Digital Success: Setting Yourself Up For The Future
The digital age is truly amazing. Never before have we been able to do so much from a business point of view. And, in our, unbiased opinion, it’s never been better. In saying that, tapping into the power of digital is not always a simple process. Digital transformation comes in all different shapes and sizes. For some businesses, it involves a full-scale overhaul of their brand and operations. Whereas, for others, it’s a simple rejigging of the website and investing in a bit of digital marketing. However, we believe the best place to start is with these easy wins. These are simple, yet highly effective steps you can take to drastically improve your digital success and presence. And they include…
Getting your website up to scratch
Your website is your business’ greatest asset, but it can also be its biggest weakness.
As the internet continues to solidify itself as the number one channel for the public to connect with businesses, a poor performing website could really hurt your bottom line. While building a revenue-generating website is a practice that includes a multitude of elements, one of the core elements is SEO compliance.
While creating a website that is fully optimised for SEO purpose incorporates a number of different factors, implementing common SEO best practices is the best place to start. These include crafting accurate and trustworthy content littered with keywords, having an attractive and functional UI/IX that passes the speed test and a structure that is mobile-friendly. Ticking all these boxes will have Google and other search engines loving your website and shooting it to the top.
Understand the customer journey
How well do you know your customers’ pathway to purchase? Let’s rephrase that, how well do you know your customers’ digital pathway? With consumers increasingly using the internet to find and connect with businesses, you need to be able to answer that question.
Nowaday’s finding the answer to that question is fairly easy, if you know where to look. It’s all in the data. By taking a look at your data, we can tell you that 35% of your customers are within the 30-50 age bracket, generally, look at your LinkedIn page and then contact you by filling out an inquiry form on your website.
This is the type of insight businesses have been crying out for and now we have the power to access it. But now what do you do with it?
Automate as much as possible
You simply take that data and knowledge of your customers’ digital journey and use it to improve that pathway by creating touch points that answer the needs and questions of consumers.
In the past, we would have argued that doing that may have been too time-consuming and costly, not anymore. Nowaday’s we can automate everything. This is done by understanding what each touch point, or trigger, is on your website and the communication that goes along with that.
Once you have this all mapped out, we can build in a series of automation that instantly kicks into action once a goal or trigger has been activated.
Get social
Potentially the easiest win out of all is cleaning up your business’ social media pages and getting active. For some, the social media world is a minefield of unknowns. And, while, it sometimes gets a bad wrap, it is a powerful business tool.
As of last year, there were over three million active users of at least one social media platform. No other platform, digital or traditional, even comes within touching distance of this. What this means is your customers are online. And, so should you.
Getting active doesn’t require a lot. Basically, all you need to do is ensure your profiles are all on brand, have relevant contact details and start publishing content once or twice a week. You don’t need a big marketing budget, you simply need to log in, upload a market update video or team photo and press publish.
Create a Google My Business listing
Lastly, set up a Google Business Profile. This is that little information box that pops up on the side of Google when you search for a business or a certain industry. Essentially it makes it easier for people searching for your business to find you.
Because consumers are all about using the path of least resistance, having an up to date Google Business profile, will do wonders for your website traffic.
Winning in the digital space is actually pretty simple. It doesn’t necessarily require a large budget, a flashy website or heavy investment into marketing. Because at the end of the day, those three things mean nothing if, one, people can’t find you, and two, find it hard to interact with your online presence.
Avoid the painful, and costly, practice of recovering from getting it wrong, by using the five points above as a checklist for winning online.
Mike Taylor is the Founder and Managing Director of BBT Digital.
