Blog | Onsharp

Engineering Your Tech Company’s Online Presence | Onsharp

Written by admin | August 09, 2022

Your online presence matters more than you might think. A whopping 94% of B2B buyers conduct some online research before purchasing – and 83% end up checking out company websites.

Why Is Building An Online Presence Important?

Building an online presence is especially important for tech companies, including chemical, civil, electrical or mechanical engineering firms. How can potential customers trust your cutting-edge technical skills when your own website looks like a relic of the dial-up era?

Your online presence is vital to elevating your brand reputation and earning new clients as they research online. It’s time to engineer your online presence so that you can reap the benefits for your business.

Advantages of a strong online presence

Keeping up your website, blog and social media can be time-intensive. Yet, it can pay off big time in terms of getting new clients and boosting your brand reputation. Here are some advantages of having a strong online presence.

  • Better engage with potential customers: By keeping your online channels updated, you’ll be able to engage with customers in new ways. Your regular digital updates will inspire confidence and open communication channels with them.

  • Elevate brand reputation: Having a trustworthy reputation can drive new sales and customer loyalty. Your online presence can better frame your messaging and boost your brand communication.

  • Drive higher web rankings and traffic: The more potential customers that see your site, the better. Keeping up a high-quality online presence can increase your Google ranking and ultimately help you reach new clients.

  • Best competitors by showcasing expertise: Your website can do more than facilitate contact with clients. It’s also an opportunity to showcase your experts through blogs, podcasts or news, which can give your company an edge.
  • Save administrative time through accessible web info: Clients often come to you with the same questions. Having a robust website can help clarify their questions, especially with a FAQ section, and give them extra info as needed.

Key elements of any online engineering presence

Engineering companies can master their online presence by creating a strategy for every element of an online presence, including their website, blog, and social media. Here are some great ideas for creating a spectacular tech website:

  • An “About Us” page showcasing experts.
  • A testimonial page with recent client quotes.
  • Use long-tail SEO keywords on all your product and service pages.
  • Up-to-date site information, including press releases, product launches, and certification approvals.
  • Multi-option contact page, including social integrations.
  • Highlighting facts and figures, as well as safety and certification through plugins or visuals.
  • Easy-to-use e-commerce section with a searchable in-page product catalog (NOT a PDF).
  • Showcasing expert voices on blogs, podcasts, webinars, videos, white papers, ebooks and/or studies – whether as regular content or downloadables.
  • Displaying modern technology, such as AI or other cutting-edge tools.
  • Visual extras, such as virtual appointments, video tours of engineering facilities, multimedia content about products, or even how-tos and safety videos.
  • Consistent design across online platforms.

Best practices for your online engineering presence

At the same time, you can make the most of your online presence by thinking through best practices. Often engineering companies miss opportunities to connect with potential customers because they don’t put their customers first. Ideally, you should:

  • Define your target audience and their needs: Don’t get too industry-heavy on your site. Think about your ideal target market and make sure the messaging is catered to their level of understanding and interests.
  • Showcase expertise through content: Potential customers want to get to know who powers your tech company. By bringing your experts out from behind the scenes, you may enhance brand loyalty.
  • Hop on industry events and certificates: You should be active in your industry and have all the usual certificates. It’s important to become a reference in your industry and find new platforms for your brand voice.
  • Cross-market your online presence: Your web, blog and social media channels shouldn’t be in silos. Be sure you’re cross-marketing with them for the best results.
  • Analyze web and social traffic for insights: There’s nothing static about the digital world. Analyze your web and social traffic on a regular basis in order to glean insights about what’s working (and not).

Final takeaway

Bottom line: your online messaging can make the difference between winning over new clients, or experiencing a tech flop.

By keeping up a strong digital presence, you’ll even achieve new business results, including getting new customers and enhancing your brand reputation. It can also help future-proof your engineering site to stay updated in the long term.

As you build out your online engineering presence, don’t forget about your content strategy. It’s essential that you work to humanize your messaging and “speak geek” to potential customers.

To help you do this, download our checklist for defining the right engineering content strategy.

See our Checklist for Defining the Right Content Strategy