How to increase your reputation with your target audience?
In an ever-changing world, winning customers and sustaining growth over the long term are the topics on everyone's lips.
To do this, it is necessary to implement streamlined and automated actions.
Salesbytech is working on the domino model with 5 critical issues to act on, issues presented yesterday in our carousel.
Today, and in a desire to be consistent with the model, we will start by talking about the subject of Reputation.
This section deals with the issue of getting known by your target audience and discovering your brand DNA.
The question is: what are the best practices to put in place to carry out a successful reputation strategy?
I - IDENTIFYING YOUR TARGET: THE CUSTOMER PERSONA TECHNIQUE
Salesbytech uses the persona technique. It consists in building a robot portrait of its target before drawing its path during a typical day, in order to find the anchor points on which to act.
Let's take the following example: Jordan, 23 years old, employed in a large company and belonging to the CSP+ category.
Its customer journey will allow us to determine on which levers to act.
When he wakes up, he checks the notifications on his phone before having breakfast and ordering a ride to work. On the way, he keeps up to date with the news on a mobile version of different newspapers and then goes to different social networks to see the recent activity of his friends.
Once in his position, he does competitive intelligence on search engines such as Google News and then, on his lunch break, he glances at the LinkedIn news feed before responding to his personal messages.
On his way home, he goes back to the different social networks and does some research on the internet.
When he arrives home, he allows himself to dream about his next trip and does the appropriate research on Google.
In front of the TV during his dinner, he does not deprive himself of playing some games via mobile applications and then wanders again on the networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn or others before falling asleep.
This exercise makes it possible to realize, in this case, the time spent by its target, on its telephone and in particular on the networks, search engines and mobile games.
It now remains to define the strategies to be put in place in order to be known by its target.
II - IDENTIFY THE MEETING POINTS WITH YOUR TARGET
A - THE FIRST REPUTATION LEVER: SEM (SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING) OR OPTIMIZING YOUR COMPANY'S VISIBILITY ON DIGITAL MEDIA
The question of referencing arises: is it necessary to have an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy with a natural referencing allowing to be well positioned on search engines, or a SEA (Search Engine Advertising) strategy, aiming at paying advertising spaces for a better referencing.
Should you rather set up partnerships in order to promote your company when advertising on mobile applications, or should you finally opt for a combination of all these strategies?
B - SEO OR THE OPTIMIZATION OF ITS NATURAL REFERENCING
A #SEO strategy, therefore of natural and free referencing, requires the use of keywords, quality content, varied and published at regular frequency. It cannot be ignored because today Google dominates the search market with 87% of searches on computers and 95.67% of searches on cell phones, knowing that there are 4.5 billion active users on the Internet.
Moreover, regarding the positioning on this search engine, it is important to know that 31.7% of clicks go to the link in first position and that appearing outside the top 10 will not change much to your visibility.
The implementation of such a strategy raises important questions such as:
- What is the message I want to convey?
- In what format should my message be delivered?
- On which platform?
- What should be the content typology (informational, comparative, transactional etc.)?
So you have to put yourself in the shoes of your target to be able to think and ask yourself questions based on his buying path.
To do such work, it is necessary to use in-house resources to write and create the appropriate content, and while not requiring additional expenses, using in-house resources is still a cost since time is a resource that your employees do not use on another subject.
This strategy should be developed if the vision you wish to implement is that of the long term. The results will be felt over time and not immediately, unlike the SEA strategy.
C - THE SEA OR THE USE OF ADVERTISING ON SEARCH ENGINES
As you can see, the #SEA strategy allows you to see convincing results in a short period of time. It uses tools such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, giving you a daily visibility on the platforms most used by your target. This strategy, called paid, is not to be neglected either, considering the number of users on social networks and the time spent on them.
For 58% of the French, social networks play a real role in the customer journey.
In 2019, almost 70% of French people are present on social networks, and 15-24 year olds spend 32% of their time there.
Following the lockdown, the numbers have only increased. 40% of French people admit to having created an account on a social network or a chat application during the lockdown.
This craze for social networks affects all generations. Indeed, we observe an increase of 44% for the over 65s and 54% for the 50-64s.
The most used devices in the world to browse social networks are the smartphone at 89%, a figure that has increased by 9.6% between 2018 and 2019, and the computer at 80.5%.
Thus, a SEA strategy seems even more relevant over the years. The figures presented are a good indication of which platforms to target in order to reach a maximum number of prospects. The results will be felt very quickly.
D - THE SMO OR OPTIMIZATION OF THE VISIBILITY OF YOUR COMPANY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
SMO (Social Media Optimization) refers to all the techniques and actions aimed at developing the visibility of a company on social networks. In view of the figures presented in the paragraph above, we cannot neglect the growing power of social networks.
Then comes the possibility of a specific strategy for the latter. This decision must also be positioned on the type of social networks targeted: B2C or B2B. Today, social networks are not only intended for B2C networks. Indeed, many B2B platforms have appeared or are growing in power in recent years. It is especially necessary to ask yourself the question of the added value for your company to be deployed on social networks: as long as you meet the golden rule which is to enrich and improve the customer experience, your accounts have a reason to exist and the SMO strategy becomes relevant.
Once on these targeted platforms, it is time to establish a different content strategy than the one set up on your website for example. These platforms have an appetite for visual and quick to assimilate content. Moreover, many actors are already present on these platforms and positioning yourself on these networks requires a reflection on the demarcation that your company can have compared to another. The visual aspect is therefore a determining factor for your strategy to work as desired. Another point on which you must pay attention is the regularity of publication. Indeed, publishing once in a while cannot constitute a strategy and therefore you will not be able to certify convincing results.
Finally, there is the question of partnerships. Who hasn't downloaded a game in the middle of which an ad appears? And this is frequent and regular. It remains to be seen whether your target group plays mobile games often. For example, Gen Z internet users spend 8% of their time on them in 2018. This figure is up significantly following the Covid-19 crisis, for Gen Z but also Millenials and Gen X. Each of these categories saw a 19% increase in time spent on mobile in 2020.
Mobile app downloads on iOs and Google Play in France in 2020 reached 2.15 billion. It may therefore be wise to consider the latter option in view of the growing interest in mobile applications.
A combination of these different strategies could make your reputation evolve both in the short and long term.
E - MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF ITS REPUTATION STRATEGY
Once these actions have been implemented, it is important to measure their effects in order to evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of the strategic choices made.
There are two factors that seem appropriate for this task. The first is the impression rate (the number of times the campaign ad was actually viewed versus the estimated number of views your ads were likely to get).
The second is based on the increase in the number of subscribers to your different platforms and sites. Indeed, the more subscribers you have, the more your content is appreciated and the more there is excitement and engagement around your brand.
The SEM strategy is declined in different techniques to optimize the presence of a site on search engines. It can be broken down into SEO techniques, natural referencing thanks to keywords, varied and quality contents, SEA, referencing thanks to paid campaigns, and SMO. The process of increasing one's reputation is certainly tedious but nonetheless indispensable since it is the basis of a good marketing and sales strategy. As you can see on our carousel (linked above), Reputation is the foundation of this sales tunnel that needs to be put in place to optimize its growth. Reputation is one of the 5 issues on which Salesbytech proposes to accompany you.
We remain at your disposal to help you in this process and to talk about the Reputation strategy. To do so, do not hesitate to make an appointment with our experts!
