Image is a fuzzy term. It means different things to different people. Your online image is driven by buyer behavior. Buyer behavior is deeply rooted in:

• Internal or psychological factors such as personality, attitudes, and lifestyle.
• Personal or demographic factors and social factors such as friends, family, opinion leaders, etc.
• External factors such as marketing. 

There was an interesting study done a few years back that outlined the elements that make up a customer’s buying decision. Their research outlined the most critical elements customers evaluate in order to decide who to buy from.
The elements were:

• Price
• Product Quality
• Service Quality
• Image

What they found was very interesting. It is somewhat easy to compare price between vendors. Yes it may take some work in order to compare “apples to apples”, but it is a rather straightforward process.

The difficulty comes when a potential customer is trying to evaluate Product Quality and Service Quality. If they are not a prior customer of a business, then they do not have experience to draw from in order to make an informed decision of Product Quality and Service Quality. Every vendor says they have great products and services.

So what do prospective customers do?

They use Image as a substitute for making a decision on a company’s Product Quality and Service Quality.

In other words, your Image is the determining factor for Product Quality and Service Quality for your prospective customers.

There are books that go into great detail on Image and Image-related topics such as branding and buyer behavior. I will not go completely into that here other than to give you a little deeper perspective on how elevating your brand impacts your business .

Online Image and the Effects it Has on Your Business

The study suggests that if your website looks cheap, potential buyers will think your products and services are cheap, have low value, and are low quality. If your website is difficult to navigate, people think that you will be difficult to do business with. If there are errors or content missing on your website, perspective clients will think you will not deliver a working product or service.

Your online image is primarily delivered by your website and the resulting experience. Over 70% of people will review a company’s website before they make a purchase decision. In fact, I read where over 80% of all people will visit a church’s website before they visit a church.

Your Website Image is Important

There are many reasons why you have the website you have – money, vendor’s capability, your personal preferences, etc.

Many businesses develop a website that they like, but it is not driven by the Image that your prospective customers are looking for. How do you stack up against your top online competitors? What kind of online experiences is your website delivering versus your online competitors or even other market leaders? 

Sometimes the evaluation bar of Image is not set by your competitors. It is often set by your prospective customers’ experiences in other online markets or providers.

Maybe your online market is lagging other industry leaders. You should always stay abreast of the online trends and experiences. If you have evaluated your website closely in the last 2-3 years, you are going to be shocked. Much has changed while you were asleep online. But the good news is that you can wake up your website with an online image makeover. Contact Xcellimark  to find out how.

Online Silos Giving Way to Digital Fusion

I am amazed today that our industry is still caught up in a “Silo” mentality. “We are a Website Design company.” Or “we are an SEO company.” “We are a PPC company.” “We are a Copywriting company.” “We are a Social Media company.” “We are a Web Hosting company.” “We are an Email Company.” “We are an Analytics and Optimization company.” “We are a Content Management System company.”

Do I need to keep going on and on? The Silos are nice boxes that are simple, straightforward and easy to communicate to others.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that it’s not how things really work and it’s not a successful online strategy.

Here are just a few brief examples. (I could fill a book with more examples):

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An effective SEO program is highly dependent upon website coding, website content or copywriting, internal linking, social media blogging, pitching, bookmarking, analytics software, fast loading times from a hosting company, online press releases and an ongoing process of building high-quality incoming links to pages throughout your website. Is your SEO company proficient and effective in all of these areas?
• Website Development – Today’s website development must effectively fuse very distinct specialties such as image, design, video, programming, a variety of software tools, effective copywriting, SEO (see above), customer website management, email, Web 2.0 technology, high speed and reliable hosting, security, and performance management systems. It must be integrated within the context that different users will interact with it and different employees may administer it.
  
  You also need to track the performance against the company goals and objectives that were set. You must be able to grow and evolve. How will you deal with upgrades and software bugs? How will it be integrated into the operations of the business? Does your Website Design company competently do all of this?
• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) – This is easy stuff right? I mean you just set up a Google account, pay money and go. Right? That’s what Google says.
  
  There is much more to setting up and managing a Google account effectively. Not to mention if you want to add Yahoo, Bing and a host of other players who all use different platforms, tracking systems and make decisions differently. 
  
  Even if you have done all of that perfectly, it only represents at most 33% of what is going to determine online success for your PPC campaign. Add in copywriting, design, ongoing testing and optimization, analytics software, continuous analysis of your campaign and your top competitors, and now you have about another 33% of your online success.
  
  The other 33% of your online PPC success is based upon you. Your budget, your value proposition and your market. Your PPC company and staff does all of that, right?

The key to success is fusing the various digital specialties into a cohesive team that is totally focused on achieving the online business goals and objectives that were set. The key digital specialties include market strategy, design, development, technology, communications, program management, analytics, hosting, search engineering, social media, media management, training and support working as a unified team using an integrated approach with a proven process.

It is not a “launch your site and now it’s done” plan. It never ends. It’s like your business. The only time it ends is when you are done; you have closed the doors for good and handed the keys back to the building owner.

Do it right and your online success with generate more than enough ROI to cover your investment.