During the mid and late 20th Century, businesses relied on tried and true methods developed decades in the past. Marketing was conducted through TV and radio, the former being the format that reached the largest number of people. Even though most companies had upgraded to computers, everything had to have a paper trail. Telephone calls and fax were the fastest forms of communication available.
Times have changed and businesses can no longer rely on the methods they had become accustomed to using. Technology has advanced, and the Internet is the platform that provides the biggest impact, reaches the most potential customers or clients.
If your business model is stuck in the 20th Century, then it is time to update. If you want to succeed in the digital age, you will have to get online. Whether it is to advertise, collaborate on projects, or simply make a phone call, you need to enter the new millennium.
Website
If your business is not online, you need to get it there! Even if you have a brick and mortar business, you still need to have a portal for clients to find you. No longer are phone books the means to which clients locate a company to do business with. Now they use search engines. By having a website for your small business, you can be found by this modern search method.
You may not know where to start when it comes to setting up a website. That is perfectly alright. Professional web designers can do all of the work for you. If you are a law firm seeking an online presence, a plumber needing a website or any other industry, there are designers available who know exactly what you need and the best way to implement that into a website for your small business.
Online Presence
This goes one step further than having a website. It is not enough to simply have your business online with a website. You have to interact with people on the World Wide Web. Social media is the biggest form of word-of-mouth advertising in the 21st Century. As such, you need to be out there on the various social media platforms promoting your business, getting people to talk about your company.
You also needs to optimize search engine results so that your business can potentially come out above your competition. By engaging on social media, blogging about matters that are important to your business and your customers, and contributing articles to professional sites linking back to pages on your site, you can expand your company’s presence on the Internet. This online effort will help generate more sales for your business, making it well worth the time required to increase your presence.
Cloud Based
Everything you do needs to be in the Cloud. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have backups stored on your own servers, but as much as possible use the Cloud. The Cloud offers ample storage for your information. As projects grow in size and become numerous over time, an office PC will only hold so much data. Especially if you are working with video content, you will need an increase in storage capacity. The Cloud can provide your business with that.
Cloud based apps have many benefits. First of all, they are predeveloped, meaning you do not have to invest time and money into developing your own systems. You can simply go online, conduct an initial setup, and begin working.
Second, they provide for collaboration. Anyone can use these apps, and you can grant access to anyone who may require the ability to do so. This allows for faster reaction times on projects as well as completion of an assignment sooner. Whatever your business is, it can only profit from taking advantage of the Cloud.
