These days, customers don’t only shop with you in person or over the phone, but they shop via the Internet too.
This means you need to have a strong presence online, via a high-quality website and a strong social media presence. Without these, you run the risk of your competitors taking over.
However, an online presence doesn’t simply mean any old website or just having a sporadically updated Facebook page, it means having a quality presence which creates the same quality first impression customers as it would if they were meeting you in person for the first time and seeing you sat at your office desk, or your reception desk.
Of course, this subject also covers emails as a form of written communication. Emails from the business to customers need to be highly professional, free from mistakes, and they need to answer the query the customer reached out to you about in the first place. Anything less will create frustration and that could be enough for them to decide to go elsewhere with their custom.
If you’re reading this and you’re worried because you think your business doesn’t have a strong enough online presence, check out this infographic which talks about a few ways you can increase it.
.jpg)
Source - http://urbansoft.co/boost-online-presence/
In order to create the right online impression to your customers, your online contact needs to tick the following boxes:
- Easy to navigate and use
- Free from mistakes
- No broken links
- Attractive to the eye
- Informative and gives the customer what they need
- Offers a range of different content types and information
- Up to date
- Contact details are clearly shown
Those are the very basics. If you are operating a social media presence too, which is to be recommended, you need to ensure that you cover the main sites and that you keep everything updated on a regular basis. A lack of content is going to quickly bore anyone who tries to follow you online and turn their attention elsewhere.
Some businesses employ a dedicated employee to sit at their designer office desk and manage the online content, including social media and website needs. Other businesses choose to outsource this to a freelancer, but it really depends upon the type of needs you have and how large your business is, as to whether you can do this in-house or whether you need to outsource. Covering your online presence certainly requires you to be organised, and that’s something which some businesses simply don’t have the time or skills to complete effectively, on top of everything else they need to do.
The truth is that your online presence needs to be just as impressive to customers as your office design and the way you greet customers when they enter your space. Your online world is a reflection of you as a business too and that means you need to cover all bases to ensure that customers are getting what they want and they’re enjoying the experience too.
Not enough information, broken links, and poor design of any online space means that a customer is more likely to try and find another website which is easier to use. As a result, that customer may choose to do business with one of your competitors. If you want to succeed in business, that is something you need to avoid!
Everything connected to your business, from your employees to your office design, written communication you send out to how your products are marketed, this all sends out a message to customers about who you are. If you want this message to be high quality and positive, you need to make sure that you’re covering all bases and that means including your online presence too.
Simply because something cannot be experienced in person, i.e. the online world, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t as important as meeting someone in person for the first time!