If you are a small business, your online strategy is everything. 81% of consumers conduct online research before they consider making a purchase, so if your company is not showing up on search engines, you are going to fall behind the competition.
But just being online doesn’t guarantee that you will get clicks from potential consumers. You need to make sure you are adapting to web and digital marketing as your business grows and changes, says Ted Risdall, owner of Ridsal Marketing Group. “For the biggest human communication revolution ever in mankind’s history, it’s still surprising to me the adoption rate to really get going on digital marketing. Seems to be 20-plus years now of having websites out there on the planet that we continue to slowly embrace these different, new ways to do things.”
If you feel like your business has grown stagnant or has reached a plateau, it might be time to rethink and revitalize so you can turn your clicks into conversions quicker. To see how you can boost your online strategies, we reached out to industry leaders to hear what they had to say.
Segment Your Email
“You have to make sure that you are targeting the right people. When my company launched, like many others, we had a scattershot approach to emailing. We had to do some serious retooling to get accurate segmentation. This included making use of potential customers’ location, interests, age, sign-up date, and more to make sure that our emails were delivering the best results. It was a bit of an investment, but it has paid off in the long run.” – Omid Semino, CEO & Founder of Diamond Mansion.
Be Strategic About What You Post
“Online content strategy has changed over the last couple of years. The focus is still on providing value, but this has been honed even further. I see businesses being more strategic about the type of content they publish online, to build the communities they want. There’s more long-term strategy in the content they produce. I see businesses blogging less often but with deeper content to create strong evergreen content relevant to their business. I see others sharing more thoughtful pieces of content to connect with the right people. A few years ago, providing value might have been enough to get traction to impact your business, but it’s also very important to create the type of coherent online visibility you need to establish relationships. Combining the two is essential today. There’s just too much noise, too many people publishing the same thing. And of course, you need a visual marketing strategy to go hand in hand with your written content if you want to really take advantage of social media reach today.” – Cindy King, Director of Editorial at Social Media Examiner.
Improve Your Mobile
“If you aren’t making your online strategy mobile-friendly, you are going to be eclipsed by everyone else. There are so many companies that have a great webpage on the desktop, but when you pull it up on your handheld, it becomes a nightmare. Pop-ups load in a way that makes them impossible to click out of, images don’t load, that great customer testimonial video they have gets frozen. It’s a mess. You need to make sure that your mobile website is seamless, especially if you are hoping that customers will purchase online. You don’t want them exiting the page because something isn’t working right. Spend the extra money and hire someone to make it really hum.” – Shaun Price, Head of Customer Acquisition at MitoQ
Be More Engaged
“Use the information you gather from being more segmented and engage your users on the platforms that they live on. Social media platforms have distinct demographics that you need to be aware of. Once you understand this you can focus your approach on each and spend more time and energy where your customers hang out. Comment on posts and have a clear and welcoming brand voice that will grab users as they scroll their feeds.” – Jeremy Gardner, CEO of MadeMan.
Implement Real-Time Support
“You are going to lose customers if they feel like they can’t get in touch with you. Do not let that happen. You need to engage with them in real-time in order to keep them satisfied. There are many stats out there that show that consumers expect brands to reply to queries within 10 minutes. Seriously. It’s crazy, but you should be aiming to do so the best you can in order to boost retention and answer potential customers’ questions before they lose interest and look elsewhere.” – Lindsay McCormick, Founder & CEO of Bite.
Update Your Checkout Process
“When my website first launched, the checkout process worked well. Or so I thought. I started to investigate why my website visitors were leaving items in their carts and came to some hard conclusions. The cart abandonment rates were due to customers getting frustrated with how long it was taking to checkout. To address this, I added guest checkout so they wouldn’t have to sign-up for anything, I offered express payment by third parties, and I only asked for the most essential information. It worked and my loss rates shrunk.” – Jim Beard, COO of Box Genie.
Landing Page Optimization
“Rethink your landing page if you are starting to experience stagnation. Visitors, on average, spend less than ten seconds on your landing page before they leave and look elsewhere. To avoid them exiting your page, entice them to click around more by utilizing a more effective design and adding features like videos, which are shown to increase conversions. Try adding a button that will bring them right to checkout if you are only selling one product, too. Toy around with your landing page until you have created the best experience” – Fred Gerantabee, Chief Experience Officer at Readers.com.
Add a Complementary Product
“If you have been in business long enough to experience stagnation, congratulations. That means things have been going relatively well. It also means that you have insights into how customers are using your product and what they would like to see you sell in addition to your main product. If you sell the perfect mountain bike, it might be time to release the perfect helmet for mountain biking in order to boost customer’s spending on your site.” – Michael Jankie, Founder of The Natural Patch Co.
Google Yourself
“Give [your business] a Google and see what happens. If you are not showing up immediately, figure out why. Sometimes you won’t show up on google maps because you haven’t claimed your business on Google or sometimes your domain name is too close to another one. If it is something surface level that you can fix, do so immediately before you lose another customer. Don’t forget that Google is king. It accounts for 90% of the market share. If you are worried about Bing and other search engines, you shouldn’t be. At least not until you have Google locked down. Make use of all the business tools that Google has to offer and start adding more evergreen SEO content that will help make your website be more discoverable to Google’s engine.” – Kevin Miller, Founder of Kevinmiller.com.
Marketing Analytics
“If all else fails, turn to marketing analytics. You need to be able to analyze how well all of your marketing techniques are working if you have hit a wall with your online strategy. Use analytic tools to figure out what areas need improvement and what areas you can lay off of. Analyze the results of the marketing campaigns you have run in the past to see what needs to change moving forward. There are a number of platforms you can invest in in order to do so, but Google Analytics is the most common and arguably the simplest. You can use it to set goals and look at metrics that you chose. Take everything you learn and use it as fuel to reinvigorate your online strategy.“ – Jason Reposa, Founder & CEO of Good Feels.
Update Your Social Media
“I see a lot of small businesses with ten posts a year and none of them look good. You need consistent and quality content for your social media to have any sort of impact on sales. Engaging with people in the comments helps too. But remember, don’t treat your social media account as just a place to sell things. Think of it more like your SEO strategy. You want to be authentic and educational while promoting engagement. Show that you care about your customers and be conversational. Only about 20% of your content should actually be focused on promotions or hard selling. And if you don’t know what you are doing, then it is time to hire someone who does.” – Fred Gerantabee, Chief Experience Officer at Foster Grant.
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