To answer the question, what is online presence management, it helps to start with a few questions

• Does your business have a website?
• Is your business utilizing social media to its fullest potential?
• Is your business utilizing online advertising and getting results?
• Do you know where your website visitors coming from and why the visitors are coming?
• Does your company have its fair share of online reach into the consumer market?
• Is your business utilizing email marketing and getting results?

If you answered yes, to all the listed questions then your business is managing its online presence. If you answered no to any of the listed questions then your business needs someone to manage your online presence.

Is Online Presence Management marketing?

Online Presence Management does utilize strategies, principles and theories of marketing. To understand the difference between traditional marketing and online presence management you need to review the definition of each:

Marketing - the activity and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Multiple communication channels are utilized to deliver the message into the consumer market.

Online Presence Management (OPM) - is the process of generating and drawing visitors (consumers) to a businesses numerous online channels. This process combines

• web design and development
• content creation
• search engine optimization
• online advertising and marketing
• reputation management
• directory listings
• social media
• link sharing
• and other avenues

to create a long-term positive presence for a business, product or service on the world wide web in general.

Marketing utilizes multiple channels to deliver a brand’s message into the market. OPM focuses 100% of the marketing effort in driving consumers to a businesses online channels with a general goal of the consumer converting into a paying customer after a positive impact is made.

Here is some insight into the formula utilized in online presence management:

The term Reach can be defined as a view or delivery of a brand's online content from a prospect consumer or website visitor. Frequency is the number of times a prospective consumer or visitor has received a brand's message or content. In the online realm, the content or message may come from multiple digital channels such as email, social media post, search engines and even offline channels such as print media. Again, the overall objective is to drive the consumer into one or multiple channels that are being monitored and measured by a business. The Impact, of the reach and frequency of your campaigns, are often measured through either engagement and/or conversions the campaign receives. Engagement can be measured by reviewing the number of likes, comments, shares, views or link click throughs an element receives online. The measurement is calculated by dividing the number of impressions (reaches) by the engagement type being reviewed.

Here is an example

Conversions are measured by calculating the number of consumers that purchase a product or service divided by the number of consumers that have viewed the brand's message.

Here is an example

It is critical, in online presence management, to generate as much Reach as possible to help improve overall engagement and conversions.

Start with a strategy that includes identifying the online and offline channels, the visual elements, campaign schedules, target market and the online frequency goals is a minimum for the overall success.

After the identification process, a business needs a deployment plan. The deployment plan should include building landing pages, designing creative elements, setting up campaigns, configuring response and feedback loops, target audiences and selecting the appropriate marketing channels.

Deploy the plan as scheduled and designed. After the first 24 hours, it is important to measure the results of every campaign running. It may be necessary to make adjustments to landing pages, target audiences, creative elements and schedules. Tracking pixels is now standard practice for many brands to ensure a businesses ability to retarget (remarket) to consumers that fail to convert (purchase or perform the intended action).

Conclusion

I hope this helps provide a better understanding of the service of Online Presence Management. Hiring a professional agency to handle the heavy lifting of the numerous tasks is the right decision for many small businesses. Do remember online presence is only one aspect of marketing and does not necessarily need to be the only channel your brand/business utilizes to grow your business. Do understand that many of the offline channels such as print media, TV, radio and even word of mouth point consumers back to online channels, therefore, managing your presence beyond just getting online should be priority #1 for your business.