One intriguing story of nearly every small businesses is how they started off from scratch in most cases.
Making your business appear bigger than it is and boosting it’s presence to a global state isn’t an easy task according to Edward Jones a business owner who started off in his home with his wife after he quit his job.
“One major reason to increase your presence is to boost sales because the longer you’ve been around, the more people trust you not to fold up and disappear with their money one night.” said Jones.
This is why a good business presence that appears big enough can earn you the pedigree of sales increases and then drive you towards potential investors and even a flow of great employees who constantly seek a stable company in a thriving industry.
While your image needs to be well placed for the general public to be able to view you in a different light, this checklist will help you with all necessary information you need to skyrocket your business presence to the greatest height it demands.
Web Presence
With nearly 40% of the entire global population now connected to the internet, this virtual space should be your honeypot.
Lots of companies exists virtually and makes a lot of money.
While that is a great idea, it’s good enough to understand how the internet works and then doing some research works that can help you not fall into the pit of billions of competitors instead, stand out right at the top of your industry while making big sales every year.
So as a matter of fact, you wouldn’t have to worry about your global presence in as much as you can dominate the cyberspace.
But to do this, there are some trivia approaches you should take to ensure such a big success in such a competitive market without appearing like another internet based company.
How to conquer the internet for your business
You need a great looking website: Believe it or not, the first point of contact with your business through the internet is your website.
It’s like your portfolio where you place everything about you and all of your achievements. This way, when people stumble upon your website they are compelled to stick around and learn more about your business.
For as small as $100 you can design an awesome looking website that fits well into your industry.
If the fact that a big company’s website that you know looked whack and you think no one will care about yours then you’re in for the loss.
Remember that a brand doesn’t only ends with product. It continues with the choice of color, typography and choice of designs.
All this are what makes your business appear bigger and longer.
With that said, you don’t necessarily need to be a programmer if you’re so tight on budget.
With numerous website builders (WYSIWYG) like Wix, WordPress , you’re certain to have a beautiful website that looked professional in minutes.
To get images, you can use high quality stock images that are not yet circulated all over the internet. Else, you can buy some by purchasing licenses that gives you right to those images alone.
Social Media presence
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and others are used by lots of people in the world as of today. LinkedIn being the biggest for professionals, your social media presence means a lot.
While many business deals are being closed directly on these platforms you can see how vast they’ve penetrated into the business sector.
Now, having a good number of followership will make you appear as a well established enterprise. No one is going to want to have a business with a company that has just 15 Followers on Twitter for example while following 1k other people. It doesn’t sound genuine right.
That’s exactly how others will think. They might even think you’re impersonating that same brand they stumbled upon somehow on the internet.
So do well to increase your social media reach by creating some extraordinary content that will compel people to join and follow you.
As far as social media is concerned, numbers count. And engagement counts even more. So make sure you get close to those in your niche.
Pay influencers if possible to promote your account or better still use social media ads system. They’re cheap and will get you out there to larger audiences.
Great Logo Do note that your logo represents your business everywhere, anytime which is to tell you how important it is to have a great logo.
While hiring a designer can be another tough task on its own (remember the story of Apple’s logo).
Coming by a great logo suddenly is very uncommon which means a lot of time and brainstorm needs to go while your creative designer gets you lots of prototypes which needs to be cross checked with all other brands to avoid infringement.
While that might seems tedious, there are ways you can adjust things and make things work easier for you.
With lots of stock logos to download from, a subscription of as low as $200 can get you access to a large database of logos to choose from based on extremely designers preferences.
Press Releases They’re very important especially when you’re trying to get more public exposure.
PR agencies publishes your stories to the mainstream media.
While some are paid, others are free.
The need for a PR agency is to get the word out there while your business is still new.
While Google might be a spoiler here (because your website barely appears during searches due to its newness) it might be a good idea to get your contents and stories out to those that can reach Google easily which will give you great link backs.
“Link backs are the number one SEO ranking factor” said Brian Dean a smart SEO expert.
Also, you can hire some talented SEO experts to handle your website for you because they can help you with great SERP results.
Partnership
Another way to make your business appear bigger than it is, Partnership..
When you’re in partnership with the right brand, you’re bound for success at the end of the line.
While having your partners banners on your website won’t only make you look big, it will also boost your presence all over the place especially your niche market.
No one wants to buy from a lone wolf. “Potential customers are always moved by the type of company that you’re in partnership with and how deep this connection is will determine how far your clients will be willing to buy from you.” said Jones.
While this is a very important factor that you should consider, it is best for you to know what you’re doing especially knowing what industry you’re targeting and then pursuing those already in the game with a smart partnership deals.
This will put you right at the top in as much as the agreement will benefit the both parties involved.
Nearly every companies wants to make bigger sales.
So if a partnership with you will make that happen, no one will doubt joining hands with you so far what you bring to the table is big.
Formalise your business
This is another very important factor that will determine your business success.
When you formalise your business processes, it becomes very easy for you to sue or be sued which makes you a responsible entity.
Start by incorporating or registering your company with the government. Obtain necessary legal documents and formalise yours.
Copyright all your information and products. Patent what you can and then own the right to everything you create.
This way, your brand signature is on top of everything you make. That will make you appear as a legit institution people can partner with and even work with.
While this might sound ridiculously difficult, there are now some web platforms whereby you can virtually meet up with Lawyers that will help you with those legal files such as LLC agreement, S Corps, LP etc. Those will put you right at the top of the game while raking in more sales.
Although the type of business you operate will determine how much tax you’ll pay back to the government, your attorney will help you select which is very right for your business and its size.
Virtual Office
This is a very important factor that will also determine your success.
While majority of internet startup companies like that of Mr. Jones started off online right in his own house, his residential address as an office address won’t be a professional way to appear in front of potential customers.
Therefore, you can get your own virtual address which you don’t really physically own but own virtually.
These addresses are best for those who want to have business communication with their partners and customers.
This will give your customers a sort of security to trust in your products and services which will improve on your business sales over the time.
Virtual Assistants
Virtual assistants help your business communication processes. This form of assistants are there to help you manage your businesses and clients without you having to physically employ one.
Majority of these assistants are self-employed who work for businesses and agencies remotely.
They offer technical supports, customer supports and whatever kind of supports possible from your company’s products and services to your clients whenever they need one.
This way, you wouldn’t have to go through the hurdle of managing your clients customer support by yourself because another body is doing just that on your behalf.
While this is great, a great customer support team means a lot to customers. People always want a company that can handle their problems whenever they arise without having to go though any stresses.
This way, your business look reputable and big enough even though it’s being managed by just you and your nephew.
Market and Promote
As the popular saying goes that you can only make money with money, you need to invest back a certain amount of money on your business promotion and marketing.
Buying ads spaces won’t only make your business look big, it will also make you appear unique.
How many times do you ever want to make an online purchase and you see a website advertising that same product while you see some unknown website afterwards. Which would you prefer to buy from?
Because you’ll automatically think those that advertised are bigger enterprises maybe a partner with the manufacturer etc.
That’s why you need to advertise and promote your brand image all around your demographics.
This need will help you sustain on the long run.
The fact that internet marketing is way more cheaper and far effective than traditional banners and TV placements makes it way easy for you to advance and improve your reach to a wider audience who can trust your presence.
Promote your business
As you can see, promoting your business to earn big reputation and appear bigger than it actually is won’t really cost you a fortune.
All you have to do is understand what works best for you.
Assuming you’re an online enterprise, you can start off with Google and then use other powerful analytic tools like SemRush etc to get a better analytics of your industry.
It usually take time to expand a new business especially with little funds to finance its growth but following the steps listed above, you can be certain that you’ll advance to the very peak where people can reckon with you and get that recommendations you’d want to grow and expand towards a larger audience eventually.