Digital Laryngitis: Losing Your Online Voice
We’ve all had a bad case of laryngitis at one point or another. A terrible sore throat, cough, and no voice are enough to knock anyone off their feet for a couple days. I remember having a bad case as a kid and being completely unable to talk for a good two to three days. I felt lost and trapped inside of a body with which I could not communicate in ways that I was used to.
What if this happened online? What if your brand came down with a bout of Digital Laryngitis and lost your online voice? You would no longer have a way to communicate with your audience, they would lose interest, you would lose customers, and your silenced business would eventually fail.
Your Digital Voice is extremely important and everyone should be taking advantage of the opportunity to use that voice to communicate with potential customers and generate business. By not fully utilizing an online opportunity, you are basically coughing a bad case of Digital Laryngitis right into your own face.
Digital Laryngitis (not contagious) – Symptoms:
Loss of engagement
Confusion, delirium
Inability to react to positive or negative word of mouth
Loss of audience
Serious, sometimes fatal decrease in business
Causes:
Laziness, lack of motivation
Inattentiveness
Navigational Issues
Ineffective use of keywords
Poisonous words from those who don’t believe that spending time growing your brand online is an integral part of your marketing plan
Unlike the laryngitis that affects us humans, Digital Laryngitis will not go away with rest and honey tea. The only treatment is to oil up the rusty “voice box” and start speaking to your audience again. Recovery may be a long process, but is a necessary one. If your business does not have an online presence, you are missing out on a huge portion of the market.
Treatment:
A strong dose of strategic online marketing, both outbound and inbound
A daily regimen of posting on social media and connecting directly with your audience on those networks
A healthy web foundation to work off of
A website redesign to appeal to new and potential customers
Proper wording on posts to attract the right target market
Let’s elaborate on this treatment plan.
Outbound vs. Inbound.
They are of equal importance when creating your online marketing strategy and should consistently build off of one another. Outbound marketing focuses on the message that you send out to your audience and potential clients. This might include email marketing, posting on social media, or placing an ad on Facebook. Inbound marketing is focused on creating a strong message at your foundation so that when people respond to your outbound marketing, they will see that you practice what you preach. Inbound marketing includes having an aesthetically pleasing website with killer content, creating a blog, and increasing SEO.
If you are driving traffic to your website, but your website is scaring people off, you might as welltrade in your posting time to focus on some TLC for the root of your business—the web page!
Daily social media regimen.
The possibilities are endless; but our main recommendations would be to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Depending on your brand, industry, and target audience I would also consider visual networks such as Pinterest, Instagram, and even Vine. You should also have a LinkedIn profile for yourself and encourage your employees to do the same.
By being present on these networks, you are increasing your chance of being found as well as making your brand attainable to your audience. If they can see that you are a responsive partner on social networks, they will be more likely to identify your brand as one to which they can relate.
A healthy foundation.
It’s a no brainer that those who eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, and stay active are much healthier than those who do none of those. The same applies to websites. Creating a website is not a one and done kind of deal. They require upkeep. You must keep feeding your website, giving it fresh content and keeping it up to date.
A sound structure is important as well. Keystone Click uses Drupal as our go to CMS. Drupal provides us and our clients with a strong foundation to build off of as well as security and customizability. Drupal is sort of like a personal trainer, they have a plan laid out for you about how to stay healthy and refreshed.
Each dosage and treatment regimen must be utilized consistently or treatment will fail. Digital Laryngitis can be fatal to some businesses, don’t stand by and let it happen to you. Be proactive about your online marketing efforts.