How will being online help your business succeed?

One of the biggest advantages to being online is reaping the benefits of search.
Having a digital presence means you will be visible when people go online and search
for a business like yours.

Your online presence can also give you valuable insight into prospective customers:
what they want, and how to give it to them.

How?

➢ Well, digital allows you to show targeted advertising to people right when they’re
looking for what you offer. For example, using search advertising, you can show ads
to potential customers.
➢ You can also restrict the ads to show within a certain geographic radius of your
shop. You could learn to use analytics tools to find out if people clicked on your ad,
visited your site, and took certain actions. Like filling out a form or watching a video.

In fact, for many businesses, the biggest challenge to being online isn’t getting used to
the tools but putting together a plan.

THESE ARE THE THINGS TO CONSIDER:

1. Scope. Web, mobile, social … there are so many options. Where do you want to
start, and where do you want to go?
2. Technology and Content: Decide if you’ll handle the technical and creative aspects
of the site yourself—which may take more time—or get help, which may take more
money.
3. Cost and Time: Set a realistic budget and an achievable schedule with clear
milestones—and commit fully to both.
LESSON 1

• Online Goals

Before you dive into the digital world, think about exactly what you’d like to achieve.
Then, prioritize different online opportunities to help you accomplish your goals.

How to get the word out that your business is in the digital world?

➢ List your business in local online directories.

If you decide to build a website, share information about your business. This could be
things like your opening hours, your location, your prices, and the services you offer.
Maybe even photos and videos that could entice new customers to walk through your
door.

Add features to it.

Things like online appointment scheduling, a “reviews” section where people can say
nice things about you, or even an ecommerce store to sell your hair and beauty
products online.

Now that you are using digital to attract visitors, and turn them into customers, you
could start expanding your business by investing in online advertising.

To make sure you’re meeting your objectives, it’s really important to measure your
progress along the way. This is called “analytics”. Analytics lets you know what is
working well, and what could be tweaked.

• Building your online presence

If you want people to find you on the web, you need to stake your claim online.

That can be a listing in a local business directory, a presence on social media sites, a
simple website or one with e-commerce, a mobile app — or all the above.

Whatever you choose, this is the place where people find you, get to know you, and
hopefully become your customers.
• Marketing your online presence

How are you going to get customers to find you online?

Let us start with search engines. When people type something in a search engine,
they’re letting it know exactly what they are looking for.

There are two main ways you can use search engines.

1. Search engine optimization, or SEO, which helps you promote your business in
the unpaid search results. SEO is all about getting your site in front of the right
people who are searching for your products and services. The key is knowing what
words people type in — the keywords. They are the most relevant words to your
business.
2. Search engine marketing, or SEM, which lets you buy ad space in the search
results. SEM is when businesses pay to advertise to people searching for specific
keywords online. In SEM, the business pays to enter an auction. They then bid for
advertising space on a website, and whoever wins gets to show their search ad.

Search is a great way to reach people, but we do lots more on the Internet. We read
news, check sports scores, browse recipes, watch videos, and generally browse lots
and lots of interesting content across the web.

Alongside all this content you might see ads. This is called display advertising.

Display ads appear everywhere online, and come in many formats like text, images,
video, and ads you can click on and interact with.

Social media sites like Facebook or Twitter are another option for boosting awareness
of your business, and they’re especially useful for building relationships with customers.

One more important way businesses can use in digital: email marketing.

You can get people to sign up, or “opt in” to receive emails from you. Then the rest is up
to you. You can send coupons to people who have made an appointment on your site,
advertise special events, or promote sale items.
Knowing all the ways you can find people online — and knowing how they can find you
— can help launch your business big-time.
• Analyze and adapt

To set yourself up for success online, you need to look before you leap. And don’t stop
looking!

A good plan will consider three things:

1. Know your online goals and set yourself realistic expectations.
It takes time for search engines to find you, and for you to implement and improve
your digital marketing plan. So, try not to set unrealistic goals you’re unlikely to meet.
2. Use analytics to track and measure what you’re doing and how it’s working.
Generally, knowing where your online visitors come from can help you figure out
which of your marketing campaigns are working and which ones aren’t. If you know
what people do once, they’re on your website, it can help you figure out if your
investment in digital is working.
3. And last, always keep up-to-date and adapt to changes in technology and the
industry you work in.

If your plan tackles all these things and you stay flexible, you’ll be well on your way.

ASSESSMENT:

➢ Analytics can help in measuring the success of a website by analyzing visitor data.
➢ Use analytics to make informed decisions.
➢ Analytics can help a business improve its online activities by tracking what people
do on a website, you can start to understand what’s working and what’s not.
➢ Electronic commerce (e-commerce) – business activity that occurs when website
visitors buy products or services from a business online.
➢ Social media is a great way to engage an audience. It is a simple way of taking a
business online, as well as building a following for a brand or a product.