The importance of the internet for businesses

In the modern age, so much of our day-to-day life is centered around being online. Whether we are shopping for the latest kitchen gadgets, uploading photos of our cocktails to send to our mates or simply surfing the internet to find out what to watch on TV, as a society we have never been more connected. With over 87% of British adults saying they have recently used the internet, the importance of the web to the business world can not be underestimated. The web is exceptionally important when it comes to digital marketing, and this evolution in the way people see the world and how businesses interact with their customers is changing. Digital gurus like Ben Austin and his site www.ben-austin.co.uk emphasize the importance of the internet for businesses in a whole new way, and in this blog post, we are taking a look at the different ways the online revolution can be harnessed to help you achieve your business goals.

1. New customers

Depending what product or service you sell, your business might be particularly suited to the online world. But even if you do not directly sell online and have no need to, you can still use the web to find new customers. Sites like Google and Facebook make billions of pounds in advertising due to the high reach and impact of the ads placed on there by businesses from all different types of industries, so there is clearly something to be said for online promotion. Through paid advertising like PPC ads and Facebook advertising, there’s plenty of opportunities for businesses to expand to promote their brand online and ultimately attract a whole new audience through different forms of online advertising.

Whether you are a public relations firm on the hunt for new clients or a consumer goods manufacturer looking for retailers to sell to, it is important to audit all the cheap promotional channels available online to make sure you are not missing out. Social media is one of the best ways to do this, and it can help you to connect to a whole new audience at the touch of a button. On the plus side, it is also free, meaning you can get more leads than ever before, and build up a strong following promoting trust and reputation by simply updating a few posts and channels.

2. Brand awareness

As well as driving sales, the internet offers lots of opportunities for increasing the general public’s knowledge of what your business offers. Where previously you might have taken out a small, restricted slot in a newspaper or designed cramped A5 leaflets to push through letterboxes, the internet gives you the opportunity to create rich, textured content which can be as long or as short as you like.

Rather than simply using images and text, you can invest in your brand like never before and tell your story in an engaging fashion. You can now show people around your premises on video or produce your very own audio interview – without having to rely on someone else’s rules. As your own publisher, you can take the story of your business to the next level and target it to those who matter to you.

Video marketing is becoming more important than ever, and it is a really influential way for people to start talking about your brand, the products and/or services that you sell and offer. There’s a whole new world of marketing that the internet opens up for businesses, and brand awareness is made easier than ever as long as you are competing on the same level as brands that are similar to yours. There’s plenty of different ways that you can push the impact of your brand awareness through a series of channels, and having the most up-to-date profiles and finding new ways to promote your brand is the best way to do this.

The more channels your brand operates on the bigger the audience you are able to interact with, and ultimately the more aware of your brand your target audience and demographic becomes. Whether this is traffic drawn to the blog on your site, social media channels like Twitter and Facebook or simply people visiting your website from Google, there are a huge number of different ways the internet can help more people to know about your brand than ever.

3. Internal importance

While many people might think of the internet’s value to businesses as lying solely in the opportunities for e-commerce and brand awareness, that is not the only place to look. The internet is also important when it comes to giving your staff what they need and keeping them happy and motivated.

It is vital to invest in a sophisticated, secure email system for staff to speak to one another as well as to clients. But you could also consider introducing internet workplace chat apps like Slack to your teams, as not only can this improve team morale, it can also streamline internal conversations and prevent the information overload often associated with email.

The internet is an interesting place full of new information and training opportunities too, and your workplace can harvest this and use it to your advantage in order to boost your employees’ training possibilities and personal development potential. There is a great number of different ways that you can incorporate the internet into your business without focusing solely on things like email and networking. You can incorporate an element of fun to the workplace in order to help boost staff morale in a whole new way, while also providing new ways for your staff to boost their opportunities for development.