d Blog

Welcome to d blog, also known as Dan's rant. The content herein is essentially comprised of miscellaneous ramblings and random thoughts on the nature of contemporary existence.

"Trusted Encounters"

Now that my wish for a smart person in the white house has been granted, I can return to thinking about business and society. One of the reasons Obama did so well was his internet presence. We can learn something from the very robust website(s) that the democratic campaign used. The web campaign was certainly deep and wide using a DDD (Direct, Digital, Database) approach and reaching out across many mediums including mobile.

There is so much content out there, so many voices, how can we choose what to access, whom to trust? For the most part the days of individual bloggers and smaller online ecommerce sites are numbered. There are simply too many choices. Most everyone will be better served by placing their online presence under a bigger umbrella organization, whose responsibility will be to offer security and to make markets by attracting traffic.

The internet environment is tantamount to the Wild West, the entire scope of both the individual and corporate or group experience can be traced to behavior. With or without the rule of law, in the end all performance is based on behavior. Of course location influences behavior as much as anything else but online location is just another way of saying popularity which is, well based on attracting visitors which is to say behavior.

We are better off attracting audiences than pursuing them. Unlike the movies, you can build it but they may not come. There has to be something attractive, which is to say engaging and relevant. The fundamental way to increase performance ranking is to increase your relevance.

Branding is a way of saying engagement and relevance which in turn contribute to “Packaging The Positive Experience.”

Successful Branding leads to positive performance. Your website is simply another roadside attraction until you make it a desirable destination. We are all located on the river trying to siphon off as many people as we can garnering as much audience, as many customers as possible. But so is everyone else. We must employ differentiation. Whether providing a wide range of service like Yahoo or appealing to a particular market niche like ebay or Amazon, understanding your customer is requisite to employing any type of market segmentation protocol.

Aggregating and providing relevant content could increase the credibility of your brand, enhancing the perception of your site as the authority on a particular subject or in a particular industry. Throw social networking into the mix and it might be safe to say that engagement reflects relevancy, if more people become involved in a discussion that proves relevance.

Given the Wild West nature of the internet, and whether or not they are aware of it, engagement, relevancy and brands are the filters most people use to determine where to go to satisfy their needs online. It has always been this way. Why do people buy Fords or Toyotas? Why do people shop at Macy’s? Why do people watch certain news programs and read certain newspapers? Trusted Brands provide trusted products and services. Look no further than the growth and acceptance of The Huffington Post.

The overwhelming amount of content available online, only serves to make trusted brands more important. Those organizations that provide high quality content and enable discussion, make relevancy is easier to identify, those brands will come to represent authority. Authority and engagement are the keys to success, and that is the reason why the internet is a legitimate source of information despite those gaming the system, trying to take advantage in an unethical manner.

The same principals apply to all content, news, commentary and eCommerce sites as well as the internet enabled portions of traditional brick and mortar businesses. Even if your site only directs people to the products you’re selling on eBay or Amazon, you must have ways of establishing your authority, creating trust with prospective audience, that is to say customers. Trust can come from blogs, expert articles and testimonials, that give tips, advice and credibility. When your audience senses that the authority behind a site know what they're talking about, they are more likely to return and purchase products from that site.

Engage site visitors and integrating useful mobile, social networking and Web 2.0 type apps will create an interactive environment that helps build a bond with customers. Anything that can help develop an ongoing dialogue with your audience is going to inspire trust.

This pursuit is never ending. Online survival depends on trust and authority with so many big companies to compete against success for the independent little guy is certainly difficult.

When a potential customer googles your site or organization name they should encounter a large quantity of positive and relevant results showing that you are a proper netizen and not a fly by night or Johnny come lately. Overwhelming internet presence can propagate your legend. Make no mistake if you don’t create your own organizational legend, someone else will do it for you.

Branding
Branding is the entire customer experience with your organization. Branding is getting your customer to see you as more than the best but indeed the only solution for them.

Appearances
Just like meeting attractive people, your brand by extension needs to be attractive, quality counts from a good-looking logo to a nice ergonomic, well designed site and certainly maintaining a solid reputation with good feedback. Be better than the competition.

Security and Privacy
Customers need to feel secure at your site, and you need to take measures to earn their trust in this area. This means privacy policies. Customers like to see SSL certificates. It makes them feel safer on your site. Take time to educate yourself in this area.

Testimonials
Testimonials are a form of marketing, they represent your business as one that has satisfied customers in the past. Get known names to vouch for your business if you can, customers find familiar faces more trustworthy than unknown ones.

Put a Face on Your Business
People buy from people they know and trust. include photos and bios of your staff Maintaining blogs can be a good idea, but keep it personal. Don't just fill them with press releases. Make your site fun, and reflective of your staff’s personalities. Let the audience see your humanity.

Build trust online. The more trust that is earned, the better you will do, it is enlightened self interest that motivates positive results.

+add a comment