Building a sustainable business model as a social entrepreneur can be tough. While juggling funding, hiring, customer research, and sourcing new ways to drive impact, establishing a strong online presence often takes a back-seat. When building and scaling, social entrepreneurs often make the common misstep of underestimating their online presence. But image matters, and how you present yourself virtually can have an outsize impact on how your business is evaluated, considered, and perceived by both potential investors and customers. To make it easier for entrepreneurs running lean operations, here are eight steps — in order of time spent — to spruce up your site and help you better represent yourself, your business, and your mission.

1. Check for written errors

Your site is already up and running — fantastic! But has it been proofread? Give your website a quick tidy-up by reading through each page and catching any spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Startups are often changing and pivoting direction, so make sure all the information on your website is up to date. For example, if you recently changed a product name or began offering a new service, make sure you make any needed adjustments.

Common error: Leaving the "lorem ipsom" filler text on your page. Make sure you replace any of the website template’s pre-written latin with your own words and content.

Pro tip: Need a page in English but English isn’t your native language? See if a coworker, mentor, or peer can give it a quick read-through and provide feedback on anything that may need to be reworded. Additionally, consider which language would be most appropriate for your target customers and potential investors and lead with that. 

2. While you’re at it, check the media on your site, too!

Replace low quality images and make sure you’re focused on featuring images that further illustrate the work you do. Headshots are great for the company employee page, but the rest of the website should include photos that explain what you do, how you do it, and inspire page visitors to take action.

Common error: Neglecting the quality and format of your logo image. Your logo should be in a png format with a transparent background so that it blends seamlessly with any changes in color on your page.

Pro tip: Design site Canva has a great feature to help convert images and add a transparent background, but other websites can also help. When choosing images to illustrate your work, consider which images might best draw the attention of your intended customers and investors, such as cultural relevancy or action-oriented imagery, to help get the right message across. 

3. Include your contact information and social media

An easy way to drive more traffic to your inbox and social accounts is to include them on your website! Usually found both at the bottom of the page and on the Contact page, you can add your company email and hyperlink the relevant social platform logos to each corresponding account. Acumen Investee and Acumen Fellow-founded company Haqdarshak does a great job including their email and social media at the bottom of their page, and a few contact options under their Contact page.

Common error: Forgetting to update these features on your site. While you’re adding email and social handles, double check if they still match your enterprise. Have you recently changed the name of your business? Did your mission and product line change? If so, make sure your social accounts have the correct information.

Pro tip: When trying to get a page up and running, these are often the last pieces we think about. However, social media — especially LinkedIn — can be a really helpful place for investors and customers to learn more about what your enterprise does, its impact, and its success stories. Make it easy for the right people to find you by including your social platforms on your website.

4. Update your links and ensure you have an SSL certificate

As you double-check your email and social handles to ensure they correspond with your enterprise name, be sure to make any edits and redirects for your URL, too! It can be confusing if your brand name and website URL are inconsistent, and can unintentionally communicate a lack of company consistency across the company to customers or seem unprofessional to potential investors. 

Common error: failing to make these updates across your communications. If you end up needing to make edits to your current URL, be sure to start using the new URL when hyperlinking across your other communications such as social media posts or email blasts.

Pro tip: Have you ever noticed how some websites begin with “http://” and some have “https://”? That extra “S” comes from a certificate that helps add crucial security for your site and its users. While making these more technical web adjustments, it’s a good practice to make sure you have an SSL certificate to keep your website secure. You can learn more about SSL certificates here.

5. Be clear and concise about what you do

Whether it's supplying medical services to underserved communities, building sustainable greenhouses, or helping provide jobs for displaced communities, the very first thing your website's visitors should understand is what service you’re providing. 

Green Growth Accelerator participant Padcare does a great job explaining their service, how it works, and their impact without jargon and with easy to understand language. As a bonus, they also include a video to further illustrate how their menstrual pad recycling program works.

Common error: Emphasizing the wrong information. A common malpractice social entrepreneurs make is justifying their existence, which can look like providing a history of their business or of the problem they’re working hard to solve, and neglect to include the actual service or product they provide.

Pro tip: If you’re struggling with what to say and how, consider reflecting on your enterprise’s theory of change. Acumen’s free course Theory of Change for Brand Communications can help you find brand clarity and teach you how to effectively define the need, work, and results your social venture addresses.

6. …Then make it easy for users to take action

Ideally, after learning about your product or service through your clear and concise messaging, users will be inspired to take action. Make it clear and easy for anyone on your site — through buttons, an online shop feature, or an email inquiry page — to purchase from you or enquire more.

Common Error: Underestimating a sense of interconnectedness and community in a virtual landscape. Once you have a clear message and the right features in place for customers to take action on your site, consider how you might build upon this to create long-term leads, scale funding, and build meaningful relationships. 

Pro Tip: Adopt a storytelling approach to convert first-time users into life-long customers. Learn to craft a message that inspires customers and funders to connect emotionally with your mission, which can move them to take action beyond just a one-time purchase or donation.

7. Update your stats and reports

Including stats and impact reports to illustrate your impact is a great way to showcase your value in driving sustainable change. Published new work over the last year? Received new insights from your customer base in your most recent survey? Take steps to feature these findings on your site to add value to your product or service. 

Common error: Failing to update the impact data featured on your site. Stale stats — anything older than 12 months — can backlash, creating an inverse effect of appearing negligent or inactive in your work. Be sure to refresh the stats and reports to ensure they are as up-to-date as possible. 

Pro tip: Not all data is created equal. Knowing which data to collect and share is a skill in itself. If you need some tips and tricks on measuring your impact, check out our guide here or enroll in our free Social Impact Analysis and Lean Data courses!

8. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly

Oftentimes, potential investors, customers, or partners are multi-tasking and researching on the go. This means your website needs to be easy to read on a mobile device. Take a minute to look up your website and scroll through each page. Are the font and image sizes consistent? Does anything need to be adjusted to better represent your enterprise?

Common error: Wasting valuable time and resources creating, designing, or managing your website with only the desktop view in mind. It’s easy to get distracted by the many elements of your site and forget to consider how it might actually be used and viewed by visitors. 

Pro tip: As you continue updating your website, see if your web platform allows you to view how your site and each page would look on a mobile device. This can help you reduce back and forth and streamline your web-building efforts. Platforms like Hubspot do this well, but many other services offer this option, too.

Before your next big announcement, pitch, or product rollout, we recommend going through this list to better tidy up your web presence and make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. Looking for more ways to level-up your enterprise’s online presence and brand? Check out these resources: 

New Course: Theory of Change for Brand Communications

Course: Debbie Millman on Branding for Social Change

Guide: Fundraising for Nonprofits: Avoid Mistakes and Grow Partnerships

Guide: Ethical Marketing: The Value of Brand Transparency

Blog: Virtual Fundraising: Tips You Should Try at Home