Don’t meet me, meet my website: how to represent your brand online

If you stood on the street selling an apple, how many potential customers would you find? Probably a lot. But not as many as the 4.43 billion internet users who have the potential to view your business website.

Nowadays, 63% of shopping occasions begin online, with nearly half of all consumers shopping more online than in-store.

So, what are you going to do? Naturally, you’re going to build your business online.

We are all told that first impressions are important and with the enormous rise in technology, people are going to find you first through your website. This blog will explain some of the best ways to represent your brand online.

1. Strong Branding

A picture speaks a thousand words, but good branding can speak a million. Your branding online needs to represent your business and connect with your target audience.

Considering the design aspects of your business website such as colours and fonts will help establish the perfect first impression. Remember that once something is posted online, it cannot always be deleted everywhere or taken down, and you will need to manage your online identity.

2. User interaction:

It is easy to take for granted the thought that goes behind user interaction on a business website. Many online companies will have conducted research into the best user journey. This may involve asking a group of people to ‘test’ the website or hiring an external company to create it for you.

A good way to find out if your business website is user friendly is the ‘3 second test’; if a user doesn’t know what to do in the next 3 seconds then it’s not right. Your business website is a map and you’re giving directions to your customer. Tell them what to do next; instead of just stating ‘we are graduate job experts’, you should suggest to ‘search graduate jobs here’ so they know what to do.

3. Know your audience:

Don’t try and target everyone. Unfortunately, all 4.43 billion internet users won’t be interested in your online business, but that doesn’t matter providing you attract the ones that do. For example, if you are a recruitment agency, then having graduate employment statistics on your website will be beneficial. Your business website will be a powerful tool if your target audience is encouraged to visit it.

It is also interesting to note that most users nowadays will be on their mobile phones. Therefore, it is important to have a good mobile site – this is easy to forget when you’re creating your online business website.

4. Feedback is your friend

Negative feedback is one of the most positive things for your website. Knowing what is good and bad will help you adjust, develop and improve your online business. Getting honest feedback on your business and knowing how to change for the better will be beneficial to your online branding for your business website. It is difficult to get a first impression of yourself, so getting feedback from others is imperative.

There are tools you can use to ask your customers for feedback, surveys and reviews, but be careful not to overload them. For example, a chat pop-up for repeat visitors on your website is a simple and effective way of getting feedback from. If you get positive feedback then share it on your business website so visitors know how amazing you are!

5. Stay active on social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn to name a few. Being active on social media is important for your online business presence, as this is a way to connect with audiences and get your name out there. Consistency with your posts is important, and if you can, interact with your audience on a personal level then do so as much as possible. Acknowledging comments and shares can give you a 162% increase in interactions.

On your personal social media, remember that everything is traceable and whatever you’re posting could reflect upon your online business too.

6. SEO’s

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics to increase the amount of visitors to your business website so that it will be placed on a high-ranking in the search results pages on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Having links around your business website will also keep traffic on your page as people will click through to explore the different parts.

7. Visual appeal

Looking at endless amounts of texts can be time consuming and boring for your audience. You can keep your page exciting with videos, pictures, buttons and original features and branding. This will break up the text while still providing information about your online business to the audience.