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In today’s digital age, a strong online presence is crucial for every business. With an increasing number of people searching online before making a purchase, it’s more important than ever to be out there, visible! And not just being present, but also ensuring that this digital existence is optimized, goes a long way in driving growth in today’s business ecosystem.
Let’s take a closer look
It is no surprise that whatever it is consumers are looking for, they will invariably throw it into a search engine and try to find out easily accessible solutions. The fact that over 3.5 billion Google searches are being performed every day, attests to the way digital capabilities are influencing peoples’ purchase decisions.
Taking the case of convenient, smartphone-based searches for instance.
According to a survey conducted by Google and Ipsos, 89% of smartphone users search for information online before making a purchase, and 70% of smartphone users who bought something in a store first turned to their devices for information about that purchase. This clearly shows that a massive pool of prospects is searching online, right at the beginning of their purchase journey. And if the brand and its local stores don’t offer easy digital accessibility, they could be missing out on golden opportunities.
It’s important to have a strong online presence that includes information about your physical location and products or services, as this can also lead to in-store purchases. In conclusion, presence management is an essential aspect of building a successful brand in the digital age.
There are several ways in which businesses can build their virtual existence. With the advent of technology, several avenues have opened up, enabling businesses to be more prominently visible and to get found in the moments that matter. While website optimization and social media activities are fairly common, building robust business profiles on search engines is an extremely productive way to reach one’s audience. With an increasing desire for the convenience that consumers today display, such digital profiles become all the more important for better business outcomes. These profiles are the starting point of strong associations that brands and their outlets want to establish with their consumers. So, when managed efficiently with all the useful information, such as contact, business hours, and product portfolio, these can enable brands and stores to gain a competitive edge and also lead to in-store purchases
As digital technologies continue to make waves, another great capability that enables businesses to build a solid presence is location-level store pages. These pages are an extension of the physical business outlets and add more personality to brands. As brands and businesses look to strengthen their hold in local markets, such pages can be built keeping in mind local consumer tastes and preferences. Typically once consumers find a business’s digital profile on search engines, they can find the link to its location pages and explore further. The stronger each of these digital touchpoints, the greater the chances of consumers making physical visits to stores and outlets, further strengthening the opportunities for business. Revisiting the example of smartphone-based convenient searches, a report by Google says that 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase. This highlights the importance of having a strong online presence that includes information about physical locations, products, and other necessary parameters.
So, to sum up, the awareness of being effectively present on the digital horizon is a great business enabler today. Optimizing websites, digital profiles, local web pages, has become much easier, thanks to the right tools and capabilities, allowing brands and businesses to always be prominently visible in the online world, and actively stay on the consumer’s mind. A well-managed online presence, powered with adequate information and relevance, improves customer experience and contributes to revenue opportunities. As ‘digital’ continues to gain momentum, it will be highly interesting to see the maturing association between consumers and brands, and the impactful evolution of business in the context of technology and modern-day consumer behaviour.
Sources
Digital Transformation Marketing Stack for Physical Retail Enterprises.
