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 and 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.

Read other articles and learn more about Heather Lutze.

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