You can succeed online if you implement the right strategies for your business. Below are proven strategies that have worked for others and will work for your web-based business.
1. Understand the Importance of a Name Online
Your name is a key element to success online. It begins the marketing process. This is why your domain name must align with your business name and social media handles.
Having a domain name that has no connection to the business name you use in your marketing communications will confuse customers and turn them off. The same is true of your social media channels. Choose a good name – a name that depicts a brand, descriptive, short, and can be easily spelt when spoken.
2. Maintain Customer Records
There is a saying online that money is in the list. It’s true. List here refers to a database of your customers and their contact details.
When you have customers’ details, you can follow up to sell more of your products and services by making special offers and educating them to increase brand loyalty. So you need to start building and maintaining a database of your customers’ records. The best way to manage your customers’ records is to use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) web tool and also store them safely in the cloud.
3. Maintain a Blog
Google gets searched billions of times per day. This happens because people are always looking for information. Potential clients are searching for information about your products and services; the best way to attract them is to have a blog. Beyond driving traffic, a blog will help to position you as a thought leader in your industry and build your brand and trustworthiness.
4. Get Active on Social Media
Your customers are on social media, meet them there. Create accounts in major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Be active and consistent by sharing tips, giving advice, posting pictures of your workplace, and joining conversations. This will make you visible and memorable.
By becoming active, people will begin like your business page and help to spread your content which in turn spreads your business. As you amass a large following, you will gain credibility and will be surprised at how many businesses and organisations will be jostling to partner or invest in your business.
Venture capital firms such as C5 Capital, owned by cyber security expert Andre Pienaar, are always on the lookout to invest in promising companies. Growing your social media following can help you attract the funding you need.
5. Guard Your Brand’s Online Reputation
You can take years to build your online business only to see it get pulled down by one mistake or poor service that went viral online.Customers don’t hesitate to give bad reviews of your business online.
This is why you need to protect the online reputation of your business with everything you’ve got. You don’t want the first result that shows up on Google when people search for your business to be a bad review from angry customers.
To stay on top of things, set up a Google Alert. When your brand is being mentioned anywhere online, you will get an email alert. And if the alert is about something that will damage your online reputation you can quickly nip it in the bud.
Conclusion Running an online business is not easy. The last businesses standing online are always businesses that do the right things by learning and observing and trying things out.
