Your company culture affects everything from employee engagement to growth and brand perception. At first glance, it might seem like something relevant only to employees and leaders.
After all, customers only see what’s on your website, right? Well, not exactly.
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Online businesses should also consider how their company culture ties into their overall branding strategy. A positive, productive and appealing company culture can bolster your reputation and sales. A negative or nonexistent one can hinder them. Once you have it in hand, you’ll need to demonstrate your company culture to customers. How? Consider these five ways.
Brand Personality
This an opportunity to outwardly convey to customers what your ecommerce store stands for. It’s also an internal method of putting these principles into action. The two are deeply intertwined. As Harvard Business Review writes, “If your culture and your brand are driven by the same purpose and values and you weave them together into a single guiding force for your company, you will win the competitive battle for customers and employees, future-proof your business from failures and downturns, and produce an organization that operates with integrity and authenticity.”
If you sell electronics, you’ll likely want to foster an innovative, tech-savvy brand and culture. If you sell cruelty-free cosmetics, you want to incorporate kindness and conscientiousness into your identity. Embodying your underlying principles inwardly through company culture and outwardly through branding provides balance.
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Visual Elements on Website
When customers click on a link to enter your website, what do they find? Does your imagery match up with your brand ideals? Every visual choice is an opportunity to reinforce your company’s identity. And nowadays, there’s no excuse to have anything less than a thoroughly customized website. A free logo creator can help you set your brand apart at a glance. The colors, fonts and photographs you choose also send important signals to customers about your ecommerce operations, so make sure you’re choosing wisely.
Adding an “About Us” or “Company” tab on your website reinforces company culture while giving customers a peek behind the curtain. Adding photographs of your company headquarters or staffers in action will humanize your online store. You may even want to create a “Day in the Life” video, granting shoppers insider access to your day-to-day operations and overarching goals.
Social Media Presence
Inevitably, social media has become the conduit for exhibiting company culture and brand personality to the world. In 2017, 69 percent of U.S. adults use at least one social media platform. That number is constantly on the rise. Ecommerce stores looking to stay competitive need to emphasize responsiveness, timeliness and personalization. An ecommerce store with a poor social media presence—including lack of posting or outdated customer service mechanisms—seems like a store without a forward-thinking company culture. This can hurt site traffic and your reputation in the long-term.
Also read: Is Your Company Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition?
Regularly Updated Blog
A blog is a perfect outlet for keeping your customers up to date on exciting new updates. Luckily, it pulls the double duty of bolstering SEO rankings. Customers tend to stay loyal to companies they know and trust, so maintaining transparency is one important tenet of running an effective blog. Regular features like “Meet Our Staff Monday” or “Weekly Promotion Wednesday” give customers something to anticipate, and help clue them into the inner workings of your brand.
Packaging and Unboxing
Unboxing means more than just ripping a package open to get to its contents. Now, it’s an art form. There’s even a new platform just for unboxing videos featuring commentary from experts and social media influencers. Your custom packaging is one last chance to brand your ecommerce business—but the aim will be different for each company. If you’re positioning yourself as a laid-back, modern tech authority, you could throw in some clever laptop stickers. If your company prides itself on being artsy, try unique or recycled packaging with a handmade feel.
These represent just five ways to demonstrate company culture to customers. Remember, company culture, like branding, ends up being both internal and external. Put your best foot forward by showing customers your ideal self.
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