Your online presence refers to how and where the community and other businesses see your business online. Your online presence includes:

• your business website, mobile website or a campaign mini-site
• social media profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
• corporate advertising profiles (e.g. on sites such as Yellow Pages Online or TrueLocal)
• links, information, reviews or articles appearing on other businesses’ websites.

Digital marketing is the promotion of your business using online resources and tools. Tools used in digital marketing include websites, micro-sites, mobile apps and social media platforms. These may include online banner ads, search engine marketing, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, blogs , guest blogs, newsletters, email marketing, mobile banner ads and e-books.

Using online selling in your business allows customers to buy from you whenever they want, even when your shop doors are closed. Selling online typically helps reduce processing times internally, enabling you to focus staff elsewhere in the business.

Customer interaction is about giving customers access to your business through whatever means they prefer – a mobile device, desktop computer, traditional phone call or social media. It should require minimal effort from the customer to find the information, service or product they are looking for.

To support your engagement with customers, you could use a customer relationship management (CRM) system to help you:

• capture and collate information about your clients
• track contacts, call backs and deals
• track the performance of your traditional and digital marketing strategies
• link your customer information with your accounting software.
• Learn more about collecting and storing customer information.

Online security is particularly important for small businesses, as it is your virtual assets – the data and information stored on computers and file servers – that are generally the most valuable, and often irreplaceable, assets. Online security may include:

staff policies for accessing and storing company data, using digital technologies, and dealing with customer information
cloud-based backup systems (see ‘Cloud computing’ below for more information)
secure software and payment systems.

Being active in a digital economy means you have access to global and national markets to establish potential supplier relationships, as well as the capability to undertake supplier interactions more efficiently and effectively.

Integrating mobile-based solutions into your business may include strategies such as:

• mobile commerce – giving customers the option to transact via their mobile phone or table
• mobile websites – responsive websites that scale down to a mobile phone’s or tablet’s screen size
• mobile applications – purpose-built mobile applications (apps) to help users complete specific tasks. Applications can be either external (aimed at customers), or internal (i.e. aimed at staff, to help them carry out business more efficiently).

Using the right digital technology for the right purpose, be it hardware (tablets, computers, smart phones, servers, etc.) or software (email marketing, CRM systems, business management software), can decrease your business overhead by providing your staff with the capability to undertake their work more efficiently and effectively.

Efficiencies include the ability to process data faster, retrieve information more easily and even downsize your business through the complete automation of suitable tasks. Consider how your business operates and determine which technologies will benefit your business to save time and increase your bottom line.

Decreases in your business overheads can be achieved by moving business processes such as human resources and finance online. This can decrease administrative overheads while increasing employee engagement and improving how information is shared. For example, you could introduce digital technology that may lead to cost savings if you automate how to:

• manage time sheets and pay
• plan and resource work
• order office supplies and stationery
• manage rosters and leave
• provide real time performance appraisals of your team.