5 Digital Cornerstones of Attracting New Customers

A website is like your online office where you conduct meetings with prospective customers around the clock. Just as a welcoming and well-organized physical office can put the customer at ease, an easy-to-use website or app that is well-organized and efficient can speak well of you when attracting potential customers. Here are five digital cornerstones that are essential for attracting new customers through your website and your online presence.

A CLEARLY VISIBLE CALL TO ACTION

An effective call to action is essential to any business’s marketing strategy and is what a successful online presence should prompt from its audience. However, there are many common pitfalls to avoid. Whether you want your customers to sign up for your newsletter or to attend a special event at your physical location, you want to make sure that your customers receive your message. A call to action is a stimulus, such as a link or input form, that requires an action from the customer in the form of a click or a keyboard entry. The call to action must grab the customer’s attention and persuade them to act. 

A STRONG FIRST IMPRESSION

It is important to make a strong first impression with your digital online presence. Online users make decisions about how reputable you are after looking at your site and your online reviews for just a couple of seconds. Several key elements of a successful online presence include:

• Your website can load quickly
• The navigation is organized and easy to understand
• Your website can load easily on mobile devices
• Your content is up-to-date

A WEALTH OF IN-DEPTH VALUE

If your customer decides to stay and browse your website, it’s important to keep them engaged with content that provides value for them. Website content is possibly the most important element of your website. Useful content will elevate your website from your competitors and set you apart. Every piece of your content should have a purpose and be written with a specific target reader in mind. There are many forms of content available that you can use to make your site more engaging, including videos, diagrams, tips, hints, trivia, charts, guest articles, and reviews.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

A sense of brand community is extremely important when attracting and retaining customers. Customers want to know that there are others who share their interests and passions. Building a community can be done in forms of clubs, groups, contests, loyalty programs or forums for discussion. Other ways of forming a community around a brand are through usage of educational blogs and email content. 

AN ENGAGED CUSTOMER

An engaged customer is every business owner’s dream. An engaged customer buys more and will be more forgiving with abnormal lapses in product faults and complaints. That emotional connection between a customer and a business can be difficult to obtain, but it is essential when it comes to building a loyal customer base for your brand. Positive customer experiences usually translate into positive word-of-mouth testimonials, positive written reviews, returning customers and positive social media feedback. Several ways of building customer engagement include: 

• Using social media to connect with customers and resolving customer complaints.
• Connecting with customers by developing an app for your business to inform people of special events or discounts.
• Developing a VIP program specifically for your most loyal customers, with rewards and perks connected to your app.

With so many people already connected electronically, the next step for your company is to cover the digital cornerstones so that your online presence is attractive to new and existing customers alike. Whether you are using social media, a website, an app or all three, your most important focus should be attracting and retaining your customer base.