Today, a business’ digital presence has become its modern day ‘shop window’. Create an easy to use, visually-stimulating experience for your customers and you will reap the rewards. Get your digital presence wrong, and your customers will soon be shopping elsewhere. As more shoppers – b2b and b2c – spend time researching purchases online, a business’ online presence has never been more important.
Yet it appears that only a handful of businesses today understand this message and have created an appealing digital presence for their customers. Although millions of pounds are being spent each year to create and manage the perfect online experience, business leaders and marketing teams can often feel confused when it comes to managing their online presence.
To understand why digital presence is so important for businesses, it can be helpful to think of a business-customer relationship as a pyramid.
Where do you start?
Sat at the bottom of the pyramid are all the potential customers you are yet to reach. Perhaps they have some awareness of your brand, but are yet to purchase from you and have no interactions with any of your online presence. The next level of the pyramid contains all those that have become acquainted with your brand – perhaps they have bought something, and may have even checked out your website to find out what other services you offer.
Moving up a level
We are now in the middle of the pyramid and at a crucial stage of the relationship. Customers have started to make a connection between their need and your brand. They might even think “I should go there.” Moving even further up, the client has now started to favour your brand over others and would even go out of their way to buy from you – think of them as your confidante and someone you can rely on.
Achieving digital intimacy
The top of the pyramid is the pinnacle of this relationship, where your customer has become a real brand advocate. More often than not they will be friends with you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter and most importantly will be recommending your brand to their circles. You will have achieved real digital intimacy with your customer.
How to maintain the holy grail of online relationships
Achieving and maintaining this holy grail of online relationships is easier than many organisations think. Platforms, such as the one provided by Limelight Networks, allow businesses to optimise all aspects of their online digital presence across web, mobile, social, and large screen channels. By integrating these platforms into a marketing strategy, businesses can really stand out from the crowd and draw every customer to the top of the pyramid. Marketers can manage their digital presence and enhance customer relationships like never before.
There is no doubt that technology has transformed the relationship between a brand and its customers. Businesses that get their digital presence right have great potential to develop relationships with their customers that are stronger than ever before. The days of poor, ignorant online presence should be behind us and businesses need to start seeing the creating and maintenance of these customer relationships as one of the most important marketing tasks at hand.
