An online presence can either make or break a business, even more so for small business owners. They are usually faced with a number of challenges that hinder their efforts. Lack of funds and lack of time are two top challenges that limit their ability to build an effective online presence. Considering the importance of an online presence, it would be worth your while as a small business owner to dedicate some time to it.  Believe it or not, you don’t need very much money to get it done either. These steps and tips will give you all that you need to pull it off.

1. Build your engaging website

A website is the most basic way to create an online presence for yourself. And it is something you can do all on your own — you don’t necessarily need knowledge of programming languages, nor do you need to contract a developer to design the website for you. These days, there are a number of free tools online that provide step-by-step creation guidance as well as ready-to-use templates.Dorik, Doodlekit, Weebly, and Wix are just to name a few — their templates allow you to drag and drop design elements — it is that easy. So, don’t get discouraged by the appearance of your website; your initial goal is to simply be online. The appearance and content can always be refined as time goes by.

When building your website, you first need to consider what you want it to achieve. Don’t just pick a design simply because it is popular or you think it is beautiful. If you are a restaurant owner, for example, who wants to increase table reservations, your needs would differ from say a young business that wants to generate more leads — you will need a credit card processing system integrated into your website. It is fortunate that services such as Bigcommerce, Volusion, and Shopify are all-in-one platforms that enable you to create an online store in a matter of hours.

Once your website is complete it must be captivating in order for people to stay on it and make a purchase.

2. Develop your social media strategy

Your social media strategy is what details your social media goals — it guides your actions and helps you evaluate your performance. The more specific it is, the more efficient it will be, so keep it consistent. But before you can begin to develop your social media strategy, you first need to identify your company’s social media marketing goals. By establishing specific targets, you can monitor your return on investment as well as your progress.

The second most important thing you should do is to know your target audience and your competitors. Competition plays a big part in your strategy and can assist you in uncovering industry trends. You then should create your social media accounts and consistently post appealing content. But remember to keep on top of it — track your performance and make changes as necessary.

3. Create engaging and effective social media content

Content is key to your strategy — so, create it with your brand identity, target audience, and objectives in mind and update regularly if needed to keep your audience on their toes. It should be content that they always want to read, interact with, and reshare. Once ready, content should be published on a schedule — at times of maximum impact — times that best enable you to engage with your audience. Being active in other ways on social media also helps, for example, by leaving comments, liking posts, resharing content from others’ profiles, and responding to messages from your followers.

Another thing that can be helpful is search engine optimization. It is one of the most important tools to help you rank high on search engine results pages and drive traffic to your site. Learn and master it.

4. Do some influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is very popular and has been very effective in increasing sales, mostly because people trust influencers almost as much as they trust their friends. As a small business owner, you may feel like contracting a social media influencer is beyond your reach, but you cannot be any more wrong.

Influencer marketing can be more affordable than you might think. One option that is just as effective as or even more effective than influencer marketing would be for you to enlist your loyal customers to serve as your brand advocates. The only payment you would have to make would be in the form of freebies and discounts in exchange for customers’ promotion of your product.

However, if you have a budget that can accommodate large-scale influencer marketing, Leadar and Grin can help you narrow down the influencers relevant to your brand so that you can connect with them.

5. Invest in referral marketing

Referral marketing is powerful — it is a tool with a little upfront cost that can help you use your existing customers to build relationships with new ones. In exchange for a discount gift card or some other reward, your customers spread the word about your brand to their colleagues, family, and friends. Research is in favor of word-of-mouth promotion; it shows that brands that create an emotional connection with their customers receive three times more word-of-mouth than those that don’t and that customers gained in that way spend 200% more than the average customer.

6. Encourage customer testimonials and reviews

Customer testimonials and reviews are extremely important to your brand. They enable you to improve the customer experience through a better understanding of your audience. Customer testimonials and reviews help prospects see the legitimacy of your brand. Reviews normally generate more reviews. Testimonials can result in conversations as well as long-term customer relationships. Social proof suggests that prospects are far more likely to purchase your brand if it has positive reviews or if someone they trust vouches for it. With endorsements from trusted people, your business can become more trustworthy among prospects — a trust that converts to increased sales.