How to Make a Good Online Impression with Prospects
Filed under: Internet Marketing Tips
When you meet someone new at a networking event, or when a new client walks into your office, you probably focus on making a good first impression. It’s one of the earliest social rules that we all learned, way back when we went on our first job interviews as teenagers.
Yet, these days a good portion of our identities exists in a digital format. When we “meet” someone online, we form a first impression of them, just as we do when meeting people in person. Unfortunately, many of us are still not paying enough attention to our online personas!
Most of your prospects will research you online, before ever scheduling an appointment to meet you in person. In fact, they might initially find you on the internet, via your website or a social media platform like LinkedIn or Facebook. So with that fact in mind, ask yourself this important question: Are you working hard at making a good first impression… online?
Consider these four essential components to building a solid digital presence:
Create your brand
Your website should contain more than just your address and phone number. Prospects should get a sense of who you are, and why you are uniquely positioned to help them. In other words, your online presence should inspire confidence in your abilities.
Ask yourself whether your website appeals to your target demographic. Is your logo appealing? Are photos crisp and clear? Does your website function, and have a sleek, modern appearance? Did you include a video to introduce yourself?
All of these factors help you to build your brand online.
Accessibility
If you first created your website years ago, it’s likely that many of your visitors find it unattractive, outdated, and perhaps even difficult to navigate. More consumers are using mobile devices than desktop computers these days, and your website should work on both types of screens.
Google even changed their search algorithm to favor mobile-friendly websites, encouraging business owners to upgrade accessibility if they want to stay near the top of search results. Get on your phone, open the browser, and look at your website. Is the appearance something that would impress a potential client? If not, changes may be necessary.
An engaging drip marketing campaign
Creating a modern, accessible website could be viewed as a more passive marketing tactic, but you should be following up with more active strategies, such as drip marketing.
If your website contains a contact form to gather details on your visitors (and it should), now it’s time to utilize that information to your best advantage! By giving you their email addresses, prospects are hitting the ball to your side of the court. Make sure to hit back to them, by emailing them directly.
A drip marketing campaign helps you take the friendly initiative, and will keep you on the forefront of prospects’ minds.
A consistent social media presence
Social media offers you the opportunity to maintain contact with clients and prospects, and make a good impression on newcomers. Of course, we all evaluate one another by online presence just as much as we do physical, in-person presence.
Remember that posting useful content on a consistent basis helps to build the impression that you are dependable, helpful, and available. On the other hand, posting sporadically, or posting irrelevant content won’t help you build a good reputation. It might even hurt you. Make social media marketing a priority by penciling it into your schedule, or out-sourcing that task to a specialist.
All of these tasks are essential to building a solid digital reputation, but they can indeed be time-consuming or technically challenging. Feel free to contact Greg Preite with Online Profit Strategy at (951) 234-5943 for more information on any of these topics, and he’ll be happy to answer your questions. We specialize in helping small business owners put their best foot forward online.
