Making Your Business Work Online
It is no longer optional. In the modern world, you need an online presence. This can be something as simple as social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter to a more custom creation, like a website. A great part of this modern requirement is that the internet can facilitate your business needs with ease. There are powerful and accessible tools today that allow anyone who is interested in having a site to create an online business presence. But there are some tricks to getting the most out of your online business. Here are a few.
Get Found
It does little good to have a great website if nobody knows it exists. Most people who create a website do a good job of making it known to friends and family. After that, however, the site might as well be hidden under your mattress. There are ways of getting people beyond your immediate impact circle to find your site, however.
Obviously advertising on conventional media can broadcast a message to large groups of people and more and more it can do that in a targeted way. Traditional advertising on radio, television and print media still have value and influence, even if the media world is heading down a new direction.
Advertising is an understood and out in the open way of getting attention. With the internet, it is helpful to use the behind the scenes methods to attract people to your website, as well. The internet works with algorithms and there are ways to tap into those algorithms to make sure your website can be found.
This is called SEO or search engine optimization. There are many sub-elements of SEO, like keyword optimization, image optimization and link building. Using these methods typically requires the assistance of a professional, who understands the industry and the methods. What SEO does that advertising doesn’t necessarily do is help people that don’t know they are looking for you, find you.
Make Transactions Easy
Whoever invented the online shopping cart deserves a medal. People who are shopping online don’t want to be interrupted by arduous processes in order to purchase an item.
Therefore, it is critical that you make buying your products as convenient as possible. This is why sites built with shopping carts, like those found at Shopify and Amazon are recommended. These sites allow visitors to easily add items to their carts before they pay, usually committing them to their purchases and making checkout easy.
Easy checkout is also a great feature for customer retention. When you put resources into getting the customers to your site, you want those efforts to convert into sales. When they become loyal customers, you have created a higher return on your investment. An important way to do that is the same as a brick and mortar store: make their experience a positive one. And ease of transaction ranks as a key to bringing customers back.
Learn From Old-School Business Practices
Just because your business is online doesn’t mean that old fashioned methods of customer acquisition and retention don’t have something to teach you. Shoppers are still people and they have feelings and emotions. Make sure that your website understands that and make going to your site easy and friendly. If you have to be a sluth to figure out how to navigate your site, if the colors are uninviting, or if your terms aren’t friendly, you can inadvertently repel prospective customers.
Just like when a customer goes into a store, they aren’t just shopping, they are experiencing. Therefore it is critical that when you get customers to your site, you make their experience a great one. Make important navigation buttons easy to find and use. Bright colors signal a positive image and pictures of people enjoying themselves create a positive identity that people can relate to.
Branding
Because it is challenging to get attention in this modern digital world, it is important to make sure people can easily recognize who you are and what you do. This is the power of the brand. Make sure you have a positive image that makes people feel good when they think of you. Use things like smiles in your logo to convey happiness. Keep your logos and your slogans simple, so people don’t confuse them and can easily remember them. All of these things help build your brand. It is also important in your activities to protect the brand. Avoid creating negative press that can be associated with your brand. The old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity isn’t true if you ruin your brand’s reputation and create buycotts.
The internet is a powerful tool to build your business and it should be used, but use it effectively. Otherwise, your site is simply one of trillions, lost at sea, only viewed by your mom and your friends. And because it is the internet and not a corner store, there is no reason to restrict your customers to a few who live near you.
Sara Saker
Latest posts by Sara Saker (see all)
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