When you’re developing a brand for your business, it’s important to consider your online presence. In fact, in today’s world, this is one of the most vital elements of your brand, and a space where you need to make a strong positive impression on consumers.
An article for Forbes recently pointed out that many customers will spend time researching a company online before making a purchase or engaging their services. This includes browsing the website and reading reviews. It’s all about building up a picture of a company.
Experts from the publication’s Los Angeles Business Council offered their advice on how to improve your business’ online presence.
At the top of the list is putting in the attention and investment that’s required. That may mean hiring a design agency in Buckinghamshire to help you develop your website design and general online presence.
One of the most important aspects of this is ensuring that your brand’s message is communicated effectively across all of your channels – on and offline. Kelly Howard, from EightSixtySouth, told the news provider that it’s about making sure “any touchpoint a consumer has with you is a good one”.
You also can’t afford to limit your focus to just your website. You should have listings on a host of websites, including the likes of Yelp, Yellow Pages and Google. Consumers can leave reviews on these sites, so you need to keep on top of what’s being said about your business and mitigate any negative comments.
It’s also important to instill the belief in the need for positive reviews in all of your team to make sure that they always give the best possible customer service. Avoiding negative reviews in the first place should be the basis of your strategy.
Getting your foundations right for your online presence is vital. This means you need to begin with your website and branch out from there.
Brett Crosby, from PeerStreet, commented: “Make sure you have web analytics in place and then build out your social presence and track how you’re being found.”
To reinforce the point, Business2Community recently pointed out that design is particularly important when it comes to your online presence. In fact, 94 per cent of consumers’ first interactions with an online brand is design related.
The publication highlighted a number of design trends that are important to watch and potentially include in your online presence to make sure you have the maximum positive impact on those who find your brand through your website.
Among them is the speed at which your site loads. Research suggests that half of visitors to websites will leave if the page doesn’t load within three seconds. That means your web designer needs to consider how quickly all the elements will load when putting the design together.
Mobile first is another trend that’s grown in importance in recent years. With more people than ever before predominantly browsing the internet on their mobile devices, it’s essential that your design works on these smaller screens.
The article recommends starting with a mobile site design, and then adapting this to suit a desktop, rather than working the other way around.