Cool Hand Luke and Your Company's Failure to Communicate
Every day, we see companies suffer from failures to communicate. Thanks to social media and online marketing, it's easier than ever to communicate with potential and current clients and customers. It's also easier than ever to make mistakes, both miniscule and monumental.
While most failures to communicate probably won't get your company beaten up by a prison warden, they could result in lower profits.
Below are seven "failures to communicate" that plague businesses online:
1. Outdated websites. You know if this is you. We've all seen them and they're more prevalent than ever. Websites that haven't been updated in years, websites that look like they were made before our interns were born, websites with broken links. All failures to communicate that make your company look amateur and out of touch.
2. Forgotten social media accounts. Twitter accounts with no tweets for the last month. Facebook pages with no status updates. LinkedIn titles from the person's last job. If you think no one is looking, you're wrong. Do it well, or don't do it at all. Looking like an idiot on social media: failure to communicate.
3. Typos. The minute this was written we realized it would come back to haunt us, but typos on websites, minor or major, are serious failures to communicate. You never know what a potential client might notice when they're researching online. Proofread, proofread, and proofread again.
4. Who are you? Your website, and all of your marketing collateral, should quickly and clearly communicate what your company does. Whether this is a picture of the machinery you manufacture, or a paragraph describing the services you offer, make sure that you're communicating what you do. A lot of companies forget to make sure that their descriptions on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and their corporate websites are thorough and consistent.
5. Incorrect contact information. Is there anything more frustrating than digging around a cluttered website for contact information, and after finally finding it, reaching a wrong number, or an employee who is leaving that day (yes, this has happened to us!). Make is easy for people to contact you.
6. Overly promotional blogs. The occasional shameless plug is ok, but do not end every blog post with a call to action promoting your company's products or services. Corporate blogs are best used as branding tools, not sales materials. Capture potential customers and clients with the quality of your thoughts first, and then move in for the sale.
7. Neglecting search engine optimization (SEO). If it's easier to find your competitors online than it is to find you, then you're probably losing business. There are many factors that determine where your site ranks on Google, but simple communication can make a huge difference. Is the language on your website rich with keywords that adequately and appropriately describe what your company does? Do you use alt tags and meta-data to signal to search engine bots? If not, you're suffering from a failure to communicate to both search engines and customers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Len_Ostroff
While most failures to communicate probably won't get your company beaten up by a prison warden, they could result in lower profits.
Below are seven "failures to communicate" that plague businesses online:
1. Outdated websites. You know if this is you. We've all seen them and they're more prevalent than ever. Websites that haven't been updated in years, websites that look like they were made before our interns were born, websites with broken links. All failures to communicate that make your company look amateur and out of touch.
2. Forgotten social media accounts. Twitter accounts with no tweets for the last month. Facebook pages with no status updates. LinkedIn titles from the person's last job. If you think no one is looking, you're wrong. Do it well, or don't do it at all. Looking like an idiot on social media: failure to communicate.
3. Typos. The minute this was written we realized it would come back to haunt us, but typos on websites, minor or major, are serious failures to communicate. You never know what a potential client might notice when they're researching online. Proofread, proofread, and proofread again.
4. Who are you? Your website, and all of your marketing collateral, should quickly and clearly communicate what your company does. Whether this is a picture of the machinery you manufacture, or a paragraph describing the services you offer, make sure that you're communicating what you do. A lot of companies forget to make sure that their descriptions on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and their corporate websites are thorough and consistent.
5. Incorrect contact information. Is there anything more frustrating than digging around a cluttered website for contact information, and after finally finding it, reaching a wrong number, or an employee who is leaving that day (yes, this has happened to us!). Make is easy for people to contact you.
6. Overly promotional blogs. The occasional shameless plug is ok, but do not end every blog post with a call to action promoting your company's products or services. Corporate blogs are best used as branding tools, not sales materials. Capture potential customers and clients with the quality of your thoughts first, and then move in for the sale.
7. Neglecting search engine optimization (SEO). If it's easier to find your competitors online than it is to find you, then you're probably losing business. There are many factors that determine where your site ranks on Google, but simple communication can make a huge difference. Is the language on your website rich with keywords that adequately and appropriately describe what your company does? Do you use alt tags and meta-data to signal to search engine bots? If not, you're suffering from a failure to communicate to both search engines and customers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Len_Ostroff
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