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How can I improve the digital presence my business has?

Digital questions

While it used to be a way of driving extra sales or simply housing contract details, the digital presence a business has is now its primary shop window. It represents the first impression a potential customer has, an indication of what level of service can be expected and the chance to tell an engaging story. Creating a strong digital offering doesn’t happen overnight, but it also doesn’t have to be an intimidating process if broken down in a sensible way.

Ways to help you deal with it:

Action plan

Build an online presence for your business

Building a strong online presence will help to drive more traffic to your business, increase company awareness and showcase your expertise.

ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

We explain why each step is important
Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

Action plan

Leverage your online presence to grow your customer base

Effort : Medium

Once you’ve built an online presence, the next step is to leverage it to grow your customer base.

Action plan

Decide which digital sales channels will work best for your business

With so many digital sales channels available to businesses, find out how to select the ones that serve your needs.

Guide

An introduction to improving the online presence of your business

From growing your customer base to boosting credibility and collecting data, being more visible online promises countless wins for your business.

GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
Filled with real-world stories
Achievable steps every business can take

Other support that's available

Online training and certification

Online training and certification

Google's Digital Garage brings together a variety of resources, including online courses and live training, for businesses either at the start of moving online or looking to improve.

A great shop window

A great shop window

Online accountancy business QuickBooks has brought together what it thinks are the most important things to focus on when it comes to a company's website and digital presence.

How other businesses have tackled something similar

Real business story

A strong digital presence has never been more important

As Integrated Estate Management has shown, building a good digital presence has increased brand awareness, demonstrated trust and, ultimately, generated new business.

Real business story

External agencies can deliver immediate expertise and fast results

An external agency helped Maxwell Scott double revenue, but software company Softwire warns SMEs to only trust results.

Real business story

Use data to improve decision making at all levels of your business

Find out why Freespace CEO Raj Krishnamurthy believes that providing employees with a clear benefit is the best way to get them comfortable with using data.

The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

Select a topic

Digital

How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business?

Leadership & Strategy

How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

People & Team

How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How should I performance manage my staff?

Planning

How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals?

Sales & Growth

How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How can we develop new products and services?