The importance of web presence for small businesses

Being a small business in a world of small businesses is a tough gig. Everyone is promoting themselves every single day so small businesses (including bloggers!) need to ensure they stand out from everyone else as well as making themselves look professional and approachable. Jeeez, it’s a lot of plates to spin – I know, I do it almost every single day! – but it’s important that you try. It certainly gets easier but in a time where everyone is online, online shopping is bigger than ever and you can find almost anything you want with a click of a button, it’s important to make your web presence a vital marketing point of your brand / blog.

Social media

Not everyone uses Twitter so it’s great to give perspective shoppers / clients a few options to be able to check out your brand on social media. With Instagram on the up and becoming probably the most popular social media platform, that’s a great visual option for small businesses to share aesthetically pleasing content that will stand out.

Website design

The design of your website as a small business says a lot about you and the business itself. You obviously want your website to represent you, your aesthetic, what you stand for and be an extension of you. But you always need your website to be clean, clear and user friendly as to not put clients off. You can always utilise the professional web designers Melbourne, or amending this to your local area, as they can help you provide a website to your customers that really represents your business, as well as optimising your search – therefore gaining you an increased amount of customers.

You don’t want a client to be totally invested in your product only to be swayed the other way because they couldn’t work out how to use your website. There’s plenty of great website hosts, website designs and even companies to help you create (or even create for your entirely) to perfect, simple website which stands out and is easy to use.

Consistency

Back to what I said about social media, I think it’s important for small businesses to be consistent over all their platforms so they’re easily identifiable. For example, keeping the same company logo, the same Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest handle and keeping a consistent theme in colours and design of your website and platforms. You want people to take one look at your page and know instantly who you are!

Being professional

When we’re online, we’re there for the entire world to see how we portray ourselves. They can see when we mess up, say something inappropriate or get into a tussle with someone else. We’re all human, small business owners are human and have a lot to contend with on a daily basis but it’s important to maintain a level of professionalism throughout your online presence. If you have a customer which isn’t 100% happy with the product or service, it’s important not to get angry or argumentative and show that you have integrity to deal with even the not-so-good parts of being a small business owner.

And being yourself

But as well as having a level of professionalism, it’s so incredibly important to also be yourself. You want to stand out and there’s only one of you in the entire world; show the world how you work, how you’re different from everyone else out there and why people should buy your product / work with you! If you have a good sense of humor, make sure that comes through in your olnine presence (the Innocent Smoothie Twitter account is a great example of this!) If you’re kind, fun, adventurous – whatever you are as a person – show that in your online presence.

What other traits do you think are important for small business owners to have? Anything else you’d add to this post that you think is important to consider when it comes to having an online presence?

* This is a sponsored post with Silky Ocean Studios