In May 2020, economists at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the University of Chicago estimated that about 100,000 US small businesses had shut down permanently since the pandemic was declared in March.
Let’s Bet, It’s Best Online!
2020 is finally coming to its end, phew! It was a LONG year accompanied by challenging times for everyone, from being forced into isolation, to losing your loved ones. It had especially been a hard year on the business geeks.
Many businesses suffered a low blow and shut down, leaving countless people financially unstable. But miraculously there was a slight ray of hope: the Internet. It saved us from going totally insane and normalized life to quite some extent.
Like everything else, businesses, especially the smaller ones, need to adapt to the challenging times and shift online to ensure survival. If you are an entrepreneur who just shifted online or need to boost your online revenue, these five tips are for you.
01. Keep It Simple
Keeping it simple reduces friction. Many times, customers change their buying intention because either the checkout process is too complicated or there is excess information on the site, making it difficult for them to navigate and get the product they truly desire. Remove unnecessary steps, and any form field that asks for more information than you need.
Good User Interface (UI) Design
You must ensure that your business page is aesthetically pleasing to the users. It means having a simple UI with a good color combination to avoid the users’ eye strain. Doing this will not only leave a good impression but also give visitors an enjoyable experience, and they will be more willing to bring in their friends as your customers.
02. Improve Your Social Media Game Plan for Broader Reach
Social media is a powerful tool that can make or break any online business. It can help build your business profile and attract new customers to your store. However, it requires proper planning, and the following steps can help:
- Make social media your top priority.
- Carefully plan short and long-term goals and commit to them.
- Provide valuable content and share posts that resonate with your brand.
- Respond to customers’ comments and messages on time, as it helps build a long-lasting relationship with them.
- Use advertising to boost reach, through influencer shoutouts, giveaways, or the paid advertising each platform offers.
- Collaborate with other companies, which can benefit you both in brand awareness and sales.
03. Adopt the ‘Customer‑First’ Mentality
The biggest mistake new businesses commit is trying to focus on ‘everyone’ as their audience. This leads to a confused strategy, and the outcomes are rarely in their favor.
To avoid such baggage, the very first step is to identify your customers via free tools like Google Analytics. This helps you focus your energies in the right places.
Anticipate the Need via Market Research
To be relevant, you need to know the market and provide what your identified customers need. Once you have what they desire, you can use the optimal strategy to make sales and earn revenue along the way.
Customer Satisfaction
The purpose of business is not solely to make profits but to create and keep customers. You want them to come the first time, then come again and finally bring their friends. To keep customers coming in, you need to give special attention to customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction can be achieved in the following ways:
- Providing quality products.
- Rewarding regular customers, for example with a gold membership or gold stars.
- Answering client queries on time, whether via live chat or email.
Testimonials: The Most Valuable Weapon in Your Arsenal
One reason to make efforts towards customer satisfaction is their valuable feedback and reviews. Such feedback, known as testimonials, is even more important today in the world of online business. These testimonials help increase your brand authenticity and bring in more customers.
04. Strategize to Grab the Customers’ Eye
Give away as much as you possibly can for free. People love free stuff, be it a Happy Meal toy or a month of free Netflix. Other incentives, including vouchers, coupons, discounts, giveaways and money-back guarantees, also help to capture the audience’s attention, achieve better sales and extend brand reach.
Psychologically Backed Pricing Strategy
Businesses can use a principle from psychology to steer customers toward the price plan they want them to buy. It starts with offering three plans: the cheapest, a mid-priced one, and the most expensive one.
The probability of a customer opting for the middle plan is the highest, because as humans we usually try to avoid the cheapest and the most expensive products. This technique is known as “Decoy Pricing.”
05. Be a Competitive Ninja
Competition is what makes us hungry for success. Get out of your comfort zone and go the extra mile to differentiate yourself, as this differentiation is the key to successful selling.
You MUST have a competitive advantage, and if you don’t have one, create one. This advantage, known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), is what makes you better than others and makes your products more desirable. It can be your location, your values, your employees, your product, or even you as a personality.
The Takeaway
Having your own business is challenging and rewarding at the same time. Proper planning, and following the tips above, is the key to getting started with running a successful business, especially during such a global situation.
