In the modern world, it’s important to have at least some sort of online presence, even if you run a purely physical operation. And if you’re serious about creating a strong, successful business, you should also consider using some sort of digital marketing to develop brand awareness.
We’ve spent countless hours searching for the best online marketing services, and Podium Marketing is a unique service provider that stood out at first glance. It uses messaging-based techniques to win leads, encourage returning customers, and centralize communications and advertising efforts.
Podium Marketing: Plans and pricing
Like many digital marketing service providers, Podium uses custom-priced solutions designed specifically for each client’s needs. To find out how much you can expect to pay, you will have to reach out to the Podium sales team and request a quote.
Unfortunately, online reviews were unable to provide any meaningful insight into the company’s price structure. We found one reference suggesting that basic packages start at approximately $400 per month, which is quite affordable, but there’s no way of knowing whether or not this remains accurate.
Podium Marketing: How it works
Getting started with Podium is as simple as creating a new account and following the team’s instructions. It may take a little while to get the platform up and running, but that’s to be expected with advanced marketing software.
By building a strong review profile, Podium will help you appear higher in the local search engine rankings. Incoming customer messages will be delivered directly to your central dashboard, regardless of where they come from. Various platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS can be seamlessly integrated.
In addition, you will be able to manage and reply to all messages through your central dashboard. This facilitates contact with customers, prevents you from missing important communications, and makes it straightforward to encourage sales or request service reviews.
Podium Marketing: Features & Services
Podium is backed by a range of advanced features designed to complement its reputation management and other online marketing tools. We’ve listed a few of the most noteworthy below.
One of Podium's main drawcards is its online reputation management portal. A major part of this is review management, and the program integrates directly with a range of review platforms. Basically, this allows you to monitor, control, and reply to reviews from customers without having to check each platform separately. This will save you time, help ensure you don’t miss important messages, and help you build a strong online presence.
Another extremely important feature that places Podium among the world’s best digital marketing companies is its messaging integrations. With this, you can manage two-way conversations with customers, leads, and those interested in your business. Once again, this will help you streamline daily workflows whilst reducing the chances of missing communications from a customer or prospective customer.
Podium also comes with a neat little webchat widget that you can add directly to your website. Basically, this allows visitors to initiate a conversation with you and your team by entering their phone number and questions. And since the conversation will take place via text, you can continue speaking even after the customer has left your website.
Podium Marketing: Support and customer care
Podium offers a suite of contact options, including phone, email, and an intuitive chatbot that allows you to request a text back. There are also various self-help resources outlining the ways the program can benefit you and your business, basic help steps, and more. Unfortunately, though, the self-help resources are quite simplistic, so don’t expect too much here.
Online reviews suggest that Podium offers an excellent level of customer care. The vast majority of reviews are positive and focus on the team’s performance, suggesting that past clients are generally happy with the service they received. For example, Podium has almost 900 reviews on G2, a popular review site, with an average rating of 4.6 stars.
The competition
Although Podium offers relatively unique digital marketing services, there are plenty of alternatives that could provide better value for money.
For example, Birdseye is quite a similar platform offering a range of tools to help businesses leverage their digital reputation to gain more customers. And on top of this, it has an excellent rating and claims to be used by more than 60,000 businesses across the world.
On the other hand, using a platform such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads could help you drive traffic to your site through other means. Take advantage of simple pay per click (PPC) and/or social media marketing (SMM) streams and leverage the platforms that people use daily.
Final verdict
All things considered, Podium offers a great range of online marketing and reputation management tools. In short, its services are designed (1) to help you improve your online reputation by posting and managing reviews and (2) to help you manage customer communications and messages from one central hub.
Although the company doesn’t openly advertise its prices, reports suggest that it’s relatively affordable. Podium receives a great rating across numerous review sites, and its customer service team appears to be responsive and knowledgeable.
At the end of the day, we’d highly recommend reaching out to the Podium team and having a chat to determine whether or not this is the right online marketing option for your business.
