7 Digital Essentials For Growing Your Business Online

September 20, 2022•6 min read

“At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don't figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies .” - John Chambers

Introduction:

Staying up to date in the new age of the digital world is near impossible, with new trends and ideas formulating every minute. Being able to stay on top of the search engine and maintaining a good reputation has become more important than ever.

Adaptation has become the name of the game and just like our friend John Chambers said, 40% of businesses will die out if they are not able to adapt to new technologies. Take a look at these seven strategies to keep your online business ready for anything that comes your way.

1. Updating Your Google Business Profile

About 80% of people that are looking for a legal or financial professional go on Google to find one. This ensures that people looking for your service can find your business. Having a Google Business profile that keeps its audience updated has a much higher ranking in the Google algorithm. How is this done? Google Business posts, business reviews, and location.

If your business is relative to the search request and location of a potential client, your business is more likely to be placed higher than others. For example, if you are a local attorney or financial advisor that can assist your community with more personalized work better than a big firm, a strong Google Business profile can push you higher than them. Not only does this turn into more money, but now you're able to lead your community with the service they need.

2. Reputation Management

For most businesses, maintaining a good reputation is important. For financial and legal professionals though, their reputation is absolutely critical to their success. Choosing one of these services requires someone to put a lot of trust in a stranger. For this reason, having a good reputation is one of the most valuable assets for them.

How might these professions achieve a good reputation? The obvious answer is to do a good job, but the not-so-obvious answer is to get your clients to submit a review. This way, all of Google can see how great you are! Your amazing work can often go unseen if you miss out on these valuable reviews. Check out our first blog for more details on how to best go about the review process and its importance.

3. Updating Your Website

We live in a digital world where over 90% of people use online search to find a business. Yellow Pages isn't the same as it used to be, forcing a lot of businesses to build a website. Many failed to adapt to this innovation, leading a lot of businesses to fail. We all remember Blockbuster being too dedicated to the DVD market and not adapting to the new streaming age, and look where they are now.

One of the first steps to take is to make sure your website is updated. Broken links, error pages, and more mistakes on your website will push your business lower and lower on the algorithm. Updating your website and optimizing it for ease of use makes Google's search engine AI happy.

How is this done? You've probably seen this acronym hundreds of times when you search 'Online Marketing... SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This is a combination of web presence, relevance to the search, site traffic, and website function. If your site lacks in any of these, Google sends it down into the search engine trench AKA, finding your website at the very bottom of a search page. At the very least, your goal for your business should be within the first scroll of a local search.

To increase website usefulness, try to be able to answer a customer's questions before they've thought of them. Side Note: Having a chat widget like the one you see at the bottom right of this website is crucial! This ensures your website visitors can easily contact you at all times.

4. Automatic Missed Call-Text Back

It may be the first time hearing it for you, but missed-call text-back software is becoming more relevant as we move into a fast-paced digital world. According to recent studies, 80% of all business communications take place over the phone, 85% of people who call won't call back a second time, and 60% will take their business elsewhere after a missed call with a slow response.

So why might this be bad? Unhappy potential clients are 1.6x more likely to leave a bad review than satisfied clients to leave a good review. Leaving these potentially high-rated reviews leads to a massive leak in revenue in your business. You will miss out on extra income and leave a bad taste in your client's mouth for not answering your phone.

It is essential to have an automatic system that responds right away to potential clients. At the very least, your work phone should have a voicemail that says, "I'll call you back within the next few minutes." Now, all you have to do is live up to your word. An automated text-back system makes this much easier when you're on vacation, so you can be around when you're not actually around!

5. Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing systems are essential for locking in potential clients. It is a widespread problem to forget about lead follow-ups, resulting in a loss of business. A quick, automated lead nurturing system allows you to qualify leads and set appointments efficiently. Keeping track and nurturing every lead ensures you are not missing out on any communication with potential clients.

6. Streamlined Unified Inbox

A unified inbox is a less shared practice today and requires specific software; however, this makes life much easier. A streamlined, unified inbox keeps tabs on where your business is coming from and allows you to respond quickly to leads from a centralized hub. Why might you want this? Because this lets you capitalize on your strengths or substitute your weaknesses.

This system allows you to efficiently respond to any lead source without swapping from site to site, searching for new leads. For example, if you can plug every hole in your leaky bucket of leads, it will be mind-blowing how much more business you'll be bringing in. Having a hub for all incoming messages removes headaches and keeps everything organized. This way, you can spend more time delivering quality service to your clients.

7. Paid Advertisements

We intentionally place this at #7 because it should be the last tool to use after you have the rest in place. Paid ads are for scaling your business to the next level, not for reaching the minimum. Although, they can be highly effective with proper implementation, testing, and targeting. Advertisements work the best when your business can keep track of and contact every incoming lead.

When purchasing ads, lead flow increases; therefore, it is essential to have an effective lead nurturing system in place beforehand. Don't get us wrong; we love paid ads as they are a highly effective medium for reaching outside markets. We recommend implementing these systems first to get the most out of your ad spending budget.