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Tag: Online Businesses

  • Why Founders Keep Failing on Social Media | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a founder, your instinct is to appeal to everyone. Investors. Customers. Partners. The whole world feels like your audience.

    And that instinct is killing your posts.

    The biggest mistake I see founders make on social media is trying to speak to everyone at once. The result? Your message hits no one with any power. Social media works when one person on the other side of the screen feels like you’re talking directly to them. And only them. That’s when they stop scrolling. That’s when they like, comment, DM and share.

    If you’re writing posts for a crowd, you’re blending into the noise. If you’re writing for one person, you’re cutting through it.

    Talk to the ONE.

    Think about the last time you heard a great keynote. Thousands of people in the room, but it felt like the speaker was talking just to you. That’s the effect you need to recreate in your posts.

    Related: Why Authenticity Is the Key to Making Great Social Media Content and Building a More Devoted Audience

    Here’s how to do it

    1. Use direct language. Say you. Not “teams,” not “leaders in general.” You.
    2. Call out exactly who you’re speaking to. “As a founder…” “If you’re leading a small team…” Be very specific.
    3. Match their language and tone. Talk how they talk. Tech founders read differently than family-run restaurant owners. Investors hear you differently than customers.
    4. Anchor it in real experiences. Share stories your “one” will nod along to and relate to.
    5. Ask questions. Keep it conversational. If you wouldn’t say it out loud to a friend, don’t post it.

    The goal is connection, not coverage.

    Related: 11 Social Media Secrets Every Business Should Be Using in 2025

    Who is your ONE?

    Before you write the post, get clear:

    • Is this message for investors?
    • Is it for potential customers?
    • Is it for peers and other founders?

    Pick one. Speak to them. Let everyone else listen in. Being direct isn’t enough. You also have to engage. Respond to comments. Ask follow-ups. Keep the conversation alive in the comment section. The magic of social media isn’t in the post; it’s in the dialogue that happens after.

    Yes, it takes more effort to do it this way. But the payoff is real. You’ll start seeing responses from people who “get it,” and that’s how networks and brands are built.

    By the way, this principle isn’t just for your social media work. It applies to everything: your website, your pitch deck and even how you write emails. If people don’t feel like you’re speaking directly to them, they’ll bounce. But when they do feel it? They stay. They engage. They buy in.

    And here’s the kicker: when you start focusing on one person, you’ll be shocked at how many “ones” actually show up.

    The ONE-Person Framework (fast filter before you post)

    Run every draft through three quick checks:

    O — Outcome:
    What single outcome does your reader want right now? Name it in the first 1–2 lines.

    N — Narrative:
    Tell a tiny story (3–6 sentences) that proves you’ve been where they are.

    E — Engagement:
    End with an invitation that’s easy to answer: a yes/no, a choice, a “fill-in-the-blank” or “DM me ‘PLAYBOOK’ if you want the steps.”

    If your post can’t pass O-N-E in under a minute, it’s still written for a crowd.

    Bad vs. Better (same idea, three audiences)

    Generic (bad):
    “Founders, growth is about focusing on customers and raising capital efficiently.”

    Investor-focused (better):
    “If you write checks, here’s the only metric that matters for us this quarter: cash payback in < 9 months on the core offer. Want the cohort math? I’ll drop it in a thread if you ask.”

    Customer-focused (better):
    “If you’re a CFO tired of surprise SaaS overages, here’s how we cap your spend in 30 days without switching tools. Step 1:…”

    Founder-peer (better):
    “Bootstrappers: stop optimizing your logo. Ship a clunky v1 to 10 paying customers. Here’s the email I send to get those first 10 calls.”

    Related: How to Market Yourself on Social Media in 4 Steps

    Micro-examples you can steal

    • Hook for investors: “If you care about repeatable revenue, look at this: 41% of logos bought a second product within 60 days. Here’s why.”
    • Hook for customers: “If your onboarding still takes 14 days, try this 3-email sequence. We cut ours to 72 hours.”
    • Hook for peers: “What actually moved MRR last month (and what was a total waste of time). Numbers and receipts below.”

    A simple post template (fill in and ship)

    1. Call the ONE: “If you’re a [role] who’s stuck with [pain]…”
    2. Promise an outcome: “…here’s how to get [specific result] in [time frame] without [common objection].”
    3. Proof/story: 3–6 sentences. Short, concrete, credible.
    4. One clear step: “Start with [step 1].”
    5. Engagement: “Want my checklist? Comment ‘CHECK’ and I’ll send it.”

    The 30-minute weekly workflow

    You don’t need a content department. You need a habit.

    Monday (10 min): Pick your ONE for the week. One audience. One outcome.
    Wednesday (15 min): Draft two posts. Use the template. Cut filler.
    Friday (5 min): Show up in the comments for 5 solid minutes — answer, ask, invite DMs. That’s it. Consistency beats virality.

    Comment strategy that actually builds business

    • Reply fast to the first 10 comments. Speed signals presence.
    • Ask back: “Curious — what’s the blocker on your team?” Pull the thread.
    • Move the qualified ones to DM with a micro-ask: “Want the 5-step SOP? DM me ‘SOP’ and I’ll send it.”
    • Close the loop publicly: “Sent!” Your audience sees you deliver.

    This is how posts turn into a pipeline.

    Quality metrics to track (ignore the vanity)

    • Replies per 1,000 views (conversation density)
    • Save rate (did this earn a second look?)
    • Inbound DMs per post (real intent)
    • % of comments from the ONE (are the right people talking back?)

    If these four move up, you’re winning — even if views are flat.

    Common traps to avoid

    • Spray-and-pray topics. If your post could apply to anyone, it will land with no one.
    • Jargon flexing. If the ONE wouldn’t say it out loud, don’t type it.
    • Burying the lead. Put the outcome in the first two lines.
    • CTA soup. One ask per post. Not three.
    • Ghosting your comments. If you won’t show up after you post, don’t expect your audience to.

    How to pick your ONE (when you serve multiple)

    Rotate deliberately:

    • Week 1: Potential customers
    • Week 2: Current users (expansion/retention)
    • Week 3: Investors/partners
    • Week 4: Founder peers (recruiting, brand)

    Write for one each week. Let the others eavesdrop.

    A 5-minute edit pass to run through before you hit ‘post’

    1. Highlight every “you.” Not enough? Rewrite.
    2. Cut your first sentence. Start where the heat begins.
    3. Swap abstractions for specifics. “Grow fast” → “Add $20k MRR in 60 days.”
    4. Add one question. Make it answerable in one line.
    5. Pick one CTA. Comment, DM or click — choose.

    Related: The 8 Secrets of Great Communicators

    Bring it home

    Crowds don’t buy. People do. So pick your person. Speak their language. Prove you’ve been where they are. Invite a next step. Do this, and your posts stop sounding like ads to everyone and start feeling like help to someone.

    Talk to one — and watch how many of your right-fit customers show up.

    As a founder, your instinct is to appeal to everyone. Investors. Customers. Partners. The whole world feels like your audience.

    And that instinct is killing your posts.

    The biggest mistake I see founders make on social media is trying to speak to everyone at once. The result? Your message hits no one with any power. Social media works when one person on the other side of the screen feels like you’re talking directly to them. And only them. That’s when they stop scrolling. That’s when they like, comment, DM and share.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Chad Willardson

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  • How to Stop Online Marketplaces From Robbing Your Brand | Entrepreneur

    How to Stop Online Marketplaces From Robbing Your Brand | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Marketplaces have become extremely influential in ecommerce over the past three years. Major market players such as Amazon, Alibaba and JD attract millions of users, facilitating massive transactions across a wide range of product categories.

    They also generate a wealth of data on consumer behavior, preferences and trends. This strong market position gives them an advantage and the ability to charge unreasonably high commissions, basically robbing brands.

    The rise of marketplaces

    The journey of marketplaces goes back to the early days of the Internet when platforms such as eBay and Amazon pioneered the concept of online commerce. Founded in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has evolved into a comprehensive marketplace offering a wide range of goods. eBay, launched a year later, popularized the concept of consumer-to-consumer online auctions. China’s JD.com and Alibaba also burst onto the market in the late 20th century.

    With the growth of ecommerce, niche and vertical platforms began to flourish. They focused on specific industries or product categories. A prime example is Etsy, a marketplace for handmade and vintage goods founded in 2005. And as technology has evolved, so have the capabilities of marketplaces. The introduction of secure payment systems, improved search algorithms and user-friendly interfaces have provided a new level of convenience, trust, and efficiency in online shopping.

    However, it wasn’t until after the pandemic that marketplaces took off. The year 2020 was a stellar time for them and e-commerce in general. Online platforms have become critical for brands to reach a broader customer base. In 2021, a whopping 42% of all online purchases were made through marketplaces. The convenience of shopping from home, the ability to compare prices and read customer reviews, and the seamless transaction process for customers have contributed to the rapid growth of online platforms. And in 2022, almost two-thirds of consumers said they were happy to be able to order everything they needed through one merchant.

    By 2027, third-party marketplaces will become the world’s largest and fastest-growing retail channel, accounting for nearly two-thirds of online sales. Amazon, Alibaba, Pinduoduo and JD.com are expected to generate $4.3 trillion in global sales, up from $2.5 trillion today. Experts say that the most successful retailers, both now and in the future, will operate third-party marketplaces, and consumer brands must align with them to flourish in this new retail environment.

    Although the concept of marketplaces itself is beneficial, including for brands, the strong position of online platforms has allowed them to dictate their terms to sellers and vendors and practically rob them.

    Related: 7 Revenue-Killing Mistakes for Ecommerce Retailers

    How online platforms make money on brands

    In the early days of marketplaces, when they needed to attract new suppliers to basically unknown platforms, contract conditions for vendors and commissions for sellers were usually based on a small percentage of the transaction amount. As marketplaces expanded and diversified, they introduced tiered commission structures to incentivize sellers with high sales volume. Those who achieved such volumes or met specific performance criteria could qualify for lower commissions, which offered a potential savings advantage.

    With time, marketplaces expanded their revenue streams by introducing additional services. They included premium placement in search results, featured listings, advertising options, and other services such as fulfillment, delivery, and marketing support. With these, marketplaces generate additional revenue while allowing merchants to increase their visibility. The problem is that though online platforms aim to increase the effectiveness of services and tools offered to sellers, their main goal is still to earn more by raising the penetration of those products, not optimizing sales for specific brands.

    As a result, Amazon, for example, now gets more than 50% of sellers’ revenue on average, compared to 40 percent five years ago. Sellers are paying more because Amazon has increased fulfillment fees, making advertising costs inevitable. The typical Amazon seller pays 15% per transaction, 20-35% for order fulfillment, and up to 15% for advertising and promotions. The cost of Fulfillment by Amazon, when Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships orders, has been steadily rising, and there are few success stories of operating outside of this model. Advertising is optional, but it takes up most of the screen with the best conversions, so sellers inevitably have to buy Amazon advertising services to get noticed.

    The company has even been sued recently. According to the claim, Amazon penalizes sellers for failing to set the optimal price for their products by demoting them in search results and disqualifying products from the “Buy Box” feature, a white box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, where clients can add goods for purchase to their cart.

    The power of AI

    With the growing influence of artificial intelligence, companies can now leverage AI to expand their presence, optimize operations and ultimately generate more revenue. We estimate that the global retail AI market will be worth about $350 billion by 2032 as more companies realize the benefits of neural networks and take advantage of them.

    Marketplaces already use AI-based tools that provide valuable insights into consumer behavior, campaign performance, and keyword search. Their main goal is to increase sales, and algorithms help them calculate which sellers’ products are worth promoting to maximize overall revenue. Online platforms analyze customer buying behavior, items in the shopping cart and the most viewed items to make recommendations, predicting what each client is likely to buy.

    Brands, too, can use AI to get to the top of marketplace search and increase the share of sales in their categories at the expense of internal marketplace traffic. However, sellers cannot access marketplace AI models. Platforms keep information about their developments secret and notify merchants of updates only when they occur. In Amazon’s case, Amazon Vendor Service can be used to access some of the AI functionality, but it increases the cost of doing business. At the same time, the service itself remains a black box. It means that brands cannot use platforms’ AI to promote their products. It also means they need third-party solutions to do so. What exactly would such AI solutions offer them?

    Related: How to Leverage the Power of ChatGPT and AI to Boost Your Shopify Store’s Success

    1. Intelligent and dynamic pricing

    AI solutions enable brands to implement intelligent pricing strategies. By analyzing market data, competitor pricing, and customer demand patterns, AI can determine optimal price points for products. Dynamic pricing allows sellers to adjust prices in real time based on factors such as supply and demand fluctuations, competitor activities, and customer behavior. This ensures that sellers remain competitive and maximize their revenue potential on marketplaces. Our experience shows that using AI to determine pricing allows sellers to recover up to 6% of previously lost margins.

    2. Intelligent adjustment for performance bids

    Leading marketplaces usually use real-time bidding (RTB) systems allowing advertisers to bid to show their ads to buyers. For example, on Amazon sellers bid on keywords, and the one with the highest bid and the best-targeted keywords usually wins. In other words, the winning bidding strategy is when the buyer’s search query matches the seller’s target keywords.

    With real-time data and advanced optimization techniques, businesses can ensure that their ad spend is used efficiently. AI algorithms can continuously recalculate billions of possible combinations of bids and amounts of budget, campaigns and segments, helping to rebound 20% of previously lost ROIC, based on our experience. Amazon, Alibaba, and JD already use such algorithms for in-house performance marketing.

    3. Efficient inventory management

    AI can optimize inventory management processes for sellers and vendors operating on online marketplaces. By analyzing historical sales data, algorithms can forecast shipments and sales by warehouse and SKU with granularity to organic and promotional sales and high accuracy, identify peak selling periods, and optimize inventory levels. This helps brands avoid out-of-stock or dead-stock situations, reducing storage costs and ensuring a seamless supply chain. Additionally, AI can automate inventory replenishment and order fulfillment processes, streamlining operations and minimizing human error.

    Related: 4 Ways to Use AI to Enhance the Customer Experience

    AI vs. People

    AI has enormous potential for sellers and vendors on marketplaces. By using AI to learn about customers, adjust rates, optimize pricing and manage inventory, brands can improve their competitive advantage, drive sales and increase overall profitability on online platforms.

    AI models also allow brands to save on time and resources of in-house teams and agencies, which, in our experience, companies typically hire to get their products to the top of marketplace storefronts. Сonsider, a medium-sized company from the food industry. Typically, a marketplace team (the one working to distribute products through online platforms most efficiently) includes an e-commerce leader, a manager, a designer, and a marketer. In addition, the company may hire an outside contractor to help its internal team.

    Nevertheless, these people are forced to engage in routine operations instead of using their time to solve strategic problems. With AI, teams can focus not on playing cat and mouse but on developing strategy and launching innovations, while algorithms will help implement them around the clock and in the most efficient way.

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    Pavel Podkorytov

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  • 3 Ways to Build an Online Presence With Social Media

    3 Ways to Build an Online Presence With Social Media

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The internet has changed business almost beyond recognition. Gone are the days when business cards, a listing in the yellow pages and well-considered display advertising were needed to establish a presence with potential customers. In the 21st century, digital marketing has replaced many traditional marketing activities. Social media networks are among the most effective channels for establishing an online presence.

    The importance of social media for your company’s online presence

    Since the advent of the world wide web in the 1990s, having an online presence has become all but a requirement for successful businesses. Customers look for products and services online, and many have become accustomed to online shopping. Granted, there may be some local businesses that manage to attract customers by word-of-mouth only, but most companies rely on online connections.

    For the first decade and a half of the internet’s existence for the public, building an online presence relied on creating a company website and perhaps using email marketing. Since then, digital marketing has grown and diversified, with social media networks becoming one of the most important marketing tools. Being visible on social media allows brands to connect directly to consumers and establish trust between a business and its potential customers.

    In addition, leading social media networks offer marketing tools explicitly designed to help brands connect to their audiences. By 2021, more than 90% of U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees were using these tools for social media marketing. However, your brand can be small to benefit from an online presence. Most social media marketing tools will scale up or down to accommodate companies of all sizes.

    Related: How to Make Social Media Marketing Effective for Your Brand

    Building a successful online presence

    Building a successful, effective online presence on social media requires a strategic approach [perhaps link to the previous article here]. Before going into detail, it is worth defining what we mean by social media presence. The term refers to a brand’s social media visibility and its audience connections.

    Three main pillars to help establish this presence are branding, public relations (PR) and digital marketing. For all three, a strategic, well-planned approach delivers the best results. Simply adding a post now and then is not enough to establish a recognizable presence or build lasting connections with your target audiences.

    Related: Why Effective Content Marketing Will Transform Your Social Media

    1. Branding for social media presence

    By the time they start building their online presence, most businesses have created a brand identity and developed a strategy for branding. If that is the case for your business, your brand must remain recognizable on social media.

    The company’s brand voice and aesthetic should be easily identifiable across all digital and analog marketing channels. In practice, that means a social media user scrolling through their feed should be able to recognize your posts without seeing your brand logo or your account handle.

    Aligning brand messages between all channels helps reinforce and strengthen them. Alignment also helps build trust and credibility with potential consumers. On the other hand, if your brand voice, messages and visual presentation differ between outlets, the differences will create confusion. They dilute the brand’s messaging and damage the credibility you are trying to build online.

    2. Public relations (PR)

    Strategic PR is another channel brands can use to engage their audiences. Public relations has traditionally relied on media outlets to disseminate brand messages.

    However, by using social media, brands can reach audiences — including journalists — directly and start a conversation. If the conversation is relevant to other audiences, social media platforms make sharing content easy and increase its reach. As a result, new audiences become aware of the brand, leading to a greater social media presence.

    Another way of leveraging PR to increase a brand’s online presence is by contributing to other media outlets as an expert guest or regular contributor and linking to your brand’s social media channels.

    Related: What’s Hot and What’s Not in Public Relations for 2023

    3. Using digital marketing to increase your social media presence

    Brands with a successful social network presence utilize all their digital marketing channels to build that presence. These synergies between marketing activities do not happen automatically. They must be written into your digital marketing and social media marketing strategy.

    In practice, your marketing and brand team must actively pursue opportunities to highlight your social media presence and drive engagement. Here is an example: if your brand has been using email marketing successfully to connect to consumers, encourage readers to connect to you on social media. They benefit by establishing a more immediate and direct connection if they need support — your brand benefits by being able to connect more frequently.

    Other digital marketing channels like blogs can elaborate on a topic introduced on social media and encourage readers to join your brand’s community on a specific channel. The key to using other digital marketing channels to support your social network presence is to create connections between your brand’s channels.

    Related: How to Build on Your Digital Marketing Momentum in 2023

    Consistency matters

    Building a successful online presence through social media networks requires a consistent and strategic approach. Utilizing existing digital marketing channels and ensuring close alignment with the company’s overall branding supports a growing social media presence. In addition, strategic PR activities can also increase a brand’s social media presence across all its channels. Delivering consistent, relevant content that aligns with overall brand objectives is the key to growing and maintaining an engaged social network audience.

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    Jessica Wong

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  • 5 Ways to Improve Local SEO

    5 Ways to Improve Local SEO

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving like any other industry. The struggle to stay on top of the ranking takes more than a post in a month. To stay rated and relevant, you must put in the time and conduct the research.

    Being easily searchable, informative and consistent is more crucial than ever for small businesses, and for that, businesses need local search engine optimization. It’s simpler than you might think to master local SEO. Here are five quick techniques to boost local SEO and make your small business rank above its rivals.

    Related: Struggling in Local Search? Here’s What Your Local SEO Strategy Needs

    1. Ensure the consistency of your NAP

    Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP). Your local SEO approach may succeed or fail based on these three simple facts. Make sure to display this information on your website prominently.

    As it will show at the bottom of every page, the footer is an excellent location for your NAP. You can also make your NAP visible on service area pages and your contact page’s body.

    Consistency is key. Your essential company details must be consistent wherever potential clients may find you online.

    Related: 5 Tips to Improve Your Local SEO in 5 Hours

    2. Enhance the on-page content

    You can demonstrate that you are the industry leader in your field for the service you offer by using the content on your site. Along with your services in your region, include specifics like street names and landmarks.

    Explain to the customer why they would require your services in that particular location. Your customer’s user experience will be improved the more you sound like you belong.

    Related: This Important Website Feature Is Crucial For Your Business

    3. Get listed in local directories

    Getting featured in local directories is a fantastic additional strategy for enhancing your local SEO. There are a lot of web directories that are specifically designed for businesses in certain regions.

    Your chances of being discovered by potential clients looking for companies like yours are increased by having a listing in these directories.

    4. Optimize header tags

    Check out this resource on the best practices for using header tags if you haven’t already looked into the topic. By developing localized service pages, you have now gained more space to construct highly targeted header tags with local-based keywords.

    Good header tags provide a general picture of the page’s overall structure and what to expect as visitors browse through the content. It would look odd if you simply loaded keywords into the header tags.

    Related: How Should You Optimize for Branded Keywords?

    5. Create relevant backlinks

    Backlinks are one of the most significant ranking elements for any website, and it is the connections to your website made by other websites. Google views backlinks as endorsements — the higher the backlinks, the more they appear in search results.

    Prioritizing quality over number is crucial while developing backlinks. Look for chances to receive backlinks from reputable websites related to your business.

    Related: What Are Backlinks and Why Do You Need Them for Your SEO?

    Style preference for SEO

    • Use dashes with a space on either side.
    • Avoid serial commas: Cabbage, tomato, and potato.
    • End quote marks should be placed inside commas and periods, and there must be one space following a period.
    • Single quotes should only be used around other single quotes.
    • Include your personal hyperlinks and avoid placing citations or URLs in parentheses below the article.
    • Sparingly use one-sentence paragraphs. The ideal paragraph length is two or three sentences.
    • Subheads should have the same parallel format. They all need complete sentences if the initial heading is a full sentence. Subheads shouldn’t contain links. Just use them in your text. After the first word in a subhead, do not capitalize the following words.
    • If you must use “he,” use “she” as well. Pluralizing your pronouns will help you avoid this formulation, at least occasionally.
    • Never use the pronoun “they” to refer to a firm, organization, or government body.
    • Maintain consistency: If you begin with the pronoun “you,” don’t change it. It’s best to avoid using “we,” “I,” “he/she,” and “you” in the same sentence. Throughout the sentence, use the same verb tense. Keep in mind that the present perfect tense shows continual, habitual action.
    • Look for repetition of the same points, words, or themes.
    • All numbers less than ten (apart from percentages) are written out. Numbers 10 or more are represented by numerals.
    • Numbers are always used to express years. With numbers, use “greater than” rather than “over.” Instead of writing “percent,” use the % symbol.
    • Verify quotes using trustworthy sources.
    • Lay out any acronyms and abbreviations other people may not be familiar with on the first reference, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
    • In names for the first reference, use the complete name. Only the last name should be used in subsequent references.

    Final thoughts

    For promoting your local online business, you must include local SEO. You can increase your visibility in local search results by claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing. By getting listed in local directories and adding location pages to your website, you can draw more clients to your company.

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    Sean Boyle

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  • Want to Build Trust in Your Business? It All Starts Online

    Want to Build Trust in Your Business? It All Starts Online

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Successful entrepreneurs know that consumer trust in a brand is critical to standing out from the competition. Trust is what keeps customers returning to your business time and again. It is also instrumental in generating new and repeated sales. But “trust” can seem hard to quantify. What exactly is it, and how do you build it?

    Regarding commerce, trust is the customer’s feeling that your brand fulfills its promises. Does your product live up to expectations? And if something goes wrong, will your brand respond quickly to put things right?

    These days, a quick Google search is often all that’s needed to score a brand’s trustworthiness. From customer service ratings to cohesive social media and good PR, a solid online reputation is vital in earning the trust of existing and new customers.

    Related: Is Trust or Innovation More Important for a Brand in 2021?

    Focus on your website and social media

    When building trust online, one of the first places to focus on is each area in your immediate control. These include primary platforms like your website or social media channels. Such platforms are powerful tools for your brand, allowing you to shape your messaging to be cohesive and positive. It’s crucial to keep your brand’s aesthetic and core mission statement the same across all owned platforms, as these are often the first sites consumers seek out information on your product or services.

    Be sure to post regularly on social media channels. Also, consider adding a blog section to your website and share detailed brand updates on that page whenever possible. This allows you to humanize your brand by sharing important brand insights and providing customers with a glimpse into company culture, fun behind-the-scenes developments, and other events that help strengthen bonds with your business.

    Related: How to Create Authentic Relationships and Build Customer Trust

    Build up good press

    Outside of the resources under your control, consider investing in secondary sources to reinforce your reputation. From photography to press releases, interviews with local journalists and thought-leadership articles, any online media showcasing your brand helps populate search results while putting your product in a positive light. And the more recent these pieces are, the higher they will likely show on search results pages, providing higher visibility and better opportunities to engage customers.

    Beyond traditional “press,” like interviews and photoshoots, consider partnering with influencers on social media. Such partnerships can provide an authentic seal of approval from another trusted online and highlight your brand value to new customers. Whether on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, influencer campaigns offer an excellent opportunity to leverage audiences in any market.

    Related: 4 Things to Know About Online Reviews (and Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Them)

    Provide excellent customer service

    As mentioned earlier, an essential aspect of building customer trust is being responsive to questions and concerns. Be sure to give customers various options for reaching your business, such as phone numbers, emails, a website portal, social channels and more. List accurate contact info everywhere, from your website to your social media.

    It may also help to have social media moderators to answer direct messages and public comments, as so many online consumers now interact solely with brands through social media.

    And while you can’t hide potential negative reviews, you can still demonstrate that you care about customers by responding to issues on various review sites politely and quickly. Even a simple response shows you’re listening to concerns and can go a long way toward easing customer stress and worry!

    You can also create a customer review section on your website to highlight positive online feedback. Many sites offer this capability, making showcasing and promoting glowing reviews easy.

    Related: How to Build Rapport With Customers Online

    Invest in SEO management

    When you’ve done the above work, you want to ensure your existing and prospective customers see it. Unfortunately, it’s easy for a brand’s online footprint to get buried in a sea of search results. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.

    An experienced SEO team will often supplement SEO and put paid spend campaigns behind your marketing efforts, helping move your brand messaging to the top of search pages. SEO can be a technical, even highly challenging field and is often something SMBs and smaller brands don’t have the expertise or time to tackle most effectively. Though hiring an outside firm to assist with SEO comes with extra costs, the payoff in trust and online authority can often be significant.

    Investment in SEO marketing not only showcases the right brand messaging but also helps your business stand apart from local competitors. After all, your target audience needs to know if you’re doing the work on your website and social media, generating positive press, and investing in excellent customer service.

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    Adam Petrilli

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