How to Tap into the Digital Economy

by Mark Bloom | Oct 3, 2016 | Small Business Advice

tap into the digital economy

The Longer You Wait, The More Difficult It’ll Be

As of 2016, nearly 3.5 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, are connected to the Internet in some way. In the United States, about 87 percent of the country’s men, women and children go online. Of that 13 percent who don’t use the Internet:

Over half (57 percent) are age 50 or older.
About a third never earned a high school diploma.
And almost a quarter earn less than $30K a year.

So unless your primary target market focuses on poor, uneducated retirees, your business needs to have an active (or better, interactive) online presence. Your business needs to be growing its Internet marketing activities year after year, because it’s the digital economy that’s expanding. By 2020, there may be as many as 20 billion Internet-connected devices (and only 7.5 billion people) in the world.

It Starts with a Website

Most businesses — including startups and nonprofits — now have a website. But that’s only the beginning if you want to really engage your customer base. If all your website does is list your business name, store hours, and contact information, you have a yellow pages entry, not a website. If you’ve paid someone to build your website but have never received a call or email from a potential customer who found you online, your website isn’t doing you any good.

A website is more than a 24/7 storefront in the digital economy. Your site can do so much more; all it needs is some attention. The principals at Ray Access have always maintained that “if you’re ignoring your website, your website’s ignoring you.” To tap into the digital economy of the future, you need to start now to lay the groundwork.

the devices of the digital economy

The Digital Economy Is Waiting for You

Not every business needs to be engaging social media. If your customers use it, then you need to engage them there, if for no other reason than to keep your company’s name in front of their eyes. (In fact, engaging social media is worthy of a whole series of future blog posts.) But every business can benefit from an active website.

To sell your products or services, your business needs a website that accomplishes a number of goals:

Attracts potential customers — not just “eyeballs,” but the right “eyeballs”
Answers questions about your business and your industry
Presents your business as a leader in your field with a distinct advantage
Establishes trust — because you do what you say you’re going to
Helps people like you — not in the Facebook sense, but in a real-world way
Persuades visitors to contact you

Let Ray Access Get Your Business on Track

You may think this is a tall order, but this is exactly what Ray Access provides its clients. Website content is the vehicle that helps you reach your business goals. A business blog provides your company an outlet to educate your audience and provide answers that people are searching for.

In the new digital economy, no one is going to beat a path to your door, even if you have the world’s best mousetrap. You need to engage the Internet to participate. You need an active website and a vibrant blog. You need Ray Access.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Why Blogs Matter

by Mark Bloom | Apr 15, 2016 | Blog Writing

Your Blog Posts Keep Your Website Relevant

Here at Ray Access, we specialize in writing website content and blog posts for businesses. We’re professional writers and experts at creating online content that works. Together, the principal writers at Ray Access have decades of writing experience and over ten years of online writing experience. But this article isn’t about why you should hire us; it’s about why you should listen to us.

She's listening to Ray Access; you should too.

She’s listening to us; you should too.

A website is only as good as the visibility it provides you (how easy it is to find) and as valuable as the leads it generates (how much it contributes to your bottom line). Consider your company’s website and ask yourself:

Is it visible? Does it show up on searches?
Does it draw traffic? Does it attract new visitors?
Are the right people finding it? Do potential customers come to your website?
Does it generate leads? Are you getting phone calls and emails from people who found you online?

If you answered “Yes” to these questions, keep doing what you’re doing; it’s working. Otherwise, start making plans to revise your website content or your website content will make you irrelevant.

Every Business Needs a Website

You may laugh at that. Of course every business needs a website! But the Internet is still a relatively recent development. While every business is now online, not every business sees the value in being online. They’re there because that’s what everyone tells them. “Ok, already. We have a website.” But that’s the wrong way to approach your online presence.

Connect to new customers through your website Going online isn’t a necessary evil; it’s an opportunity to grow your company potentially beyond your neighborhood or city. It’s a new way to find new customers. Your business needs to have an online presence not because everyone else is going online, but because it makes good business sense. A good website not only pays for itself, but it generates income.

The Role of Your Blog

So how does your blog fit into your website content? A continually updated blog does many good things. For example, a blog:

Adds valuable content to your website
Helps your business connect with your customers and potential customers
Establishes your expertise in your field
Answers questions people have about your industry
Allows you to explore topics the rest of your website content doesn’t address
Attracts more people to your website
Connects new keywords to your website, making it relevant to a wider audience
Injects some personality into your website, whether that’s fun, poignant or sophisticated

No Hard Sell

One purpose specifically not listed above is “Sells your product or service.” A blog is not a sales tool; it’s a marketing tool. Its purpose is similar to social media’s:

To build brand awareness and community
To educate and inform
To entertain and engage

If you can accomplish all three of these points, your business will be top-of-mind when someone’s ready to buy. And that’s important for two reasons:

Not every visitor to your website is ready to buy at that moment.
People do business with companies they like and trust.

Use your website content to generate revenue long-term. Use your website to convert visitors. But use your blog to build a community. When your audience (or fans or followers) views your website as the Go-To place for information about your industry, they’ll be more likely to buy from you than from your competitors. Find out more about Ray Access’ blog writing services.

Your Website as a Marketing Machine

by Mark Bloom | Sep 5, 2013 | Content Marketing

How Your Business Website Can Generate Cash

An earlier article by a content marketing firm revealed that the fastest growing companies get at least 40 percent of their leads from online marketing. That’s impressive enough, but the tactics of online marketing are so common sense these days that it’s a wonder everyone isn’t doing it.

Your Website Can Work for You

Your website should generate phone calls

The most obvious online marketing strategy is using your website to attract potential customers and to reach out into the Internet to actively find potential customers. How can this work? Here’s a football analogy:

If a team has the fastest wide receiver in the game, that’s a tactical advantage. If the quarterback never throws to that receiver, however, the team has lost any tactical advantage and might be better off without that super fast receiver, who probably cost them a lot of money.

Your business website is just like that super fast receiver. You can have the slickest site in the world, but if you don’t use it properly to gain a tactical advantage, you might as well post a single page with your phone number on it. That site probably cost you a lot of money that you are now wasting.

To get the benefit of any website, whether it’s a super fast receiver or a third-and-long specialist, you need to make it active. An active site attracts the very people who are looking for your business. Those people are potential customers. It’s that simple.

How do you make a site active? Again, the simple answer is to keep it fresh. An active blog adds content to your website weekly. Adding information and changing content on other pages — even your About Us page — keeps the search engines busy re-indexing your site while moving your site up the page rankings.

Don’t Forget the Other Obvious Strategy

The other obvious online marketing strategy is SEO. SEO, in case you’ve been under a rock since 1999, stands for Search Engine Optimization. This strategy involves making each page of your website a clear destination for a specific question. Everything from the copy to the photos to the title should all say the same thing: what the page is about.

Keywords play a large role in SEO, but too many can backfire. Keyword placement on the page is important, but again, consistency is the real key. A content provider (gee, like us) can rewrite your website content to be SEO-friendly as well as human-friendly. It’s a win-win.

Hence Our Motto

We truly believe these strategies can increase traffic to your website without breaking your budget. It led us to our motto, which is: “If you’re ignoring your website, it’s likely ignoring you.” We mean it, too. Keep your site active and updated, and your company will benefit. Remember, according to CopyPress.com, the fastest growing companies get 40 percent of their leads online. What’s your percentage?

So when you want to use your website to grow your business, we can help.