With the internet's popularity and usage, digital presence is something to make people say "you do exist". Before expanding your business by using the internet, you should have a proper business plan and solid foundation to build your front door to the world.
To build a stable foundation, you need to address four unique and interrelated components: content, strategy, design and technology. These four components should be treated equally to ensure a balanced approach to your digital presence.
Think of it like a table with four legs. And on top of it, a glass of water to represent your business plan. If one leg is not at the same height as others, the water will spill and your plan to have an impressive and successful presence on the internet is washed away as the glass goes empty.
To have a successful business with internet presence, you should consider the four components and see how it can help you to do a proper planning.
Content: Communicating Your Message
Content is the thing to ensure a proper communication by addressing specific information to people that find it useful. Typically this begins with your mission statement and expands from there to convey what your product or service can do for potential customers.
This message often is born from advertising or marketing teams, but you should remember that in the digital world, it's critical to focus on engagement. At the heart of the internet is interactivity, and it's critical to acknowledge that we operate in an environment of engagement, rather than an old broadcast model or traditional way of marketing.
Engagement is something that benefits people. Everyone is looking for something useful and lesser people are doing otherwise. By giving something that is beneficial to others will create a proper foundation and trust by potential customers. On the other hand, traditional marketing usually offers ads. This method is still widely acceptable but has less impact on the customer if it is done before your business becomes a good brand.
Strategy: The Plan for Engagement
After you defined "what" you want to sell, you can then tune it by addressing "why" people would listen to and engage with they message you're trying to convey.
Combining the "what" and the "why" will help you associate the plan for your messaging and communications. Your strategy should focus on your engagement over a period of time to establish a relationship with customers. This will create a map that will guide your company from where you are at the moment to where you would like it to be.
Strategy has countless of combinations. A company may have different strategy up their sleeves where one successful and proven strategy may not benefit much to others. Reflect your strategy with your business concept and see if it can guide your company to be a great brand that sells within the boundaries that is well excepted.
Design: The Package for Delivery
Beside using their thoughts to consider things, people use their senses to decide whether something is good or not. After you know what will be your message and why people will buy it, the next step is to understand aesthetic and customer experience.
Design is the packaging for your message. An important and useful message may not be seen if the outer shell is not attractive nor tempting. Think of it like a letter inside a sealed envelope. When thousands of white envelopes are piled, the one that is black is the most attractive.
Although attracting potential customers doesn't always mean a successful sale, but having their attention is the first thing to do to make you stand out among others.
The design and aesthetics of your message are just as important - and unfortunately, sometimes more so - than the actual content. It has to be accessible, engaging, and understandable so that the receiving party can absorb and process what is being communicated.
The rise of digital at the end of the last century and through the last decade saw the parallel focus on usability. A well-designed user experience can really differentiate your company from the rest of the market.
Technology: Paving the Road
Technology is the final component. It's often the least understood and, as a result, overlooked. Everyone knows how to drive a car, but very few understand how the car works. Similarly, everyone is online, and yet, a very small group of individuals truly understand how digital technology works.
No matter what your business is, if you want to have a successful online presence you can't overstate its importance. Without the proper tools to execute the job, it doesn't matter what your message is, why you are communicating it or what it looks like. You will be unable to connect or engage with your customers without appropriate technology.