Whether you are starting an online business or want to expand a current one, you will know how important keeping up with the changing online marketplace is to customer acquisition and retention. In this new online world, competition has never been stronger – and you need to make sure you’re covered for all eventualities. So, continue reading to discover what you need to know that will help you stand out from the crowd in 2020.
1. Better understand your niche
Understanding your target customer is one of the most crucial steps to optimising your business strategy and increasing profit margins. As competition increases in 2020 and customers are given more options, it has never been more critical to appreciate who your customer is and who you should be advertising to.
2. Engage in SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) is the process of making your website more attractive to search engines, which boosts your website’s visibility in search results. Once you understand your target market, you can begin analysing the kind of keywords which are most relevant to your website and/or product. Using relevant and popular keywords will help ensure that your website gets seen by the people who want to buy your product.
3. Offer good customer service
Excellent customer service never goes out of style, which is why it deserves a mention on this list. When you are selling a product that has taken years of hard work to create, receiving bad customer feedback can be soul-destroying. The truth is, despite your best efforts, things will sometimes go wrong. Usually, when parcels are damaged or lost, the fault lies with postal services or the weather; but on occasion, you might be responsible for disappointing the customer. It could be that you accidentally sent them the wrong product, or you overlooked the quantity of an ordered item.
We all make mistakes! Excellent customer service involves admitting when a mistake was made (even if it wasn’t your fault) and doing your level best to try and rectify it. Customers will appreciate your honesty and quick solution!
4. Don’t try to do everything
Social media has a significant role to play in modern life, and online businesses can capitalise on this by developing social media accounts and paying for adverts that drive traffic to their website. However, imminentbusiness suggests that many social media platforms available, it can become overwhelming for a small business to keep up with the demands. So, avoid spreading yourself too thinly in 2020 by focusing only on the big three: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
5. Never knowingly undersell
When starting a business, it is easy to undersell your product (or service) in an attempt to make quick sales. However, this can have major disadvantages, especially as customers come to expect the same low prices in the future. If you are a freelancer, it can be challenging to increase your rates when you have offered lower prices in the past. So, when you are deciding product/service price points, ensure that you are taking into account all costs associated with production and that you will be paying for your own time fairly.
6. Offer competitions
Nothing creates social media buzz for an online business like a competition. Offering a competition is an excellent way of generating user participation and getting people talking about your website. Make sure the competition is worth people’s time, though! If you are only offering the winner a 10% off coupon, people will probably not be commenting, sharing and liking your social media content or links to the competition.
