Eight tips that will help your online business thrive
With many parts of the world in lockdown, there isn’t much else to do but scroll through phones and tablets, and that’s a bonus for your business.
However, other online businesses are thinking exactly the same thing; how can we maximise sales during a time where people are likely to be pinching their pennies?
The pandemic has caused serious money issues for many people all over the world, and it’s a strange time for everyone at the moment. However, if your business is still able to operate, you should be taking the time to maximise your online business while many people are online browsing!
Here are eight tips that will help your online business thrive.
1) Create high-quality content
High quality content is essential for any online business. This includes product descriptions, your about us page, your blog, and even your landing page.
Content should be easy to follow, factual, and conversational to keep the reader interested. Avoid using large blocks of text and divide your content into small, easy to digest sections with headings, subheadings, bold text to emphasise your point, and a font that’s easy to read.
High quality content will keep people on your website for longer and increase the chances of leading to a sale, not to mention improve your bounce rate, which increases your DA (domain authority). Having an impressive DA means search engines will rank your website higher, therefore increasing your visibility.
You should also take some time to improve SEO (search engine optimisation) on your website too. The higher your SEO score, the higher you’ll rank on search engine results.
2) Maximise your website speed
Slow websites can cause even the most patient person to lose their temper! In the event of a large spike of traffic, a website can become slow or even stop working all together.
This is something you want to avoid at all costs, especially during a time where more people are browsing the internet than ever before. You may want to consider looking at Unlimited Reseller Hosting plans to ensure that your website scales with your business and so you’ll never run into any storage issues.
Maximising your website speed will also increase the chances of people staying on your website for longer.
3) Keep your website looking sharp
First impressions are everything, and this includes the impression your website is giving first time visitors. Take some time to really use your website and the features it has to ensure that everything is working as it should, and give off the right first impression.
You may want to consider a website redesign, but make sure there isn’t too much downtime on your website.
4) Be mobile friendly!
In this day and age, most households use devices such as their phones or tablets to browse the internet and social media, so making your website mobile friendly is essential.
Make sure that you add scalable images to your website, and social media sharing buttons to encourage users to share your content. This is a great way of organically driving traffic to your website. If you’re running your website on a platform like WordPress, a mobile friendly version may already be integrated, but be sure to check just in case.
5) Use social media
The power of social media in today’s world is immense. One simple word or post can change the trajectory of your business for life! If you don’t already, take some time to build up your social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Social media can be time consuming, so you may want to consider hiring a social media manager to take care of your presence online. If you want to handle social media yourself, here are some tips on how to get your brand noticed:
- Keep your tone of voice consistent, and match it up with your website. How you come across as a brand is important and needs to be maintained.
- Post regularly, and research relevant hashtags that will allow your content to be seen by the right people.
- Use tools on Instagram to create interactive stories. This will encourage your followers to get involved with your company!
- Don’t be afraid to show faces. Statistics show that people are more likely to stop when an image of someone’s face comes up on their feed.
- Refrain from using “spammy” hashtags, as this can lead to your account being hidden. Instagram’s algorithm automatically blocks accounts from being seen if they’re found to be using spammy hashtags such as “like” and “followforfollow”. Use hashtags that are relevant to your industry and products.
6) Create a strong brand image
Creating a strong brand image is imperative in the world of business, because there are so many businesses trying to do the same thing as you!
Think about large brands such as Nike and McDonalds; whenever you see marketing from them, you instantly know which brand it is before you’ve even seen the name. Choose a colour scheme, fonts, a tagline, and be consistent – especially when posting on social media!
7) Know who your target audience is
A mistake that many businesses make is believing that they can reach everyone with their marketing. The truth is, you’re never going to impress everyone or win them over.
It’s important to know who your target audience is so that you can tailor the content on your website and social media posts to what they’re looking for on social media. For example, if you sell technology, your target audience are likely to be drawn to images and videos of impressive technology, and news stories or reviews around the latest console.
8) Team up with other businesses
Finally, another great way of increasing your reach is by teaming up with other businesses to create a special offer or promotion. Not only will it help drive people to your website, but your reach will be extended when spoken about on their website and social media.
As you can see, there are a plethora of ways to help your online business thrive. Which was your favourite method?
Photo by BRUNO EMMANUELLE
