11 Jun Online Solutions to Help Improve and Grow Your Business

Considering the online world as an important and effective platform for client outreach, brand promotion and as a means of cutting costs, is a necessity for ambitious modern entrepreneurs who want to make enough money to live comfortably and enjoy some of the finer things in life. However, it is apparent that many inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to jump into the world of business way too soon, without the right information or any real preparation, and this extends to their familiarity with the online world as well.

A lot of new business owners have a worrying lack of understanding for even the basics of online marketing, website design features, SEO practices and a wide range of cloud services, which all contribute to creating a strong brand identity and bringing in new clients. In this article, we will go over some essential online solutions for small business owners who have trouble growing their business and taking the next step towards success.

Make sure your website design promotes customer turnover

While having a website that has a particular look and feel to it that goes along with the types of services or products that you have to offer, when building a good website, you need to take into account more than just base design and things like fonts and colors. Important design features include calls to action – such as “Find out more”, “See in action”, “Buy”, “Subscribe” – clearly visible social media sharing buttons, direct links from your home page to your most important pages – your shop, pages on particular products, link to the “why choose us” or “services” page – and enough core information positioned above the fold.

You can consult an SEO professional to test your website in order to help you find out what features your visitors like and what needs to be improved upon, and then develop the right strategy for you. This will usually include creating a blog page and posting regular informative or even somewhat controversial content, as well as posting articles on other blogs in exchange for a link leading to your website. You’ll need to attract visitors to your website and this is where the right design choices ensure that a good portion of them become paying customers or clients.

Utilize social media to its full potential

Developing social media profiles should be one of your top priorities. When it comes to marketing your business there is no better option than this – maintaining profiles on several social media sites and posting regular updates doesn’t cost you anything and it is a good way to reach a very wide audience in time. As your business develops and grows, so will your profiles. Here are a few of the most important ones:

Facebook – you can have both a company page and a personal page, which allows you to give your business a face and a voice. You can build an online shop right there on Facebook with very little effort, spark conversations, showcase your goods, get people engaged in contests, organize giveaways, comment on the latest industry news and trends, and provide regular updates.

Twitter – a great platform for news updates on things like sales and special offers, engaging in conversations and discussions with fans or even some big names or simply writing some humorous and insightful posts to draw some attention.

Google+ – it is similar to Facebook, but it is conceptually quite different, as it is geared more towards developing a professional identity and connecting with other people based on shared interests, fields of expertise and similar experiences. A great thing about it is that, when anyone who is in your circles does a particular keyword search, any related content you may have posted will be ranked higher than other random content from around the web. The same goes for people who have someone who clicked on the +1 icon on your content in their circles. So you get a chance to network and you get more exposure for your material.

Pinterest – a good way to showcase your work, particularly if you offer a lot of products. High-resolution images showing your products from all angles, close-ups of particular parts, diagrams and pictures showing products being used for their intended purpose are some good options. In addition, you may post infographics, promotional “flyers” or motivational posters.

LinkedIn – it is focused on purely professional interactions and is useful for connecting with other people from your niche, looking for employees, etc. With LinkedIn Today, you now have the ability to post articles and spark up some discussion in the comments section.

Be sure to check on your social profiles, answer questions, share interesting news and post regular content for a maximum effect.

Look into cloud-based services to streamline your business

Don’t let the term confuse you – the cloud is just another name for things that are based online. For example, you have cloud storage, which simply means that your data can be kept in an online database. There is no need to actually have the files on the device you are using, you just need a decent internet connection and you can access all the data you need from everywhere on the planet, using any device that you currently have at your disposal. In the same vein, you can use any of a number of virtual PBX providers to effectively deal with the communicational need within your company – you get all the functionality of a traditional PBX, except there is much less physical equipment to worry about. There are plenty more cloud-based services including cloud call centers, project management and data analysis tools, and so on.

With these simple guidelines in mind, you will be able to effectively take your business online, market yourself and hopefully grow your business as a result of your efforts.