To survive, move forward and grow your business, many company owners have realised that they need an online presence to promote, educate and sell their products or solutions online. But how do you move your traditional on-premises, person to person business to the virtual world? Here are a number of steps to help bring your business online:

Research Government Supports

Contact your Local Enterprise Office (LEO) to learn about grants, training events and mentoring support that your business may qualify for, in particular, the Trading Online Voucher (TOV) which offers grants to companies of up to €2,500 to help them trade online.

Develop a website

Contact experienced web development companies such as Agile Digital Strategy and Acton Web to discuss your website, online payments and SEO/digital marketing needs.

Develop a Google My Business Profile

Now that you have your website, the next thing you want to do is set up your Google My Business profile. This is the business profile that allows you to show up in Google Maps for keywords relevant to your business. This is a must-have from the very beginning, and the sooner you create it, the faster you can start building up reviews, social proof, and online awareness for your business.

Online Directories

Add your business and web address (URL) to as many local business directories as possible. Directories include Yelp, Foursquare, Golden Pages, Chamber of Commerce and Professional Business Associations. Ensuring your business is listed on these directories will allow you to get more visits to your website and ultimately more qualified leads and sales.

Social Media

Setup business accounts on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.. It is important that you make your social handles (business name) uniform across all platforms. The reason for this is to ensure your brand is consistent across all platforms, making your brand easy for customers to find. Find out more here on which social media platforms work best for business

 You can also bring your business online by offering simple ‘click & collect’ or ‘call & collect’ services to your customers.