#web properties

"We’re living in a multi-platform retail environment and that’s a great thing for marketers, mostly. 

On the one hand, there’s a wide variety of ways to interact with people and drive sales. If a potential customer doesn’t respond positively to emails, they may be more willing to connect with your firm on Facebook, for example.

But the downside is that consumers have far higher expectations, particularly of the bigger brands. If you aren’t catering to their platform of choice, you risk frustrating them and devaluing your company.

Here are a few of the main platforms your customers may expect you to be actively using – and how you can meet their expectations.

Your corporate website

Clearly a poor website that’s hard to navigate is a major turnoff for customers and will make your brand seem shoddy. [...] If you’re a major brand and you don’t rank on the first page of search results, you won’t look like a major player.

Twitter

[...] Major brands particularly should be monitoring for mentions and acknowledging both criticisms and praise from their consumers.

Email

[...] Customers also expect you to treat their inboxes with respect and this can be a balancing act. Contact them too often and you risk them complaining about spam, contact them too little and you risk them forgetting they signed up to receive your messages in the first place.

Facebook

Fewer people expect brands to be active on Facebook but it can be a great way to connect with them.

That’s particularly true for younger, cooler brands like Innocent Smoothies or Subway.

Telephone

[...] If you can afford to do so, make sure there’s a phone number on your site for people to call when they want more than an online interaction with a faceless brand."