By Mark Kakkuri
In marketing speak, when a potential customer checks out your
website before calling, emailing, ordering or visiting, it’s called validation. In other words,
they’re looking at your website (i.e., your 24/7 digital marketing presence) to
make sure you’re a legit operation, up to date and worthy of their time and
money. They likely do this on a mobile device, but may also do this from a
laptop or desktop computer. In any case, when someone sees your website,
hopefully they’re seeing an updated, responsive, mobile-friendly site with
accurate information and easy navigation.
Validation may take 10 seconds or several minutes. It may take one
visit or several. Regardless, even if the site has all the right boxes checked
for format, accuracy and navigation — resulting in a decent, digital user
experience — you can help promote a faster and more effective validation if
your website is more personal.
Here are five ways to make your digital marketing presence more
personal.
1. Keep the
news/blog page up to date.
Wait, your website doesn’t have a news/blog page? If not, how does
a visitor new to the site know it’s living and active? Constantly changing the
scrolling banners can help, yes. Adding fresh content to the front page can do
it, too — sure. Consider the value, however, of a news/blog page where you can
post regularly about what’s happening at the company, new products or services
and so on.
Post helpful, professional content, of course, but don’t be afraid
to make it personal, letting the readers get to know you and the inner workings
of your company — and its people — a bit more. Good content for a news/blog
page include employee news (like work anniversaries); the company’s 100th, 1,000th
or 100,000th sale; a new class; service or community projects where employees
“gave back” to their community through a neighborhood project or fundraiser. In
short, post news about what the people of the company are doing.
2. Showcase your
team on the About Us page.
The About Us page is a popular tab/page on most websites when it’s
about people. It’s okay to put the history of the company and a picture of your
facility — as long as it is a professional-grade photograph and it makes sense
to show these things. Otherwise, stick to publishing info about the people of
the company: owners, executives, managers, ROs and other range or sales staff.
If you can’t post a picture or brief bio about everybody (some companies do
this), then post info on the staff the customers will actually interact with if
they do business with the company. Being able to put a human face and name with
a company enhances the validation exercise because the company becomes less
corporate and more personal.
3. Add photos or
videos of staff.
Using the About Us page and the news/blog page, post photos of
your staff in action. Have someone with decent photography skills do this or
pay a professional photographer if you can. Even better, use the surprisingly
good video recording feature of your mobile phone to capture a five- to
30-second video of someone in your company doing their job. They should look
pleasant and hardworking; they don’t even have to say anything. Then, string a
few of those videos together in a video editing application, add some
appropriate music and subtitles and post it on your site. Don’t have the means
or wherewithal to take a project like this on? Find a local college student to
help. The tools are out there and plentiful, and it’s amazingly easy to put
together a quality video.
You can help promote a faster
and more effective validation if
your website is more personal.
Here’s where you take a moment to consider whether any of this is
a good idea. Think of virtually every social media platform out there and what
you and other people like to view. Videos and photos capture and hold
attention. Similarly, the judicious use of these mediums can greatly enhance
any company website.
4. Share real email
addresses.
Not only do potential customers like to see who your employees are
as they go through validation, they want to be able to reach out to them
personally. So, publish key staff email addresses. Yes, you can still publish the “info@nullthebestrange.com” and a
“customerservice@nullthebestrange.com,” but an email address with a staff
member’s name will go further in promoting a personal touch.
For those concerned with receiving unwanted emails, solicitations
or spam/scams, give employees two email addresses: one public and one private.
Or, use one of the means of ensuring incoming emails are sent by real people
and not robots. Your IT provider can help set this up. It’ll take a bit of
coaching to make sure employees realize their responsibilities in handling
incoming customer emails, but you’ll be offering a more personal touch to
digital marketing.
5. Include phone
numbers.
Similar to the last point, publishing staff phone numbers will
offer those more comfortable with calling on a phone the chance to do so.
Granted, providing one phone number on your website certainly has its
strengths, some people are averse to calling because they (may) assume their
call will go into an automated system or they’ll be on hold for an inordinate
amount of time. If a customer knows he or she can reach a specific person at a
specific extension, it provides a more personal connection for them.
A Personal Digital Presence It all sounds so personal, doesn’t it? It is, but these steps aren’t unprofessional. In fact, these personal touches are what many potential customers are looking for as they check you (your website) out online. It’s a digital age, for sure — one that makes validation very easy. You can help make it a bit easier by making your digital presence a bit more personal.
How have you made your digital marketing more personal? We’d like to know! comments@nullshootingindustry.com
