Reinvent Relationships with Your Customers
Online
By Heather Lutze
Companies spend millions each year asking agencies and marketers to brand
their companies in order to reach more prospects. But, how often do these
same companies look carefully at the brand that is already built for them by
their loyal, current customers? Like it or not, your "fan base" already has
built your brand and holds your company's reputation in the palms of their
hands through an aggregate of blog posts, review sites, videos, and social
media platforms stating what they love and hate about your brand. In the
event that this is prominently positive, how do you get everyone to
collectively support your brand as a community of evangelists for your
company? The answer is to start loving your devotees, and to give them what
they want, a place to network, talk, share advice and continue to preach
about your brand. In end, this is what large corporations pay the big bucks
for- reverse marketing by and for your already loyal customers, and it's
something you can do yourself.
Take for example a small company in a predicament. Company founders had
built a tremendous brand and had a huge following, however, the brand was
fragmented and un-controlled online. For years the owners had been known for
their passion and love of their business, but they had struggled to produce
a web site that would support their loyal fans as well as perpetuate a brand
that would speak to new prospective customers.
Their problems sat with an incomplete vision of their online audience &
potential reach. Their website spoke to current brand enthusiasts, however
could not provide enough of forum for their fans to express their devotion.
As such, YouTube videos, blogs, un-official Facebook fanpages, etc., were
appearing across the web and were, in many cases, pulling away from the core
values and mission of their business. Additionally, unless a prospect knew
to search for their specific company name or slogan they would not find any
official webpages in search results.
How do you build and "feed" a community of loyal customers to continue to
build your brand from the inside out as well as open the market and build
brand awareness to new, valuable prospects?
Sometimes you need to go big or go home! So in an effort to establish your
online brand, sometimes you have to decided to redesign your web site,
rewrite all the content for SEO (search engine optimization) and start
aggressively utilizing social media to congregate followers! It can be a big
job with a big payoff.
Tip #1: Love Your Domain Name & Show the Search Engines You Care: Select
a Domain Name For Findability – It Matters!
What is your current domain name?
Does it reflect who you are and what you do?
Does it reflect how your customers are trying to find you?
Does it include any of your key words for SEO?
Tip # 2: Build New Web Site Look and Feel Consistent with Mission
Does your old site lacked focus with too much going on? The example company
included over 60 "options" immediately of what the user could do- so
essentially the clear action for a user to take was "do everything … now."
Also, their home page would be used as a clearinghouse for products on sale,
giving them the image of being the Wal-Mart of their industry. People who
came to the home page who needed help with a specific subject would have to
search over several pages to find the answer. A very confusing messaging
overall and not consistent with their message.
Their new site has cleared out the clutter and cuts to the chase. Four
primary conversion opportunities are presented on EVERY page of the web
site. Additionally, their background is consistent with their other product
lines on the home page and every interior page. The goals is to present a
cohesive user experience that appeals to both the long time devotee, as well
as the first time visitor looking for guidance.
Tip #3: Setup Social Media for huge community of followers waiting for
your lead
Have you established a social media presence? Large communities of devoted
followers are building their own Facebook pages and are looking for someone
like your company who already has a presence. Establish "THE" credible,
official place on social media sites your followers can trust.
Taking the dive and reinventing yourself or your business is scary, but even
more scary is the inability to adapt and change over time. The Internet is a
very fast paced environment and you must stay in touch with mistakes you may
have made in your branding and be willing to make it right. Ultimately,
you'll see big payoffs and great findabilty for being bold and taking a
stand for who you are as a company.
About the Author:
Heather Lutze has spent the last 10 years as CEO of The Findability Group,
formerly Lutze Consulting, – a Search Engine Marketing firm that works with
companies to attain maximum Internet exposure. A nationally recognized
speaker, she is the author of, "The FindAbility Formula: The Simple and
Non-Technical Approach To Search Engine Marketing" (Wiley and Sons). Heather
is a lead speaker for Pay Per Click Summit, and previously spent two years
speaking for Yahoo! Search Marketing. For more information, visit
www.FindabilityGroup.com.
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