This review helps you re-design, re-strategize and re-launch a better and impactful online presence. It is necessary because of the growing evolution of online platforms and increasing number of new tech trends and innovations.
If you do not self-review, your website may become stale and ‘old-school’. You will not achieve the objectives you have set for your business.
Any business that fails to review to improve its online presence will have itself to blame because it will not know what is working and what will not. Reviewing helps analyse your objectives, strategies, contents and platforms to know what steps to take.
Questions to ask when doing the review
You need to ask some crucial questions when you want to review the online presence for your business. These are as follows:
1. How effective is your website?
Your official ‘online kingdom’ on the web as a business is your website. That is the home of your brand and character. Every business must have the website which projects clearly what the business offers and elements that differentiate it from others.
Your consumers must be part of the website designing considerations, so that they will get better user experience from your website.
Your website must be optimised, so that search engines can find and rank you high, organically.
2. Is email marketing delivering the results?
Find out if the numerous emails you have sent to your potential customers are yielding results or not. If they are not working, it means you gathered the wrong emails, you sent the mails to people who are not interested in your offerings or you sent them at the wrong time.
Worthy for review is the content of the emails you send to the contacts. If the emails are not generating any leads or getting the receivers to take the expected actions, you must review the processes.
3. Do you have social media presence or profiles?
We live in the era of social media and no business must be left behind. Though a lot of businesses have created profiles on some social media platforms, most of them do not have a presence. Creating accounts for your business is not enough to give you the effect you expect. You need to have a social media presence: brand your page, post interesting content at the right time, interact with your community of fans and followers, run promotions and campaigns and have a strategy to manage the page.
4. Are you moving with the mobile revolution?
Mobile phones are the dynamic online platform which is enabling the owners to connect with their friends and families, share contents, communicate with people and also do business. Their power is in the fact that they are interactive and ubiquitous. People can move away from your business physically but you can reach them virtually, in real time. Your business needs to use the features and functionalities of the mobile phone to market your products and services using SMS, mobile messaging, QR codes or apps.
5. Are your customers’ profiles updated?
You need to update the profiles of your customers frequently. Get their active email addresses, working phone numbers, current location addresses and even changed names. If not, your emails will bounce, your calls will not go through and your business will suffer disconnection from your customers.
6. Are you engaging enough with your contents?
Content is the life of online interactions and engagements. Your communication message must be treated in different content formats, so that your online consumers can comprehend and take the expected actions. If you lose out on your content power, you will reduce your engagement and drive away your online community.
7. How technologically savvy are your employees?
Any business that desires an effective online presence must have employees who are technology-savvy. You need to use technology to power your business on all fronts in order to increase efficiency and ensure effectiveness of employees. They must be trained in the technological solutions you use daily and also in the new ones that the business anticipate to use. Employees who are not technologically knowledgeable will slow down your business processes and stunt its growth.
8. Do you have a cyber security policy?
Online security is core to your online presence. Being online means your servers, computers, mobile phones and other devices are connected to the virtual world. There are criminals who lurk around the web to steal critical data, breach online systems and exploit vulnerabilities on those platforms. You must have a cyber security policy as a business to make sure your data are protected from within your business, as well as with your employees. It is important that your employees know what they can share online, what platforms they must not use and which devices they can use within your business premises.
9. Do you know relevant new tech and trends?
Never live in virtual darkness as a business powered by the Internet, respecting new technologies and trends. Check out technology news websites and blogs to know the latest business technologies and trends.
10. Do you have the right hardware and software portfolio?
Using old tech machines and devices will slow down your work.The machines and devices can crash any time, resulting in data loss or damage. Avoid that experience. You need to have new machines and latest software to run on those machines. Buy the machines from licensed retailers, so that you know you are not buying fake things. Avoid using cracked software versions and unlicensed Antivirus software.
The writer is digital marketing Strategist, Social Media Expert, App Developer and Technology Instructor.