Developing a Strong Online Brand – The Basic Approach That Works
The online marketing environment offers a lot of opportunities for brands old and new to reach out to new leads and increase their sales. While a large number of brands are not truly invested in their online presence, there are those who have found opportunities for development and growth thanks to their efforts to make their brand recognizable and present.
The tricky thing about online brand development is that there is a lot of static out there. Basically, everyone craves everyone else’s attention and a casual effort to reach your audience will not even be as powerful as a drop of water in the ocean.
Make your product or service ridiculously accessible
What does this mean? Well, when you are creating your online presence you need to think about your average customer and build with their requirements in mind. Most brands that have made a name for themselves in the online environment strive to keep their customer experience pristine. Eliminate any potential steps in your sales funnel, which may frustrate, confuse or disgruntle your potential customer in any way. This can be broken down into several important aspects:
SEO – Without being visible in search results, you can hardly expect to get that many customers. Sure, in an ideal world, your PPC efforts will get a potential lead to your website, he/she will buy something and bookmark your website for further use, but this rarely happens. The way this usually works is like this: a customer drops on your website through a PPC, snoops around a bit and leaves.
Customer Centric Design – Abandonment rates can be a nightmare for online brands, especially when they aim to impress with the visual design of their web presence, instead of making the design as practical and logical to a customer as possible. Eliminate frustration and your conversion rates will improve significantly.
Payment Methods – In a lot of cases, it doesn’t pay off to provide support for each and every payment method, but you have to at least cover the major ones. Your support channels can help you identify these payment methods since it can be hard to hit the nail on the head on the very first try.
Chase after every opportunity for exposure
Ok, so we took steps to satisfy our customers, but we still need to reach them. The online environment offers an abundance of options when it comes to marketing, and you need to find those that work for you.
Social media goes without saying. These days, a lot of brands resolve support issues in public through social media and use these networks to engage their customers as well as expand their influence. You simply have to be there.
Paid advertising in the online environment may not always give the results you expect. Even though it is based on statistics and you pay per click (or view), the conversion will not be as high as you need it to be, at least not in the beginning. It takes