[Online presence 1] Out of sight, out of mind

The internet economy already contributes 2% to South Africa's GDP (World Wide Worx 2012), and this is expected to rise by around 0.1% a year, reaching 2.5 percent by 2016. The online economy will grow faster than the offline economy for the next several years at least.

Here are some tips to ensure that your customers find you online:

Improve market visibility

There are several tools available to ensure your company is visible - the number one online tool is a website. Think this is old hat? You'd be surprised how many small businesses still don't have one.

Creating a site has never been easier. For example, Woza Online, a tool launched alongside industry partners to help South African businesses create free websites quickly and easily.

Business websites should be easy to read, cleanly designed, and contain all the information your customers might be going online to look for. Currently over 40,000 business sites have been set up using the platform - ranging from a beer-brewing home industry in Soweto to an adventure tourism company in Cape Town.

Make sure your business is on the map

20% of Google searches have a local intent. Your potential customers probably use Google Maps on a regular basis, including Google Street View, which allows you to virtually explore a destination. List your business for free in Maps with Google Places, so that users can find you easily: your business address, hours of operation and even photos of storefronts or products. You might also want to use the Google Maps API to integrate Google Maps into your website, joining the crowd of 800,000+ active sites or domains which already benefit from it.

Join other businesses who are using Google Maps to enhance their businesses - from property sales to car rentals. "A picture says a thousand words," says CyberProp real estate agents - Google Maps has helped it give its prospective clients a "feel" for suburbs and surrounding areas with a quick glance at the map. "What previously would have taken a lengthy descriptive narrative can now be accomplished with a simple image."

"No matter how big or how small the website, no matter what target market you are after, and no matter whether your potential clients have a GPS or not, you are able to show them where your product is and how to get there," says tourism company, Country Roads.

Get your customers onto your site

The internet is the first port of call for many people when they research, compare, and ultimately buy. Your business can be put well within a customer's reach with Google AdWords, a service that lets you create and run ads for your business quickly and simply online. Any business, no matter how small, can appear next to relevant search results on Google for a few cents - this creates a level playing field among businesses of different sizes

Connect with your customers at the right time by bidding to have your ad appear when someone searches on a keyword related to your business. This way you reach someone with a self-expressed interest in what you are selling. To attract the right kind of customers to your business, write ads that will make them feel they must click on your ad to learn more.

Adapt your AdWords campaign to suit your business needs and to stay focused on your digital goals - be it increased traffic to your website, conversions, or brand awareness - so you can measure success. The online advertising environment is dynamic: you can pause, cancel or resume campaigns at the click of a mouse to ensure you meet your goals.

Understand what you are getting out

Unsure how much business your advertising efforts bring in? Not sure whether your online efforts are a better investment than the billboard you put up? With Google Analytics (a free tool that allows you to track visitor patterns) you can see exactly what the return on investment is on your online campaign by seeing what customers do on your website. This tool helps you to understand and serve your customers, telling you how they arrived, where they clicked, and how they departed.

Embrace the global nature of the internet

Don't miss out on the truly global nature of the web. Did you know that you can create marketing campaigns in different languages, or target particular countries/cities? Not sure of your international market opportunities? A tool such as Google's Global Market Finder can find audiences around the world who are likely to be interested in your products, services, or business. A tool such as this uses data from global internet searches to show the number of times people search for your keywords. Combined with AdWords, Global Market Finder is able to provide estimates for bids and competing keywords by market and language, as well as estimating the cost of acquiring a new customer to determine whether targeting a particular market is a good investment.

Case study

The creators of the Riksha wanted to have a product that would make it easy for sport-loving parents to safely cycle with their child. And so they invented a hardy and versatile bicycle trailer that also easily converts into a stroller, making any indoor or outdoor experience comfortable for both child and parent.

The Riksha company used Google AdWords to promote this product. Owner, Neil du Preez, soon realised the value of AdWords, and the company now spends 80% of its marketing budget on online advertising.

Du Preez has found that this form of advertising results in a greater number of hits, decreased marketing spend and a 30% revenue increase per order. "A client who makes use of the internet to search for a product has already taken the first step towards your business," says Du Preez. "I rely on AdWords to bring my company and products to the customer, and it has paid off.

"There are plenty of resources made available to business owners that can help increase online presence - this is essential to the success of any website."

Riksha was originally started to generate a strong passive income but, through the use of Google tools, the business has grown significantly. "The success of AdWords has resulted in a repositioning of goals for us at Riksha. We can now see the possibilities that are out there for us to expand in sales and in location, all through the popularity of our website," says Du Preez.

For more:

• Bizcommunity: [Online presence 2] Get socialising online by Luke McKend

Updated at 11:36am on 20 May 2013.