This is the time of year to do year-end reviews on overall performance. Many aspects should be covered by such an analysis, including sales and marketing numbers, financials, product quality, customer satisfaction, and more. However, one aspect of business success that is often overlooked or only tangentially reviewed is a company’s online presence. This is a common mistake which should be corrected during your 2018/2019 company-wide audit.
Five Signs That Your Online Presence Needs an Update
Many companies do business, share resources, market, book appointments, or provide information online. All of this activity should be leading to customer satisfaction, new customers finding your company, and improved sales. If this is not the case, or your website is frustrating to use, customers may be going elsewhere to get their information or obtain services.
There is no need to feed your competitors your potential customers. Instead, review these five aspects of your company’s online presence and discover what needs to be updated.
1. Your website is not secure or mobile friendly.
One of our team members recently went to a website only to discover that the site’s security certificate had expired and Google would not let her access the website. This minor maintenance issue that should have been taken care of by an IT manager or webmaster lost that company her business.
Simple maintenance actions and site updates like keeping the security certificate up-to-date, renewing domain name registration, or updating the site so it fits on any size screen are vital. Statistics show that over 52% of people used their phone to access websites in 2018. This percentage grows every year. Google will now even rank sites based on how mobile-friendly they are.
If you worry that your website is not up-to-date, talk with your webmaster or discuss changes with a web developer.
2. Your company is difficult to find on social media, or social sites haven’t been updated in ages.
Like it or not, your clients are using social media. They are most likely on Facebook or Instagram and are likely checking these sites at least twice a day. Even if you are a B2B business, the employees and business leaders who are your potential customers are on these platforms. That means your company minimally needs an active presence on social media.
If your company has profiles on social media, great! You minimally need to ensure the information about your company is accurate and that someone is posting to these profiles regularly. If you’d like to leverage social media for marketing purposes, there are many articles and classes on the subject that you can take. Alternatively, you can hire an expert to handle that side of the business.
3. Statistics show that no new customers are coming from the web.
You may think your online presence is terrific. However, if you are not getting any new clients from Google, Facebook, your website or elsewhere, something is very wrong. Do some digging to discover what is going on. Perhaps your online ads are getting people to your site, but they bounce right off. This is a sign that the ads are not targeting your demographic. It also could be that your business doesn’t show up on the first page of Google when keywords are searched.
Resolving your online issues can increase your sales numbers and bring in more customers, rapidly.
4. Your company is nowhere to be found online.
If your business has no online presence, you are missing out on business opportunities! Work out what kind of presence you want to have up by the end of 2019 – and be sure to assign responsibility for getting this done to reliable staff.
5. Customers complain about difficulty navigating your store, booking with you, or connecting with you online.
Many websites can use improvements, but if your site is downright obstructionist to getting business done, something needs to change. For example, one of our staff recently went onto a site to buy skincare products from a company she’d encountered at a tradeshow. She could not find the “shop” section, so could not browse the products and buy anything. That’s a HUGE problem!
If you know you have an issue but aren’t sure what it is, you have a few options:
First, you can hire outside help to discover the bug.
Next, buy tracking software that provides heat maps and other useful tools for understanding where your website is going wrong.
Finally, enlist the help of your customers by asking them to take ten minutes to review your site and fill out a survey about it. Often, a coupon code or discount works as an incentive for customers to help out.
Building Your 2019 Online Strategy
We are embarking on a new year, which means it’s time for new plans and strategies both online and off. If you’ve been running under the same marketing strategy for years and years and it’s been working great – wonderful. Just review it, tweak it, and have a great year.
However, if you are hoping to make 2019 the best year yet, it may be time for a significant change. As you dive deep into the data of your company to discover what should be updated, be sure to review your online strategy, hire on marketing professionals, and talk with business consultants. In short, get the help you need to blow the competition away in 2019!
