Well, let me start by saying, I’m sorry for your disappointment but do not be discouraged, you are in the right track.

Your website is the online version/representation of your physical business. Just as no one would come to your physical business premises unless they know you exist, no one will come to your website unless and until they know it exists.

Below we are going to be looking at ways that can make your good investment in website design yield favorable returns for your business.

1. Submit your website design to search engines.

To boost chances of your target customers finding your business, your business must be visible on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

It takes time for search engines to discover and index new websites. Search engines are constantly looking for new links on websites and subsequently follow them. When they find that these links lead to useful content, the page is added to index.

You need to submit your website design manually rather than wait for search engines to crawl your site. Manual submission benefits include;

• Submitting your website takes a few minutes compared to waiting for search engines to crawl the site, which may take some time.
• You get the opportunity to supply search engines with some useful information and presenting the hierarchy of the importance of content on your website.
• You get insights from Google and Bing, from which you can improve the performance of your site.

Submitting your website to Google.

To submit your website to Google, you need to sign up for a Google Search Console account.

Next, create an XML sitemap which you will then submit to Google using the Google Search Console.

How to generate an XML sitemap for your website.

To submit the sitemap, go to Google Search Console:

Search Console > Select your property > Sitemap > Paste in your sitemap URL > hit “submit”.

Submitting your website on Bing

Submit the sitemap to Bing Websmaster Tools.

Webmaster Tools > “add your site” > Fill in the form > hit “submit”.

*By submitting your site to Bing, it will automatically be submitted to Yahoo.

Getting your website indexed is laying the foundation on which you will need to build on to get to the level where your business can be found on search engines.

You need to invest in SEO to get your website to rank on page 1 and get a lot of organic traffic.

2. Promote your website on social media.

You can help your new business website get noticed by using social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the most common social networks where you can promote your new website.

Promoting your website on Facebook

Create a Facebook page for your business.

• Click on ‘Create a Page’ on the Facebook Business site
• Choose the appropriate category from the options provided and proceed to start filling in your information, also add your website link.
• Add a nice profile picture (your logo is recommended) and add a nicely designed cover photo that resonates with your brand.

Share your content on your Facebook page. To keep the right audience interested in your brand, you will have to create content that is valuable to them.

Link to bog posts, videos, or any other sources with valuable information. Share your offers, sales and blog or website content, all with links back to your site.

Leverage the power of paid advertising to expand your reach and target the right audience that is relevant to your business.

Promoting your website on other social media platforms.

You can also promote your website on other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and more.

These platforms host different kinds of audiences and operate differently. You will have to do some research to see which platforms work for the kind of business you do, before investing any time and money.

Twitter is a micro-blogging social media platform, which can be a powerful tool in making your content go viral.

A business Twitter account can be created the same way you would create a personal account. You will need to make your profile look professional, incorporating your brand designs. Start sharing valuable content on your account, linking back to your website.

Instagram is a visual based social media platform, an excellent place to share your content in the form of images and videos promoting your brand.

Create an Instagram business account, add your website link in Bio section. Make your profile look professional, preferably with your logo as the profile picture and a well designed cover image/video that matches your brand.

LinkedIn is a professional networking social media platform. You can create a company page for your business on LinkedIn and start sharing your content, linking back to your website.

3. Leverage the power of Email Marketing.

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing methods you can employ to promote your website and business.

You can create your email list of prospect customers by using a lead magnet like offering a free ebook download or whitepaper for the downloader ‘s email address.

Share your content, sales or deals with the people on your email list using an email marketing software. By using a software it will be easy for you to segment your audience and send personalized emails in bulk, with different content to relevant segments.

4. Measure performance and maintain your website design regularly.

Connect your website to Google Analytics and monitor how your site is used, see who visits your site and what they do when on your site. All this information is useful in that it will help you in identifying changes or updates you need to make so the site performs better.

Connect your site to Google Search Console, so you can monitor what search terms are being used to find your site and what position your site is appearing for those search terms.

Google Analytics and Google Search console are both very powerful tools in measuring and monitoring website performance. The best part is that they are free to use.

Conclusion

Creating and launching a well designed website does not necessarily mean that you will start to get customers coming in. You will still have to continually promote that website so more people know about it and interact with it. Regular maintenance of the site and updating content is strongly advisable, to boost the performance and relevance of the website.

Establish an online presence with an exquisite, fully responsive, search engine and conversion optimized website. Make that online presence solid by promoting your website using tools like email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, etc.

Partner with us for website design and solid online presence establishment solutions.

The post Website design completed and launched. What’s next? appeared first on Digitechbolt Digital Agency.

South Africa has 36.54 million active internet users as of January 2020 and 34.93 million of which are mobile internet users. 22 million South African residents are active on social media, 21.56 million of which are active mobile users. Source: Statista

Try to paint the picture of our South African digital population in your mind, then ask yourself…Can my business afford not to be part of this population? Ofcourse not…right?

Well below I have compiled just 7 reasons why your business needs a solid social media presence….

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Social Media Market Share

Your business needs social media marketing, here is why;…..

It boosts awareness of your brand.

Social media platforms provide businesses with the privilege of having direct access to their potential customers with their ever growing active user bases.

Having access to these customers helps your business raise awareness of your brand cost-effectively and with ease. When you post about your business, products, services, offers etc, your followers see your posts and some share them on their friends and connections which is more exposure for your brand. This will also start to build trust in your brand from your audience.

It helps you build relationships with your audience.

Social media marketing gives businesses a human voice which will assist your business in establishing solid relationships with your audience. People interact well and connect with brands who understand them at a nearly personal level.

Generally people buy from businesses they know, trust and like.

You can promote your products and services.

You can post your products and services on your social media pages so your followers can buy.Social networks also give you the opportunity to inspire potential customers to buy from you.

It is very important to know the best ways of promoting your products and also getting potential customers to choose you.

You can also post supporting information about your products and/or services, how to use them, how they can be of value to your customers etc.This will go a long way into convincing your customers to buy from a transparent source.

Social media marketing helps you understand your audience.

Monitoring your social media pages closely, reading and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, compliments will give you more information that will make you understand your audience better.

As a business, now equipped with information about your customers’ needs, pain points,likes etc, you can be able to tailor your products and services to satisfy their expectations.

Your competition is on social media.

More and more people are joining the social media world and also more and more businesses are taking advantage of the massive power of social media platforms of pooling large audiences.

There is a high chance that one or more of these businesses is your competitor. Imagine how much market share you could be losing to your peers by just not having an online presence.

Struggling to find your footing the social media space? No problem…we have just what you need to get started!

Boost your SEO , getting targeted traffic.

Social media platforms are great sources of quality traffic to your website. This is traffic of prospect customers who interact with your brand frequently as your followers. They are likely to easily convert into buying customers,that is if your website is well optimized for conversions.

Getting high quality traffic to your website, prospect customers who will already interested in what you offer will in turn boost your search engine rankings. This is due to the fact that search engines will perceive your site as a source of valuable information for an audience similar to the one you will be attracting via your social media pages.

Basically good social media marketing practices will boost traffic to your website, which in turn leads to higher rankings. Ranking high on search engine result pages increases your chances of getting click throughs to your website, potentially turning into more sales for your business.

Your business cannot afford not to have a social media presence, not at all!!!

Above I mentioned just 7 reasons why social media marketing needs to be part of your marketing strategy , however, this is just a fraction of the many other reasons.

Get started with it now . Contact us today let’s discuss your options.

The post 7 reasons why your business needs social media marketing appeared first on Digitechbolt Digital Agency.

Yes, we will be doing it together and this is how it will work; I will give you 7 steps you can follow to create a comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy and since you obviously understand your business better, you will customize those steps to fit your business.Simple, right? Let’s dive straight into it.

Step #1 SWOT Analysis

The first step you need to take when creating your Digital Marketing Strategy is to analyze your marketing assets, environment, challenges or limiting factors. I recommend that you use the SWOT analysis framework to guide you on this exercise.

It allows you to look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your business and market.

Step #2 Set Goals

Establish digital marketing goals that resonate and complement your overall business goals, for example, if your goal as a business is to increase sales by 20% for the year, your marketing goal might be to generate 50 leads per month.

The SMART goals framework is a very effective tool in setting goals that are ; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. An example of a SMART objective is: ‘To attract 5000 visitors to my website per month within 3 months’, instead of just saying : ‘To increase traffic to my website.’

Step #3 Define your Target Market

For the implementation of your Digital Marketing Strategy to be successful, it has to be well crafted with right information for the right audience.

Create buyer personas of your target audience by their demographics : age, gender, type of employment etc, psychographics ; buying behavior etc ;interests,hobbies. Having a clearly defined audience to target makes it easy to create relevant content for them and increase their chances of converting into followers, subscribers, leads, ultimately into customers.

Step #4 Channels

Now that you have your goals and a clearly defined Target audience, it is time to choose the platforms where you can reach them. Will you reach them via social media platforms, a blog or website?

Audit your existing channels, improve them, create strategies and tactics that are relevant to your Target Audience, keeping your goals in mind.

*TIP:Identify distribution channels that are best to reach your target audience and the best times to post.

• Facebook : Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 12-4pm
• Instagram: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 11 am – 1pm
• Twitter : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday around 12pm
• LinkedIn : Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 5pm -6pm

See also Best times to post on Social Media

Step #5 Content Strategy

Write content that your target audience will find educational and useful. Maintain consistency of the type of content you post and tone across all your channels.

Research key words for search engine optimization and create a content calendar, organize your posts and schedule posting.

*TIP Publish content as a blog on your website and share URL link to this new blog on social media.

Step # 6 Campaigns Strategy

The Digital Marketing Strategy is not complete unless it has campaigns. These can be email marketing campaigns, Social media marketing , Google Ads campaigns etc, depending with your goals and target audience.

Make sure your campaigns are well planned and optimized for conversions. You may have a number of channels to manage or combine to achieve certain results, use marketing automation tools to enhance efficiency of your activities.

*TIP Personalize messages based on buyer personas.

Step #7 Monitor and Analyze

This is the last and most important part of creating an effective Digital Marketing Strategy; Monitoring and Analyzing your progress and outcome.

Measuring your performance across all your channels and of your campaigns will enable you to detect what is working and what is not in time to make necessary changes.

Measure your Key Performance Indicators by using tools like Google Analytics, Insights built in some Social Media platforms like Facebook.

Conclusion

Every business that plans to utilize Digital Marketing must invest in the creation of a comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy. This strategy must include; a SWOT analysis of the company and market, establishment of SMART goals, a Target Audience, selected Channels by relevance, Content Strategy, campaigns strategy and ways to monitor and analyze progress and outcome.

Good luck on creating your Digital Marketing Strategy!! Alternatively , contact us, our Digital Marketing experts will assist you with one customized to your business, based on an extensive research of your industry, market and competitors.

The post 7 steps to creating a comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy appeared first on Digitechbolt Digital Agency.

The rise of social media platforms and the large numbers of people being pooled to these platforms , creates opportunities for businesses to be able to interact with their audiences cost-effectively and establish solid relationships.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

• brand creation and positive brand association
• increase website traffic
• improving communication and interaction with key audiences
• building conversions
  
  

Social media marketing involves creating and sharing content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc, to achieve certain marketing and branding goals. It goes without saying that , in order to be successful you will need to have a well planned strategy and the right personnel to implement it.

Below are a few tips on how to approach marketing on Social Media.

Social Media Marketing-Tips

Planning

Have a marketing plan that clearly states your goals, your target audience and budget. Make sure you also make provision for ways of assessing the plan’s performance, analyzing and improving it.

Platform Choice

Choose a platform that fits your kind of business, if your target is professionals, you would probably be better off on LinkedIn than other ones.After you have chosen the platform or platforms, you will also need to decide on the brand voice you will use on those platforms, e.g professional or funky or funny etc…

Great Social Content

Post regular great content that is tailored to your target audience, great content is likely to be shared, which will help spread your message more.

Build the right team

Make sure you have people with the right skills and motivation to implement your plan e.g designers, copy writers, account managers etc.

Consistent Brand Image

Make sure all media material you use across all your marketing platforms is uniform for brand recognition and loyalty building.

It is knowing and choosing the right platform that fits your business, when and how to use it, that will determine your success in SMM. Remember it is also a risky undertaking to market socially as you will be vulnerable to negative comments as well, however, if they are handled professionally their effects can be negated. For more assistance on Social Media Marketing for your business, please see our Marketing Solutions.

The post ‘Digital’ in Business: Social Media Marketing appeared first on Digitechbolt Digital Agency.