As we engage sellers on CleverPlato Marketplace, we have seen some trends in the way solution providers, whether products or services, engage their audiences in the market. Our focus is to make it easier for business buyers to understand business solutions and offerings. With this in mind, we identified 10 areas where start-ups and small to medium size businesses can improve their online presence to drive business engagement and sales.
We will unpack each topic in short bite size articles at a later stage:
1. Vague company or solution names
Today, most company and solution names have no direct relevance to its actual function. In early days, a bakery was called: Sam’s Bakery. But today, people give names such as: Cinnamon Stick or Aniseed. Company and product names have become very confusing, and a lot of companies use their names with the assumption that buyers know what they represent. In reality, most people don’t know or understand your brand.
2. Use taglines to enforce your brand
Leading into our next topic, most modern companies have dropped taglines to explain what their company or solution does. A tagline needs to be clever but clear. It is a great marketing asset. However, a vague tagline with a non-descriptive company name causes more confusion: Pink. For your pleasure. ??
3. Maintain your brand and logos
Many companies have multiple versions of their logos and brand materials floating on the internet. As a business develop, it is natural that the logos and brand evolves. Companies need to ensure their current branding is dominant and available on their web sites as well as on all active marketing media and materials. Multiple brands create confusion and doubt with buyers.
4. Keep your websites simple
In the engagement of companies, we have experienced one pagers to the most complex websites representing futuristic brands. Rule of thumb, if your customer can’t get to basic information about your solution within seconds, you’ve lost a potential buyer. Simplicity can look great. Complexity strokes the ego of web developers and will cost you customers.
5. Explanation of your solution or company
Looking at website content, it was very curious that very few websites have a concise explanation of what the solution or companies does. Most homepages were so crammed with fragmented information about functionality that it was difficult in most cases to get a single description of what a solution or company can deliver.
6. Tell your customers what you solve
Many websites lack information about the practical use of their solutions. Companies list functionality but it becomes overwhelming for buyers. People want to see how it relates to their environment and how others applied the solutions, even if you create simple to read use cases.
7. Quality marketing collateral
A shocking discovery was that most companies have very limited good marketing collateral (videos and materials) about their solutions or companies. In earlier days, people spend a significant amount of time and money on creating brochures and marketing materials that would be printed and handed out with pride. Today, with everything becoming electronic, companies are focusing less on quality and posting some really cringe worthy videos and badly developed marketing materials. It also seems we have lost our ability to simply explain what we do.
8. Is your free trial really free?
A free trial is a FREE trial not a signup and then pay to get an outcome. A very infuriating trend is that companies try to fool their buyers in signing up for a free trial and then forcing them to pay to get their outcomes. This is how you lose buyers forever. A free trial is free, or it is not. Be transparent as you want buyers to trust your company and its products.
9. Missing solution pricing
Another curious trend is companies hiding their pricing. It’s like playing: Marco Polo. Marco.... Some hide pricing until you sign up for a not free trial. Others surprise you by asking: “Let’s talk about it.” Most companies have a pricing page but comparing benefits becomes a test of patience and intellect. Of which some of us, have little. Keep pricing clear, simple and visible.
10. The stealth company
The absence of contact information makes buyers nervous. The question is if you can’t get hold of a company before the sale, how difficult is support afterwards? State how people can get hold of your company and make it easy. Explore options, email, contact form, chat, call centre, chatbots, your mother-in-law…
Although the 10 items sound like basics, it has been an eye opener to see how badly company represent and promote themselves in the market. It is understandable. As owners and founders, we sometimes need to do everything because of time, money and pressure to get into the market. We created CleverPlato Marketplace to help.
Explore our Seller Solutions or drop us a note if you think we can help with other areas: support@cleverplato.com
Source: CleverPlato, Phillip Loetter CEO/Founder and everything else