening in to get valuable feedback and make changes off the back of it.

Have Personality

Similarly to branding, your online presence can give you personality. Gone are the days where businesses are just businesses, they’re now personable and relatable. Brands can be cool or quirky because the world gets to know their personality. How you act, talk, and interact online is a huge part of your personality. It will also help you to hook customers and appeal to your audience.

Push Promotions

Where you once had to physically share your promotions with customers either by telling them, or handing out flyers, or paying a crazy amount of money to advertise, now you can push your promotions online for free. Yes, you can share your latest deals and price cuts on your social channels, on your website, and through email to reach more people than ever and bump up your sales. If that doesn’t sell a strong online presence to you, what will?