Driving Business Online
Most business enterprises are traditional. Not many business owners, especially in the third world, have thought about driving business online. Many factors are contributing to that. I think it’s mainly because of low computer literacy levels. Secondly, not many people in developing countries do business online.
But in modern times, any business owner needs to think about driving business online. You don’t need to have a big business to create a website for it. Even small companies can turn out to be great when taken online. Every business, be it small or big, needs an online presence.
What to Consider When Driving Business Online
#1. What Do You Want to Achieve?
Driving business online may help you to achieve some of your business goals. Before creating a website, ask yourself first what your intended achievements are. That should be one of the most important questions to focus on when driving business online. Once you are clear about it, you then continue to create a website for your business. You may want to create a website to achieve some of the following goals:
- Use your site as an online brochure
- Sell products directly
- Provide information
- Take orders
- Create a professional brand image
- Attract new potential customers
- Generate the email addresses of subscribers to your newsletter
#2. How Will You Drive People to Your Website?
Driving business online is not easy. Although it may be easy to have a website, getting people to visit it is hard for most people. There are countless sites on the internet that are idle. They don’t receive even one visitor a day. That’s not the kind of scenario we want. Driving business online requires you to use effective online marketing methods to drive traffic (visitors) to your site. That’s when you will be in business. That’s when you will achieve your goals.
There are many ways you can use to get people to your websites. But some of the simple ways you may use to attract people to your website include the following.
i. Telling Your Customers About Your Site
If you are already in business, we assume that you have existing customers. Tell them about your business. How do you do it? It’s simple. Put your website address on every business material you use. These may include business cards, flyers, brochures, newsletters, display materials, invoices, receipts, business vehicles and emails you send out.
ii. Give Your Customers a Good Reason to Visit Your Site
People won’t go to your site unless there is something valuable for taking them there. They don’t go to your site to admire the excellent design. They are looking for something worthwhile. What’s it? Here are some helpful ideas.
• An article.
You may write educative articles related to your business. These may help them to learn something about your products or services
• Free information.
People are ever looking for free information. If you provide useful information about what you do, it may prompt them to keep coming to your site.
• Free trial.
For instance, if you sell software, consider giving to your customers a 30-day free trial. People want free things the world over.
• An online demonstration.
You may have a video or something to demonstrate how you use your products or services.
• A competition.
You may organise a competition related to your business. It may attract your clients to participate in the contest.
iii. Building Link Popularity
Link popularity refers to the total number of websites that link to your site. It’s so important. Useful quality links pointing to your website are a good source of free targeted traffic. It also improves your search engine rankings. You can get quality links by doing the following:
- Write articles for posting to other websites.
- Join online directories. These should be related to your business.
- Join online forums related to your niche and regularly participate in the discussions.
- Exchange links with partners
- Post frequently useful information on your site. When people read it and pick an interest, they are prompted to share it on their websites or social media networks.
- Join networking directories
- Use banner advertising on relevant online directories.
iv. Work On Your Search Engine Ranking
Search engine optimisation is a process through which you use the information on your website to enable you to rank highly in search engines. The higher your ranking, the more likely people will find you when they search for the products or services you offer.
Search engine optimisation is based on keywords. You need to know the words that people would type in the search engine to find the products and services you offer. Have a list of them. Write your content with those keywords each time you make new posts. It’s a time-consuming process but very rewarding when done correctly. It also requires having some skills in it, which you can acquire gradually.
Conclusion
Driving business online will enable you to achieve many of your business goals. It’s an effective marketing method that every business should embrace. But when you build a website and get visitors, keep them there. You achieve it by making your site attractive with a good reason for the people to remain there. Think driving business online to succeed in business!
Do you have any other information to share with us on driving business online? Please use the comment section below to leave your comment.
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