Digital Impression For Businesses

There is a constant buzz about online identities, connected social eruptions, frequent feeds on viral networks, enormous sticky e-content and an implicit digital hygiene expectation, which has incrementally woven an insanely overwhelming web of life into our otherwise sporadic modern day lifestyles!! In an era of tech revolutions, blurring geographies, rapidly declining family sizes, fast-paced work cultures and monotonous routines, there has been a gradual but significant transformation in the societal conduct of humans in the physical world. While the word “physical world”, itself, has already, graciously bowed to its virtual counterpart, the entailing effects of this evolution have predominantly changed the way people desire (and demand) to be engaged with. With advent of these intangible, yet well-networked communities, on the virtual landscape, the “physical societal norms” have paved way for the commonly accepted “online social behaviour”, even for the billion odd slow to adopt Indian population. For a diverse array of million plus businesses operational in India, this simply means – Adapt or Perish under this new paradigm of global existence on the “Digital Realm”.

The challenge, however, lies in exploring the bounds of the new set of beliefs, values, philosophies, and accordingly, the behaviors of uniquely identifiable entities present online. While many sellers claim to have identified the “setup of a static website” for their suspects, prospects and customers, as their justified one-stop presence on the web, it is only a miniscule component of even the basic expected “Digital Impression” for small, medium and large businesses across the country. Digital Impression for a business can be understood as a compilation of authentic and consistent official appearances of a brand/ business/ organization, across a diverse set of media on the Internet. Whenever someone searches for your brand/ business/ organization on a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc., the search results will retrieve your presence on various social media platforms, websites, portals etc. but a uniform reflection across media, is not assured, which thereby affects the expected professional feel about your company in the virtual world.

For most of the early stage businesses/ start-ups, the Digital Impression is limited to only getting a website developed/ having their company’s listing on some business portals/ creation of company page on social media etc. For a business selling a B2B product/ service, its prospective buyers will try to perceive its expected value addition in their business objectives, by interacting with an array of online touch-points like Company Website (web and mobile), Social Media profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.), Management’s presence on professional portals, Content on search engines, Listings on relevant portals, Reviews etc. While this virtual interaction is a shortlisting process, it is certainly a make-or-break impression about the professional image of your business. It is generally after this initial screening on the digital media, that a prospect decides to have a call/ meeting, with sufficient confidence on the professional existence of your business/ brand. In essence, what separates you from competitors, without triggering a physical conversation with your brand’s audience, is the brand perception that gets etched in a buyer’s mind, from your brand’s Digital Impression.

Digital Impression For Businesses

The setup of Digital Impression (refer inset infographic) for a brand requires a balanced blend of Context, Content, Creativity and Communication, across selected platforms, to showcase, excite, acquire and retain a wider set of audience available on the digital space. Starting from the domain options that can be picked, to the variety of website samples that can be crafted in sync with your business’ vision/ culture/ goals/ products & services/ audience, followed by formulation of a robust Social Media base and strategy to pull audiences, precise Content (compelling combination of text, pictures and videos) Placement across platforms and wide array of engaging Digital Advertisements positioned across a combination of platforms, put together, when strategized, implemented and tracked effectively, can not only position your brand in a cluttered virtual landscape, but also generate the expected Return On Investment (ROI) on your digital spend. Along with setting up a showcase for a business’ products and services, it is also critical to establish immersive branding dialogues through the most relevant set of touch points, which ensure that the brand is seen, felt and heard by the intended audience.

In the present day environment, when businesses operate on incorporating tremendous cost efficiencies in operations, to generate returns on sales, can a business owner/ group rely only on a limited set of avenues for enquiry/ lead generation to continually increase the top line or should it embrace change and explore as many channels of prospect engagement as possible. While it is critical for any business to keep evaluating its operating margins, it is even more relevant to shift focus on creating a Digital Impression, to not only maximize the probability of sales but also align to the old school of thought – “whatever is seen, sells”. The choice, however, lies in rationally selecting between organic (optimizing content on search engines and social media) and inorganic (spending across online media) strategies, or creating an apt blend of both, to create adequate online presence and pull for a brand, in alignment with the organization’s objectives, budgets and growth stage.

With the entire gamut of Digital Services available, Toggle, with its expert team of consultants, has been helping Small, Medium and Large businesses to establish their “Digital Impression” in a cluttered digital landscape, as per their growth readiness and budget. Our primary focus is to work with our clients as per their business’ growth phase, strategy and short-term/ long-term goals, to assure their survival and growth in a continually evolving digital marketplace.

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