If you’re looking to expand your customer base, provide a better customer experience, or stand out from the competition, consider building an online presence for your venture. That’s because approximately 76% of consumers look for a business online before visiting its physical store or office, according to a report on PR Newswire. With everyone spending hours online researching their favorite brands, having a strong online presence is key to establishing yourself as an authority in your niche market.
However, building a memorable online presence that puts your brand in front of your target customers isn’t straightforward. You need to commit time and effort to develop a customer-centric digital presence that focuses on the needs and interests of your audience in all matters linked to marketing and promoting your brand.
Note that a customer-focused online presence will not only boost growth, but show consumers how your products solve their problems. Keep reading to learn how to build a strong and customer-centric online presence.
Create a User-Friendly Website
Given a website reflects your brand, it should guarantee an unforgettable user experience for all your visitors. As a general rule of thumb, provide useful and accessible information about your services and products by creating blog posts.
Also, write an About Us page that explains everything about your brand. Your About Us page can be an effective marketing tool, so it should be user-centric to provide a positive image of your company.
Other parts of your website, such as call to action buttons, subscription forms, and shopping carts, should also be user friendly. This means visitors should navigate from one webpage to another with ease.
The site’s load speed should be fast, with all the content, including images, videos, and audio optimized for SEO. So, how can you build an effective website?
It’s worth noting you can build a website by using web builders like Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and Shopify. However, it’s wise to hire a website development agency to design a professional and user focused site. Website development by Lightning HTML, for instance, guarantees high-quality website creation and coding services for e-commerce businesses of all sizes.
With the help of professional website developers, no niche is off limits, meaning you can build an attractive website even for tough markets like pharmaceutical, gambling, and men’s products.
Develop Brand Identity
Another important consideration when developing an online presence is brand identity. Think about what you want consumers to associate with your online presence. For example, let’s say you have an auto shop that sells luxury cars. Your online image should tell it all. This means having images and details of high-end vehicles on your site. Then, stick to your brand identity by using consistent fonts, visuals, logo, and colors.
There are several steps businesses take to create brand identity online. First, define your brand’s purpose, vision, and unique value proposition. Failure to do so increases your risk of confusing your audience and losing them to your competitors. You might even alienate prospects if you’re not clear about your brand’s identity. With that said, identify the audience you want to reach through your web content and social media posts and know your competition.
Once you’ve identified who your ideal audience is, focus on creating an online presence that serves their interests. Next, develop a brand promise to attract and keep loyal customers. Today’s consumers are more likely to do business with you if you promise and deliver high-quality products and services.
Create Engaging Content
After building a website and brand identity, focus on creating valuable content. Your content should match the purpose of your website and social media channels, your followers’ interests, and brand identity. There is a variety of content you can create for each social medium, including short videos, images, time-sensitive stories, and podcasts.
Whatever content you choose to publish, ensure it reflects your human side and engages with your audience. You’ll also want to do some testing to identify the content that works effectively on different marketing channels and change your content strategy regularly.
Another crucial step is promoting and distributing your content to ensure it reaches the right audience. Therefore, create a content calendar to help you develop and publish your blog posts, videos, images, and podcasts at the best times to boost engagement. Publishing social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram when your followers are active, for example, is a sure way of increasing interactions, thus promoting online visibility.
Build an Online Referral Program
A customer referral program boosts your online visibility, as it encourages customers to talk about your products and services to friends, colleagues, and families for a reward, like a gift card, a freebie, or discount. A report on Review42 reveals that 92% of consumers trust recommendations shared by close relatives and friends. These consumers are also four times likely to visit your website and do business with you.
To build a customer-centric online presence through referral programs, you need to do much more than give incentives. You should keep your customers happy by providing services and products tailored to their unique needs. Also, improve your customer support services by being honest about your products and provide solutions to enhance their experience. That way, customers will be happy to talk about your brand and write positive reviews and testimonials.
Encourage Your Web Visitors to Leave Reviews
Another excellent way to develop a user-centric digital presence is through reviews and testimonials. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand your audience to ensure you enhance their experience. And the best way to do so is by allowing them to share their voice, then use their insights to improve your social proof. Since customer reviews generate more reviews, your audience will feel compelled to interact and engage with your brand. Typically, customer feedback helps your brand grow and boosts your online visibility, by helping you improve the quality of products and the customer experience.
Building a robust online presence is key to improving your brand awareness. That’s because today’s consumers want to interact with their favorite brands via internet platforms. To ensure your business is visible online and maintain a strong presence, build a user-centric website, develop your brand identity, create valuable and interactive content, create a referral program, and encourage customer reviews on your website.
