It’s no secret: growing an online business can be very difficult during the first few years.
WebCreationAU, reviewed by Adam, understands the challenges businesses face in establishing their online presence. Whether you’re in digital marketing, healthcare, or an iGaming Platform software provider, you have to tick all of the right boxes to get your online business off the ground. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck down the lower end of the chain with lots of other SMBs.”
By successfully growing your online business, you can experience great benefits such as:
- Generating more sales and profit
- Attracting new customers
- Having more influence and control over your prices
This is why it’s a no-brainer to focus on growing your online business, rather than leaving it the way it is. Business growth is a golden ticket to success — so, let’s get to work on growing your online business in 2023.
Below are 10 proven strategies that (when implemented correctly) can take your business to new heights and achieve the growth you’re looking for.
1. Market Your Best Product
It’s likely that you currently have a wide range of products that you sell.
Naturally, some of your products will be better than others — and you likely have one that stands out above the rest.
For example, if you take a look at a big company like Apple, its best (and highest-selling) product is the iPhone. This is why the vast majority of online ads and commercials that you see from Apple are related to their current iPhone models.
Let’s also think about the online gambling industry. When people gamble online, one of the most popular and attractive games is online pokies. This is why you see countless online casinos and online casino comparison sites advertise pokies on the homepage. They know that the customer is more than likely looking for online pokies to play, which is why pokies are advertised at the forefront.
Take a minute to think about what your best product is in terms of quality and customer demand. You should then take this product and put more marketing resources behind it. In the early days of an online business, this is key. It’s not always about having a diverse portfolio of products. Instead, it’s about promoting that one product you have that will ultimately attract and keep online customers loyal to you.
2. Improve Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Effective SEO is vital for your online business to be successful in 2023.
Here’s why: 81% of people use search engines (like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge) to find products and services that they want to buy (Data Reportal). As a result, you need to get your online business site as high up the search engine results as you possibly can. Otherwise, countless customers aren’t going to be able to find your products or services when they search online. Instead, they’ll click on competitor sites who are higher-up the results.
The key to ranking higher on Google and other search engines is SEO. Here are some SEO tips that you need to follow:
- Sprinkle keywords throughout your business website
- Post helpful industry-related blogs and articles
- Use meta titles and headings
- Build up some nice backlinks
- Adopt a user-friendly and memorable URL
Your website domain is especially important these days, so make sure that it’s short and as close to your business name as possible. Even if you have to pay a little extra to get the perfect domain, it’s more than worth it in the end.
3. Use Social Media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter should be the heartbeat of your online marketing.
Nowadays, customers use social media to interact with their favorite brands and gain access to customer service. This is why your goal should be to post interesting content to your social pages while also responding as fast as possible to customer queries. Usually, these queries will be via comments on your posts or direct messages. If you don’t have the relevant employees ready to respond to these queries, then your social media customer experience is going to be very poor.
Remember, around 4.5 billion people use social media. The likelihood is that most of your customers (and future customers) are on social media, too. This is another reason why you need to tap into this amazing marketing strategy.
4. Know Your Online Customer
Without properly knowing your customer, growing your online business will remain a distant dream.
Think about some of the following questions:
- What are your online customers looking for — quality, cheap prices, or something else?
- What’s the average age of your online customer?
- How can you incentivize your customers to buy more products? For example, would offering them more discounts work?
Once you know your customer inside and out, it’ll enable you to make the right changes to your online business. You’ll know exactly what makes your customers tick and will be able to optimize specific touchpoints as a result. For example, if most of your customers are purchasing products from your website via mobile, you’ll be able to better optimize your website for mobile users.
To gain an insight into how your customers’ brains work, it’s recommended that you send out surveys to them and also provide feedback forms on your website whenever a customer finishes purchasing a product. The data collected from these sources will then enable you to make some positive changes moving forward.
5. Keep your Brand Voice Consistent
Across all of your online marketing channels, from social media to your website, you need to maintain a consistent brand voice. Otherwise, customers won’t understand who you are and what you stand for. In the case of a brand like Starbucks, they maintain a positive, upbeat, and friendly brand voice across all of their channels.
6. Launch an App
If you don’t have one already, launch a mobile app. This is an essential tool for online businesses to have in 2023, as it provides you with an additional platform for faster sales and 24/7 customer interaction (as it’s very easy to send notifications to your customers directly through your app). Remember, your business app should be available to download on both Android and iOS. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on potentially thousands of app downloads if it’s only available to download on one of the platforms.
7. Optimize Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to keep your existing customers happy and up-to-date with all of your latest offerings, such as in-store discounts and upcoming events. The reason why so many companies use email marketing is because it typically has a high ROI.
Before you start email marketing, though, you’ll need to build an email list. This is the tricky part, which is why the biggest companies in the world put so much time and effort into getting customers to provide them with their email addresses.
To build an email list for your online business, here’s what you need to do:
- Use embedded signup forms that require email addresses.
- Add pop-ups to your website (for example, enter your email to receive 25% off your next purchase).
- Start a loyalty program.
Once you start to build a healthy email list, the revenue opportunities will be endless for you. That’s why (in 2023) email marketing revenue is estimated to be at 10 billion dollars (Statista).
8. Use Paid Google Ads
The next thing you need to do is use Google Ads in your online marketing strategy.
With Google Ads, you can target your ads with keywords, grow your customers, and gain insight into analytics that further help you to understand how your customers behave.
The best part about Google Ads is that you only pay for results. Essentially, this means there’s very little financial risk involved. This is why 80% of global businesses use Google Ads for their pay-per-click campaigns (Enterprise Apps Today).
9. Collect Customer Testimonials
When a customer finds a product from an online business they’ve never used before, the customer will (more often than not) check out the reviews and customer testimonials. The reason for this is simple: so that they can discover whether a business can be trusted or not. So, if you collect positive customer testimonials and then post them to your website, this will prove to future customers that you’re the real deal. They won’t even have to think twice before entering their bank details, as they’ll be able to go ahead and make purchases with complete peace of mind.
10. Sell Through Different eCommerce Platforms
From eBay to Shopify, it’s always a good idea for online businesses to sell through different eCommerce platforms. This is a great way to maximize your coverage and boost sales. After all, if you only sell products through your website (and your website traffic is low), then you’ll be in trouble. With platforms like Shopify, you have instant access to a huge pool of customers, which is why it is recommended that you use them for business growth.
ALSO READ: 15 Sensible Tips for Growing Your Business
