How Transparency is Influencing Successful Business Strategy

To be successful in business these days, small and medium businesses must become students of applying transparency at the right points within a business digital strategy.  This has been due to customers increasingly using online search and social media to determine a purchase decision.  Thus businesses can examine analytics data to reveal how its digital transparency online influences that sales decision.

Influence has been emerging as an crucial measurement to be monitored.  It affects the approach a business takes towards meaningful analytics strategy and igniting ongoing debate about how to define digital influence from a post or ad.

Do you think influence online is overemphasized? You may want to consider these changes as a signal of influence's value:

• Google’s search engine update in November 2011 heralded site content recency or “freshness” as a significant algorithm factor. Subsequent algorithms, such as Hummingbird, introduced in 2013, extended the emphasis on content relevancy to search queries.
• Improvements to Google Analytics reports include social plug-in, which measures the reach of tagged pages shared through Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter platforms, and multichannel reporting, which indicates which channel influences a conversion.
• Enterprise level analytic solutions incorporating API-based data into their reports, permitting more dashboard and visualization options.

Influence is becoming a great strategic value, drawing businesses to increase their reliance on social media and digital marketing tools.  Forrester has also noted in its report US Interactive Marketing Forecast that digital marketers expect to spend $4.4 billion by 2016.   That spend indicates investment in sending a message in front of an audience. Furthermore, this burgeoning interest reinforces the benefits analytics brings to business, and drive further overall interest in analytics beyond discussion of website technicalities.

A business desiring to measure influence must also provide proof that validates customers’ interest in them.   That means being transparent with operations that are relevant with a potential customer. People want to learn more about whom they are doing business with online.  Badges and rating have thus gained mindshare of website visitors.  The end result is visitor who may repeat a visit.  Increased repetition of visits can turn a fence-sitting customer into an actual customer.

Rajeev Malik, co-founder of KikScore, an online rating system bought by Google in 2012, references his start up as an example of how influential online confidence badging can be through the transparency of its rating system.  KikScore offered a rating system that displayed a confidence badge of key policies and services displays credibility information for a small business.  The score was meant to raise the trustworthiness of a business, increasing the likelihood of converting website visitors into sales or leads.

In an email exchange with me, Malik showed me the key information that visitors look for in transparency.

• Management Information: Displaying the owners and management team behind a business and website gives shoppers an idea of who they are dealing with.
• Financial History: Baseline non-confidential financial stability and track records of strong financial stability help comfort shoppers that the business and website that they are visiting is legitimate and not a fraudster/scammer.
• Location Information: Offering website visitors and shoppers information about locations for your business can remind visitors and shoppers that you are convenient to their travels.
• Website Information: To the extent that small businesses can provide information about their infrastructure, security and hosting information that indicates website security and that there is a legitimate person that is operating the website.
• Policy Information: Providing details and specifics, such as deliveries, returns, customer service, privacy and other types of related policies helps shoppers get an idea about expectations in the event that a purchase is not delivered or a service is not rendered.
• Certifications and Awards:  Instead of hanging awards up in their own offices, small businesses should mention their honors on the business website.  Third party certifications and awards provide confirmation that others believe your website and business is credible and trustworthy.

As stated earlier, there will be much debate about what influence measurement truly means and how it connects to business decisions.  Ultimately the importance of transparent rating systems and influence online can not be underestimated.  Managing a Klout score, for example, has gained traction - and rancorous debate - among marketing critics.

Analytics is rooted in Greek language. The word means "breakdown".  What we choose to breakdown has changed from what we know a few years ago, and we need to continue our vigilance in developing the right message in our digital marketing that reflect transparent business values.