Why Every Business Needs an Online Leader

Your company’s online presence weighs heavily on your customers’ purchasing decisions. As consumers put more and more trust into the information they view online, your business needs an online leader to earn the respect of your customers (can you say figurehead?). Working as the face of your company and adding the personalization customers crave, a leader will establish positive relationships to foster the growth of your company. With all the clutter online, putting a face to the brand goes a long way.

Why Do I Need an Online Leader?
An online leader works to build an influence in your industry to quickly earn trust from customers to turn more leads into sales. With a noted industry source supporting your company, you’ll generate more website traffic, links, reviews… Why? Because they are attributing the information to a real person! The more powerful, the better… For that reason, I like to market the CEO as the face of the company, opposed to trying to push a marketing manager or something.

Here is a great benefit. If you are that leader, you’ll be respected among your peers, leading to potential partnerships and business opportunities to transition into new ventures quicker. That is what we all want right? New business.

Developing Online Leadership
The very core to becoming an online leader relies on the trust you earn from customers and peers. You can’t accomplish this if you’re focusing on generating profits because you’ll come off as a sleazy salesman. Instead, don’t focus on what you’ll gain, but what you can give your customers for a better experience. Listen to your customers to better understand their needs and how you can produce a positive impact. Work to nurture customer relationships by:

Communicating often and early.
Acknowledging and rewarding your customers.
Listening to your customers.
Showing your customers they are valued and appreciated.

Your customers act as your biggest referral, so strive to build long-term relationships to deliver value back to you. We do our best to do this here at Ignite. We figure, if our customers are happy then so are we. We give away a ton of advice on SEO and other marketing areas.

Create Leadership through Content
Use content creation to showcase uniqueness to stand out among your competitors. A solid content strategy allows you to demonstrate insight and expertise. Well written content that’s applicable and informative allows you to become a respected authority to nurture lead generation and increase sales as Technorati Media reports 31 percent of customers read company blogs to influence their purchasing. When creating content to establish industry authority:

Create unique and informative content with the readers in mind.
Address common problems and offer tips and advice.
Highlight relevant industry news and points of interest.
Develop content that will make your customers’ lives easier.

In addition, collaborate with other industry influencers to support the leadership growth to develop more loyalty.

Leverage Influence on Social Media
Nowadays, customers turn to social media first to find reviews to determine trust for purchasing decisions. In fact, 90 percent of customers admit that online reviews play a role in their purchasing choices. Social media sites are among the top resources for customers to find reviews. Facebook leads the way, holding 44 percent of positive reviews according to Zenedesk, while only 39 percent of reviews are viewed on a company’s website.

With social media maintaining a strong position over customer purchasing, leverage social media to influence customers to promote customer service through engagement. In addition to reviews, customer service via social media impacts purchasing by as much as 42 percent of B2C purchasing decisions. Make it your mission to promote your company’s social media reviews, engagement, and customer service by:

Posting engaging and relevant content.
Responding quickly to all questions, concerns, and inquiries.
Resonate with your followers.
Connect with other industry influencers.
Offer a personal connection to build interactions.
Be consistent across all platforms.

Maintain Your Leadership
Developing an online leader is not a popularity contest and it won‘t happen overnight. It takes hard work and determination to step outside of your comfort zone and remain adaptable to build unique and meaningful relationships. To do this, be a leader first and a marketer second to transform your online relationships to embrace your company’s future.

Sources:
“4 Tips to Becoming a Better Influencer” Top Rank Blog
“90% of Customers Say Buying Decisions are Influenced by Online Reviews” Marketing Land
“To Be a Great Marketer, You Have to Be a Great Leader First” Inc.
“2013 Digital Influence Report” Technorati Media