how to build trust€¦ · own your google presence if you aren’t paying attention to how you...

1The only PR and marketing firm your B2B tech company will ever need.

How To Build Trust With School Districts and Businesses

A Guide for eLearning Providers


Introduction

eLearning technology had a bit of a moment early in 2020.

What was a growing industry before—expected to be worth

$325 billion by 2025—transformed into something that became

essential, used in nearly every business and by every household.

Quarantines and stay-at-home orders as a result of the

COVID-19 crisis changed everything about how we work and

live. In a matter of weeks, nearly every employee and student

found themselves at home for work and school, and eLearning

companies rose to the occasion.

Students from kindergarten to college were completing their

semesters at home, while private companies and the government

kept up with scheduled employee trainings. Entrepreneurs and

private citizens also used their time in quarantine to pick up new

skills.

The majority of the growth in the eLearning market was expected

to come from developing countries. These countries have the

demand for access to world-class educational resources, but

don’t currently have access to the same in-person learning

opportunities as developed nations.

But by concentrating on international markets, eLearning

software providers could be missing a real opportunity closer

to home. COVID-19 has changed the landscape. eLearning


software—like team collaboration tools and contactless

technologies—that we came to rely on to keep essential

businesses and services running (like education) aren’t just going

to disappear once they aren’t a necessity anymore. Nothing that

makes life more convenient or more efficient ever does. We want

more of those things, not less.

So, the time is now for the eLearning market. But how do you sell

this software to the organizations that need it? We’d argue that

at the beginning of the sales process it’s not by focusing on price

or highlighting features. Yes, those could become important later

in the buyer’s journey. But more important than either of those

is establishing trust for your business and building authority for

your brand at the outset.

You do that with a new approach to public relations.


Building Trust as an eLearning Software Provider

Public relations has become synonymous with media relations.

That’s because initially media relations was the bulk of a PR

agency’s job. Sure, they’d help with a few other things, but mainly

they reached out to members of the press to get your company

mentioned by the media.

It was smart, because the media had earned the public’s trust.

A mention in the press was like someone vouching for you.

It carried the weight of the other person—or in this case, the

publication—with it. That’s not true anymore, because things

have changed in a couple of ways.


First, those press mentions carried so much weight because they

were seen. That’s not the case anymore. People aren’t subscribing

to or reading newspapers. The same is true for magazines. So,

those earned mentions aren’t being seen by the same number of

eyes.

Second, we don’t trust the media the way we used to. For

centuries, we turned to friends, family, and neighbors as our

sources of information. We trusted them, and we took what they

said as true. Slowly, as the media became a more prominent part

of our culture, we shifted away from friends and family as our

sources of truth. We gave the responsibility to the media. If we

saw a mention of a company, then that company automatically

earned our trust.

Over the last few decades, though, we’ve started taking back the

ownership of who we trust. That means the media mention isn’t

the only thing that carries weight. That doesn’t mean that there’s

no value in media relations. There still is, certainly. How we use

those media placements once we secure them has changed.

But this shift in where we put our trust has changed PR and

the activities we associate with it. It turns out, when we shifted

some of our trust away from the media, we started looking

back toward each other. Others are noticing this, and they are

creating technologies that help us better communicate who we

trust and why, and that’s where we need to start focusing more

of our PR efforts.


How Do You Create Trust Online?

It starts by changing the way you think about your digital

presence. Your home page isn’t the only place people will find you

and your brand. In the aim of providing searchers the most and

best response to searches, Google has continued to add features.

To help consumers make the best purchase decisions, a whole

industry has been created around product review sites.

The information Google provides searchers and how you’re

represented on review sites are now equal parts of your digital

presence. So, while your homepage is still critical, it can’t be

the only thing you focus on, because it’s not the only thing that

Google and the other search engines are focusing on. That’s

where the building of trust online starts.

Own your Google presence

If you aren’t paying attention to how you appear when someone

searches for your company name online, you need to start.

Every second of every day, Google processes 63,000 search

queries. Google also owns 75% of all search engine market share.

The kicker: Only 30% of people who search for you online will

actually click through to your website. That essentially makes

Google your second home page, so how you appear on these

search engine results pages (SERP) matters.


There are many parts of a Google SERP page, but three

elements are most important for B2B brands:

Google Knowledge Graph

These are created by Google for general information queries

and appear to the right of the search results if you’re searching

on a desktop browser. They will appear at the top of the search

results if you’re on a mobile device.

A knowledge graph is simply a block of information on a subject

that Google creates by scraping its own data and external

sources (such as Wikipedia). For a business, Google may pull

data from a brand’s About Us page, various business listings, and

online directories. Structuring the data on a few organization-

specific pages on your website can cue Google to categorize your

information as eligible for Knowledge Graph results. That doesn’t

mean that Google will use that information, but it does increase

your chances.


Google Knowledge Panel

The Google Knowledge Panel listings are nearly identical to

Knowledge Graphs except that they are specific to branded

searches. When someone searches for your specific business

name, Google pulls information from Google My Business

Listings or Google Maps and creates a box similar to the

Knowledge Graph.

Because websites, social media, and other directories do not

impact Knowledge Panels, the only way to optimize for this SERP

feature is to update your Google My Business and Google Maps

listings. If you’re eligible for a Google Knowledge Panel Panel —

and most businesses are — you can claim it by connecting it to

your Google Search Console. Once claimed there, you can then

edit the information that Google uses to populate this SERP

feature.


Google My Business Profile

Your Google My Business profile appears to the right of the

organic search results once you’ve claimed it and verified your

listing. This listing will feature a link to your website, your

business’ location, any contact information you might have

provided, logos and any associated images. Most importantly,

though, this is where your Google reviews will live. And, as we’ll

discuss in a moment, reviews are more important than ever.

These details may seem oddly specific and unlike how you’ve

approached PR for decades, but they’re key to establishing

authority. If public relations is about managing how you engage

with and are perceived by the public, then we should start by

managing the first place most audiences go to start a relationship

with a brand—a web search.


Carefully manage your presence on software review sites.

There are two reasons that customer review sites are

important and need to be an area of focus.

First, customer review sites will often rank higher than your

own site in the Google search results. There’s often enough

information on the SERP that searchers can get an impression of

how well your business is reviewed without having to ever click

through to the site to read more.

Second, more and more people read the rankings and reviews

on these sites before making a purchasing decision, and they

are trusting what they read. In a recent Shopify survey, 93% of

customers say online reviews influence their buying decisions.


Reviews may seem like a small part of the overall picture, but to

ensure a positive public image, you need to be managing your

presence there.

A few more numbers:

• A recent survey stated 84% of shoppers say they trust

online reviews as much as they trust recommendations

from friends and family.

• How many reviews do they read? 68% of customers say

they read four or more reviews before they trust a business.

• Positive reviews affect your eCommerce traffic. Customers

that read positive reviews about you are more likely to skip

going to your website. Instead, they’ll call, email, or visit

your business in person.

The trust that we previously placed in reporters and the media

outlets they worked for has been transferred to review sites. We

no longer want a middleman to tell us what to think. Now more

than ever, people crave authenticity and want to hear the story

firsthand, which is why these review sites are so important.

Create smart, thought-leading content and share it with the

appropriate audiences.

Your content has two purposes when it comes to establishing

authority in the cybersecurity industry.


First, it can help you gain attention.

A smart, search-oriented blogging program will help increase

visibility for those who search for specific keywords. Your

content should not only tickle the algorithms but also provide

value once that content is found, so keywords should not be the

only focus here. If you’re only worried about getting found and

not actually providing value once you are found, Google will ding

you. Besides, this is about building authority and gaining trust. If

you aren’t delivering quality content then you’re doing neither.

A thought-leadership program will provide answers to your

customers’ biggest questions. Providing content in formats your

customers like to consume and placing it in industry and trade

publications will help you build authority and bring attention to

your business. Yes, that sounds a lot like media relations. That’s

because it is. While readership in mainstream media is down,

industry-related publications are still a smart place to go to reach

your specific audience with content that highlights how smart

you and your team are. You can also reach that audience with

smart social media strategies that include paid posts targeting

the people who you most want to reach.


Second, smart content helps you retain attention once you have it.

The goal of all of your efforts here, ultimately, is to get people to

visit your site. But one visit isn’t useful. You need them to come

back. To do that, you need to give them a reason, and quality

content that’s aimed at serving—and not selling—is that reason.

So, producing content on a regular basis that focuses on solving

your readers problems or arming them with data and information

that will help them do their job better will be the thing that keeps

them coming back. It’s also the key to turning them into a fan of

your brand, which is the first step in making them a customer.

The way we work and the way we learn is changing. Some of

those changes are being forced upon us. But things like remote

work and elearning were already coming. Societally we just hit

the fast forward button in response to COVID-19. But now that

we’re here, there’s a real need for these types of tools. How do

you get the attention you need to begin having conversations

about providing that solutions to the schools and businesses who

need them? By working to build authority in the marketplace and

trust with those potential customers. Let us help you start doing

that.

https://www.ideagrove.com/contact

https://www.ideagrove.com/contact


www.ideagrove.com

(972) 235-3439

The only PR and marketing firm your B2B tech company will ever need.

https://ideagrove.com

how to build trust€¦ · own your google presence if you aren’t paying attention to how you...

Documents