Thanks to Coronavirus, businesses all over the world have had to change and adapt to these new and strange times. Stores that operated on a face to face basis have had to find new ways of running to keep their doors open. Many businesses have turned into online stores because it’s a safe and easy way of selling their products and services without any face to face contact. However, now that there are more businesses using their website and online presence to entice customers, businesses like yours that run solely online have become compromised as everyone fights for the spotlight. Worried about your online business falling behind? Take a look at these tips for running a successful online business in 2021 so that you don’t get left behind.
Backup your website
Your website is your only source for people to buy your goods and services, and if your website goes down, there’s a problem with it, or you’re hacked, you’ve lost your website and your business will have downtime while you’re sorting the problem out. Backing up your website regularly means you’ll have no downtime should a problem with your website arise. Not only that, if a thief or hacker manages to gain access to your website, no data will be lost and business can continue as normal. Brushing up on your knowledge by reading this guide on Cybersecurity 101 will help avoid exposing your online business to potential thieves and hackers, and help you stay safe online.
Work on your social media game
Getting yourself noticed online is no easy feat these days, with more and more accounts and businesses signing up each day! Grabbing the attention of potential customers is more than just posting a picture with a link to your website. Here are some tips to help step up your social media game:
- Post with purpose. Every post you create and publish on social media should have a call to action of some sort, even something as simple as asking your followers to check out your story for more information on a deal! Fluff content may bore your followers and cause them to lose interest in your business.
- Stay on brand with the content you publish to keep up consistency. With so many businesses online these days, making sure your name and logo are stuck in the minds of potential customers is essential.
- Know your target audience. It’d be great to appeal to everyone. However, it’s simply not possible! Hone in on who you’re trying to sell to so that you can create content that’s going to appeal to them.
- Conduct hashtag research. Hashtags can expose your content to millions of people, and if you use the right hashtags for your industry, you’ll get yourself noticed by the right people. Try and avoid using hashtags that have millions of uses, as it’s likely your content will quickly become lost in the feed.
- Post regularly to keep people engaged and interested in your content and business.
Apply SEO EVERYWHERE
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the best method when it comes to driving organic traffic to your website, and it’s extremely effective when used correctly. Did you know that your website can be built with SEO relevant keywords to your industry? Applying SEO at every step of your website will help drive more organic traffic to your website. When using SEO, a great tip is to think about what people would search for to land upon your content and use these keywords throughout.
Provide useful and credible content
When you’re online, why do you choose particular websites? Because you trust them! Your website needs to be packed full of useful and credible content to keep people coming back time and time again for the answers to their problems. This way, you’ll build up a loyal customer base that not only comes back for more, but will also recommend you to their friends and family. If content writing isn’t your forte, you could hire a freelance writer to write compelling content for your website.
Run competitions and giveaways
If you’re fairly new to the online world, then you’ll need to find a way to get your name out there amongst bigger competitors. A great way of doing this is by running competitions and giveaways to pique the interest of potential customers. You can do this via your website or on social media, but your goal should always be to drive people to your website. Running competitions and giveaways using platforms like Gleam will help collect email addresses and user information that you can use with your email marketing efforts. Remember to abide by the laws of GDPR when collecting personal information.
Update your website design
What visitors see when they first enter your website is important, so giving off a great first impression is something you should be striving to do. If you’re not a dab hand at website design, hiring a professional website designer is a worthwhile investment. Work together to come up with a sleek looking, modernistic website that users will love coming to again and again. Earlier we mentioned sticking to your brand image on social media, and the same applies here. It’s always worth creating a brand pack that’s got information such as your chosen font, the sizes of your font, brand colours, how you’d like your logo to be displayed, and any other information about the image you want to pull off as a brand. That way, whenever you work with someone, whether that be a website designer or graphic designer, all of your content will be on brand.
Easy navigation
Finally, it’s imperative that your website is easy to navigate for visitors. Failure to achieve this could mean losing out on potential customers. Take the time to create clear navigation for your website visitors, as well as easy to find contact information.
Running an online business in 2021 is going to be a challenge, but with these tips your business will thrive throughout this year and beyond!
