Build a Total Online Presence

There are a variety of tools and technologies which you can consider for your total online presence (check out our list of usefull online tools for small businesses), but a successful modern marketing program usually includes the following 7 core components: 

1. Quality Content that Generates Interest and Drives Leads is the Cornerstone of Your Total Online Presence

Your total online presence should be driven by your content strategy. Pick the themes for your content strategy.  

I find it helpful to create a theme for each month that all of your content can revolve around. Each theme I use has a substantial topic related to my audience’s industry/pain points and represents an important keyword search term.

Provide valuable information and use content upgrades to convert the readers of this information into leads. Try to personalize and add emotional components to your content as much as possible to really establish a connection with a reader. The more they feel that connection, the more likely they’ll be to convert into leads and eventually customers.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel with your content. You can share relevant content from other sites on your social platforms to provide value to your audience. You can also repurpose content you already have, so, for example, if you have a podcast episode, transcribe it and turn it into a written blog post.

• Use a Content Strategy to Drive Results
• Dental Practices Outsourced Marketing
• Tourism & Travel

2. A Modern Mobile-Optimized Website and/or Landing Pages is the foundation of your Total Online Presence

When most folks think of their total online presence the first thing they normally think of is their website. No one will argue whether or not your practice needs a website, but your need website needs to do the following: tell people who you are, tell them what you do, give them confidence and build trust in why they should do business with you. 

When it comes to content revisions, it always surprises me when people don’t think to start with their website as the content hub. The role of your website is to help you:

• Get found
• Build trust
• Educate
• Inform
  Nurture
• Convert

Oh yeah, and it needs to be optimized for use on mobile devices. While many professional services firms have websites, they tend to be older, brochure-ware type sites that were built a number of years back. They may still be viewable on a desktop browser (even if they look older and stale), but viewing them on a smartphone or tablet may be difficult or near impossible. 

• 10 Reasons Your Website Needs to be Mobile Optimized
• 7 Most Important Factors For Mobile Optimization
• Marketing Activated Websites
• Custom Corporate Websites for Financial Firms

3. SEO - Onsite and Offsite

SEO, or search engine optimization, is how your content and website get found online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the method used to increase a website’s position on search engine results pages (SERPs) on sites such as Google, or Bing. Developing an SEO strategy for your business can help draw traffic to your website.

Keep in mind that the goal of a search engine is to provide unbiased results that deliver information you are looking for as quickly and as accurately as possible. In order to do this, search engines are capable of identifying all relevant information online and ranking them in order of quality and relevance. There are hundreds of factors that are involved when search engines rank websites in an organic search. SEO is constantly evolving so that search engines like Google and Bing can provide the best, most relevant results. You don't need to be an expert, but it is something to keep in mind as part of your Total Online Presence. 

• MORE INFORMATION: The Local SEO Playbook
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Other tools like SEMrush Keyword Tool, Ahrefs, and BuzzSumo are best left for digital marketing agencies to manage on your behalf. 

For Small Businesses in Canada, check out our handy step-by-step SEO roadmap. If you complete the actions on this roadmap, your SEO will be better than 97% of local businesses.

• Fixyr's SEO Roadmap for Small Businesses

4. Online Advertising - Search Engines, Display Advertising, Social Media Sites

Your total online presence includes more than the properties you own, it also includes any online advertising.

Paid advertising can get expensive very quickly, but don't rule online advertising out for your professional services practice.

Online advertising can be highly targeted based on keywords, search terms (programmatic), and geograpic locations, and can therefore be very cost effective. With remarketing, your practice can advertise to visitors that have come to your site or social media pages, keeping your firm top-of-mind and keeping the sales dialogue open. 

• Google Ads
• Bing Ads
• Facebook Advertising

5. Social Media

• MORE INFORMATION: How do you make social media work for your business?

In order to have a strong total online presence you need to have a professional and strong social media presence. The main social media sites for professional services businesses to be on (in order of importance) are:

LinkedIn - Bare minimum: Make sure you have a company page, and make sure all customer-facing staff have profiles that are linked to your company page. Good to have: Post regular updates on your company page. For individual profiles make sure you connect with your customers, prospects, and referral sources. Advanced: LinkedIn can be a great lead generation tool, depending on the type of customer you are targeting.

Facebook Business Pages Bare minimum: Setup a business page for your firm. List off your address, profile, website, and services offered. 

If you have the time and inclination, you can also look into setting up Twitter and Instagram business accounts. 

6. Marketing Database coupled with Email or Marketing Automation

Email marketing is vastly underutilized in professional services marketing, including for accounting practices. It’s really quite easy and inexpensive to implement. All you need are three things:

• A list management tool
• Your client list with emails and preferably permission
• Content for your newsletters and marketing emails

List Management Tools

If you have a CRM with robust email marketing capabilities, then you already have your list management tool. Some of the market leaders in the enterprise space include:

• SalesForce
• HubSpot
• Oracle Marketing Cloud

In the small and solo firm space, any of these vendors are more affordable and a few of them are free:

• Constant Contact
• Aweber
• MailChimp
• ActiveCampaign

When you choose a vendor, be sure to choose based on email deliverability rates in addition to feature set and price.

Your Client List

Some firms will need to do some admin time to put together their client list, especially if they don’t have a CRM or have not collected emails. If you don’t already have a process to add new clients and prospects to your list management tool, it’s essential to put that process in place.

7. Listings and Reviews Round Out Your Total Online Presence

What will people learn about you and your business as the search around online, apart from your website? You want to make sure that your business turns up favourably in places that could generate new leads for you, or in ways that will help to add credibility to your business. Your total online presence includes where your business is listed online, and the reviews that show up. 

Listings

Often you can have your business listed for free. It can be time consuming, but every listing is another source of leads or helps prospects to determine your legitimacy. 

Consider the following for your business, based on your area, your industry, and your customers:

• Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development Authorities, Business Improvement Associations, Better Business Bureaus
• Industry Associations - depending on which customer segments you are targeting

List your business and make sure it can be found on search engines. The top two in Canada are: Google My Business and Bing Places for Business. Once you have business listings, make sure to encourage positive reviews.

Online Reviews

Online reviews can make or break a business. Your goal is to generate as many positive reviews as possible. If you've been in business for awhile consider reaching out to existing and previous customers to get them to complete reviews for you. Often if you ask, they will. Also, put a regular program in place to reach out to new customers once you've provided them with your product or service.

Drive reviews for the following:

• Yelp
• Google My Business and Bing Places for Business
• Facebook page likes
• Industry sites or forums
• Reputation Management for B2B Services
  
• MORE INFORMATION: Why Your B2B Firm Needs Online Reviews