When it comes to your business, you will have your very best intentions at heart to ensure that you do all that you can to make it a success. Or do you? Rewinding back to the beginning of your business journey, you get an idea that fills you with enthusiasm, passion and motivation, and you start to take the steps to creating the dream into a reality that has now become today a business in its own right. But what so many business owners are finding is that it is very hard to stand out. Whether you have a physical store, an online business, work from home and are a one man operation, your business has now become your life and passion, but are you doing enough to push the boundaries?
So many businesses can start and fail in their first few years and often, it can be down to not doing enough in terms of marketing, in terms of using the tools that you have, and sometime it can takes more than you are willing to give. However, if you are at the point where you really want to drive your business forward but have run out of ideas then hopefully these suggestions may help you along the way. It is time to grab the bull by its horns, figuratively speaking, and take some action to make your business stand out from the crowd.
Taking advantage of your local community.
There has been a recent surge in a trend to shop and support local businesses. So you may be wondering where you stand on that. As a business with perhaps a retail outlet or store, you can very much be involved in the local community. Your aim will be to be the expert in your industry and niche for the area. The best supplier of such products and services. However, the same principle can still be achieved even if you are solely online. You can aim to be well known for what your business is about, through local groups online. Another great way to get your business name heard and see, be that online or as a physical business, is to be involved within the community. That could mean sponsoring local events, being present at events, or getting involved and supporting local charities. This is a great way to ave your name as a business heard and also helps you to expand further as time goes on.
Making sure your website is visible online.
The next thing to consider would be to ensure that your website is visible online. The online world is a saturated market these days, and so you might not realise that you do need to put some effort in to make sure your website is shown in search engine results. This is when a search engine optimisation strategy could help you out. Keywords and link building as part of your seo strategy will help you to allow search engines to recognise your business website as being credible. Which will then enable your site to be brought up when certain search terms are entered.
Using a blog to help make your website credible.
Your website is your main hub of information and the place you want your customers to go to. But a blog can be a real great extension of that as you work towards making your website credible. This includes things like keywords and backlinks, just like you may have already thought about in your seo strategy. A blog can also be a way of helping you to share things about your business and brand, maybe add more personal aspects to it, which can help you to sell in the long term without it looking or feeling to spammy. Plus, like anything, the blog posts may come in search engine results, which then in turn helps you to guide people over to your main website and ecommerce store.
Running competitions on social media to boost engagement.
If you are hoping for some quick engagement, then running competitions online are a great way to do it. Whether that is retweeting on Twitter, sharing on Facebook or liking and following on Instagram, the competetin can help you boost your engagement quickly. It is then up to you to ensure that you keep those people engaged further into your business and your brand.
Spending the time to grow social media followings organically.
However, competitions are a great way to boost your online presence, it isn’t the only way to grow your following organically. There are so many cheat ways to build an audience, but over time, this looks very obvious and the best way would be to have an engaged and true following. So invest the time to make that happen. It might be you spend time liking sharing and commenting on other peoples posts. It might be that you search things out or create your own hashtag so a community could be made. Or simply it might be responding to messages and comments properly instead of just using the like or heart sign. All of these things can help, in time, build your following.
Thinking outside of the box with the content that you share.
You may also want to spend some time thinking outside of the box when it comes to things like the content you create. This might be new pictures or editing you use, video content instead of just pictures and words or even live video streaming options. Step out of your comfort zone and think differently.
Gaining customer reviews and showcasing them.
Customer reviews are a great way to ensure that future customers can see just how great you are. It all starts with encouraging your existing customers to leave feedback and reviews, and then showcasing them online on your website. If they are there for all to see then it is a great way to be used as an advertising technique. New customers will be able to read what others have said about your business and products or services, which then helps them to make decisions on you as a business. It can also show brand loyalty and trust. Both of which are very important for a business to thrive in the future.
Enhancing the overall customer service experience.
While you are at it, you may not get as many reviews as you would like purely because you are not thinking about the customer experience. It is all well and good having a great website and amazing products and services. But if the rest of the experience doesn’t match up, people are less likely to share their good views or even to return back to you, It is about the packaging, the way it is delivered and also the follow up service such as “thank you for your custom” emails or simple cals to make sure all is good.
Investing and growing your company at the right time.
Finally, a business can only grow if you invest in your business at the right time. It may be expanding your products and services. It could be that you want to move from being an at home online business and have a shop or retail premises. Maybe a place where you can store more stock and expand in that way. Don’t be afraid to take risks, sometimes it is the risks at the right tie that make all of the difference.
I hope that these tips and suggestions help you ensure you are doing what you can to make your business a success.
