So you know that you need to promote your business online but you don’t know where to even start.

In today’s business world the question is no longer should I have an online presence it’s how can I get one.   It is as important for an established business as it is for a new business to promote itself.

The single business challenge to getting an online presence is having a plan.  The whole concept of having a website, social media accounts, google search, seo, email can be overwhelming and it is hard to know where to start.

First Step

The first step is to take pen to paper (the old fashioned way) and list out what you want to achieve.   Start with your potential customer, what would they expect you to have, where would they find you?

The first answer may be that they would search for you using Google so this implies that you need a website.  You may also need a pin on the Google Map if you have a physical shop or office.  Therefore, number one on your list is to create a website and number two will be to have a Google Business page.

Next Step

Think about the way we live our lives today.  Admit it, we spend a lot of time on our phones and tablets engaging in social media throughout the day.  The statistics back it up, we love our Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and more.

There are so many options, but think little steps to begin.  Select a couple of the social media channels to start off on, make sure the ones you pick are relevant to your customer.  If your customer is 50+ there is no point in being on Snapchat, if you are a B2B business you really need a company page on LinkedIn.

Think about what you will share on these platforms, will it be tips and advice or just information about your product.  Think about images, graphics and video as well as articles or text.

Final Step (for the moment)

Now it’s time to look at your budget and see what you can afford to do at this moment.   You need a clear plan and time frame to achieve all this, otherwise it will just become a good intention without action.

Look at your time and decide if you have time to do it yourself or could you hire somebody to do it for you.

Start with the basics and that is to get a website.  You might want an all dancing super-duper website that is perfect and that’s great.  However, a website will always be a work in progress and will need to be kept up to date with new content regularly.  So get it to an acceptable level and put it live so you can work on it when you have time.

And if you get over whelmed, remember the old saying ‘How do you eat an Elephant?  – one bite at a time’.  Although I think I would prefer a slice of cake right now instead.