Module 4-Establishing Your Digital Presence Final LK

Module 4: Establishing your Digital Presence

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Table of Contents MODULE 4: ESTABLISHING YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE ....................................................................4

1. I NTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 4

2. A DDING S OCIAL M EDIA TO THE W EBSITE ................................................................................................ 4

2.1. Insert the Social Icons Block .......................................................................................................... 5

2.2. Add Your Social Profiles ................................................................................................................. 5

2.3. Link the Icon ....................................................................................................................................... 5

3. S EARCH E NGINE O PTIMISATION ............................................................................................................... 6

3.1 Making your site distinctive ............................................................................................................. 6

3.2 Getting others to link to your site .................................................................................................. 6

4. D EVISE AN O NLINE S ALES S TRATEGY ..................................................................................................... 6

4.1 Free Give Away ................................................................................................................................... 7

4.2 Add the give- away to your website .............................................................................................. 7

4.3 Sign up for the give away ................................................................................................................. 7

4.4 Soft sell approach-Build Trust ........................................................................................................ 8

4.5 Set up subscriber list using Mailchimp ........................................................................................ 8

5. S UMMARY .................................................................................................................................................. 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................................................9

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Module 4: Establishing your digital presence

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

 Add Plug-Ins and social media links  Explain how to use a search engine to optimise your website  Devise an online sales strategy

1. Introduction

We continue our digital journey having set up our website in the previous module. Let us recap what we have already accomplished by using WordPress:

 We have used an open-source software application to design our website. Therefore, we did not need to use the services of a web developer because WordPress takes our text and images and converts it into a code that the web browser can read.  We set up a website called Solar Lights which can be found on the Internet at the following address: https://solarlights966442987.wordpress.com/  Our website is designed to sell solar lights and this niche market has become profitable due to the constant power disruptions we have experienced in South Africa.  We have chosen a domain that does not cost us money therefore the words WordPress and the numerical code appear in our website address.  At a later stage you can choose to register your own domain name and can transfer your WordPress domain to the new domain address. You will have to pay for the hosting service.

2. Adding Social Media to the Website

Having a website is one thing but getting people to visit it is quite another matter. In the age of social media, applications like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have made it very easy for people to access your website by enabling friends, family and customers to follow you. The more popular the person or the more popular the business the more people will follow thus leading to more people having access to your goods and services.

Activity 17

Instructions:

In your group discuss the three social media applications mentioned above and then discuss how you will use social media to improve your business. If you are already using social media to improve your business explain how you are doing so.

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Step 1: Add Menu

The pages you created in the previous step must now be added to the Menu

My Site → Appearance → Customize → Menus.

Step 2: Add Social Media

Make sure your social media pages are created first. For example Facebook makes it very easy for you to promote and sell your products

Appearance → Customize → Menus → View all Locations. You will see an option for Social Menu or Social Icons.

Step 3: Save Changes then Publish

Choose the correct location: Social Pages

Save and then view your site

2.1. Insert the Social Icons Block

You can add the Social icons block by selecting it from the Add Block button. Alternatively, you can type /social on a new line and press enter.

2.2. Add Your Social Profiles

When you first add the block, you’ll see a + button. Click the + button to add your first icon. A list of all the available icons will appear. You can select the one you want from the list, or use the search option to search for an icon like “Facebook”. You can add the icons to all your social networks this way.

2.3. Link the Icon

Next, you can link the icon to your social media profile. To do this, click on the icon once, and a box will appear for you to enter your address. Type or paste the link to your social media profile, and click the arrow icon to enter it. (Wordpress, 2021)

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3. Search Engine Optimisation

When one speaks of a search engine Google immediately comes to mind and for good reason too. More than 70% of the world’s searches take place on Google. If so many billions of searches are taking place every day, how are people going to find our small website: https://solarlights966442987.wordpress.com/

Let us now take the two key words “solar lights” and search for them in the Google search engine: how many results do we get?

About 138 000 000 results ( in 0,70 seconds)

We can narrow the search down to South Africa only but this still gives you 10 pages of search results.

So you can appreciate how difficult it must be to appear at the top of the Google search engine on Page 1. How do companies like Lighting Warehouse, Builders Warehouse, Leroy Merlin and Takealot appear right at the top of the first page from the 138 000 000 results? The answer is : Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) and paid advertising. However getting to the top of a search page takes much time and effort and requires a budget for marketing.

For our purposes we will be concentrating on a few key features which will make us more visible and searchable:

Making your site distinctive

Getting others to link to your site

3.1 Making your site distinctive

Use very descriptive language when you write website content. Google values regular content updates and instead of using “solar lights” we can rather use “energy- saving” solar lights. The more you post on your social media sites and your blog the easier it becomes to find you. It is therefore a good idea to include a blog section in your website that should be updated regularly.

3.2 Getting others to link to your site

The more you are referred to, the more popular you become. Google rewards this popularity by placing your site higher up in the search engine results. If your tweet is retweeted or your Facebook post is shared and liked this adds to your site’s popularity which in turn places your site higher in the search engine results.

4. Devise an Online Sales Strategy

Online sales is no different from face to face sales. Customers have particular needs or wants and we try to meet these with enticing products and services. Customers will only buy from somebody or a website that they can trust. It is therefore important to remember that sales is about relationship building and selling online is about relationship building too. But how do you build a relationship with your customers online?

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Activity 18

Instructions:

a) In your group explore the different ways we can build a relationship online with our customers. Remember to explore the role of social media as well as how to go about contacting potential customers. b) Now look at Figure 1 below and see if you can follow the logic

Figure 1: Online Sales Strategy

To qualify for free give away customer must subscribe to your newletter: Mailchimp

After subscribing your email list starts to get bigger.

4.1 Free Give Away

Free give away must be genuine and easy to access

Your newsletter must be professional and content rich

4.2 Add the give away to your website

4.3 Click on a link in the email or social media post that takes customers to your website

Regular newletters help to build a relationship with your customer base and they learn to trust you more

When they reach your landing page make it easy for them to access free give away

4.1 Free Give Away

Everybody enjoys receiving something free. But don’t make it difficult to achieve or access, if you are giving away an e-book or video make it short, sharp and punchy but make sure it meets a need or solves a problem.

4.2 Add the give- away to your website

Let us put together a short 2 page document on “Ways to save electricity in the home. We would need to convert this document into a PDF and then host the give- away file on our website. Click on Media on your WordPress dashboard, select Add New, Select Files then upload the file 7 Ways to Save Electricity at Home. Don’t forget to click edit and copy the URL, this will give you the link you will send to your subscribers of your newsletter.

4.3 Sign up for the give away

Come up with a promotion to entice people to sign up for your free give-away. Your give away can be strategically placed at the bottom of your newsletter or it could be inserted on your Facebook page.

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4.4 Soft sell approach-Build Trust

Send out regular newsletters using a soft sell approach or a content marketing approach. Try to assure the reader of your sincerity and your genuine interest in saving the environment by utilising solar energy rather than electrical energy which is manufactured from coal.

4.5 Set up subscriber list using Mailchimp

Set up a list that subscribers can sign up to. Every time somebody signs up to your list your autoresponder sends out an auto message thanking them for signing up. We will now set up a subscription form on Mailchimp:

Mailchimp is an American marketing automation platform and e-mail marketing service, used by businesses to manage their mailing lists and create email marketing campaigns and automations to send to customers.

This is what you need to do:

3. Register your Mailchimp account so when people subscribe on your website, Mailchimp will manage the e-mail list.

1. Add a block to your WordPress site and name it 'subscribe' and qualify for free giveaways

2. When you add a block type in Mailchimp the icon will come up.

5. Summary

Selling online is both an art and a science. In order to get it right one has to be systematic, consistent and patient. Once you start selling you will find that it starts to become easier and more exciting. As you start to get to know your customers better you will start to understand their needs better. For further reading on online selling please click on the link below:

https://blog.shift4shop.com/ecommerce-website-for-brick-and-mortar-business

This website provides a systematic process to converting your brick and mortar business into a thriving online business. (Rodriguez, 2021)

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Bibliography

Wordpress. (2021). Wordpress Support . Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/social-links-block/#insert-the- social-icons-block Rodriguez, J. (2021). How to Make an eCommerce Website for Your Brick-And-Mortar Business . Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://blog.shift4shop.com/ecommerce-website-for-brick-and-mortar-business

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