Tips Aspiring Entrepreneurs Should Know to Grow Online Business
Whatever your business is, you certainly have a target audience. While it would be great if every living being on the earth would be lining up outside your stores or visiting your website so often it would crash, that’s often not the case.
Growing your business takes a lot of time and effort to be successful, but there are plenty of methods you can be implementing today.
Today, we’re going to be focusing on how you can grow your business with the help of technology. The internet is an open world with limitless possibilities but there are a few things you could master to boost your business online.
Ways to Use Technology to Grow an Online Business
First things First, Get Online
You might be shocked to know that anywhere from 30-50% of small businesses don’t have a website. With the current year and technological trends, that number should be hovering around 0%.
When it comes to designing your website, you can either pay someone to do it or do it yourself. While it may seem daunting to design your own website, there are lots of tools and platforms out there that make it easy. But this is your business, and for lots of people, their primary source of income, so to not mess up any chance of potential income, it’s best to hire local web designers to create your site… they’re the experts.
Utilize Social Media to Your Advantage
Finding someone who doesn’t have a social media account can be as difficult as finding someone who doesn’t have a smartphone. If you find someone that lacks both, you might have just won the lottery.
Every second, there are thousands of people scrolling through their social media feeds. More and more people get their news from social media and businesses are using it to advertise as well.
Setting up a Facebook page is free and it offers you a great way to interact with customers while promoting your business at the same time. If you want to go the route of paid ads, social media ads are much cheaper than traditional methods of advertising.
Give Your Website a Complete and Thorough Audit
Whatever you’re thinking, you can rest assured in knowing that this isn’t nearly as scary or intimidating as a real-life audit. You won’t have to pull out all your financial records, but you will have to go over your website with a fine-toothed comb.
An audit will look at your website’s SEO, to see how it ranks against competitors and to see why or why not you’re not gaining visibility.
Auditing your website can be done in three different ways: on your own, through website tools, or hiring an outside expert. There are plenty of free tools out there that will give your website a score and throw in some suggestions as to what you can do.
You can perform a self-audit, but if you’re not the most tech-savvy, this step could take some time or be confusing.
Get Interactive With Your Audience
Think about your experiences as a consumer. If there was ever an issue with a service, product, or order, you wanted to express your concerns and doubts. The worst part was if someone ignored you completely or if you felt like your voice wasn’t being heard at all.
The internet gives you an easy and clear way to interact with your customers, for both the positive and negative aspects. Anyone can leave a comment or review on Google Reviews, Yelp, or social media and it’s quite easy to respond. Be sure to thank customers when they give positive feedback, and respond accordingly to those expressing negative opinions.
Get a Google My Business Account
A lot of times, people want to search your business to find out the address and hours. The easiest way to provide them with this information is to get a Google My Business account. That way, you can add your store’s hours, update people on special hours during holidays, and provide the address and any other changes.
The steps are pretty easy and all you’ll have to do is verify your business. Once you’ve done that, you’re good to go!
Online Payments and Scheduling
Amazon is great because you can order anything you want via their online store. Take the next step for your customers and add on an online scheduling and payment system.
It’s quite easy for you to track any payments and appointments as they’ll all be stored on a database and easier for your customers, as they’ll be able to “skip the line” and go right to what they want when they want.
The online experience is all about making your company more visible and making it easier for all customers and visitors.