Running an online business looks like an easy feat at the start. However, as soon as you discover the number of resources required for succeeding in this field, you can easily get overwhelmed (unless you’re satisfied with an ROI that’s under $100).
However, with good strategic decisions, it’s quite possible to improve the ROI annually. Here are 7 online business strategies that’ll increase the chances of your ROI turning out to be positive this year:
1. Invest in marketing
Despite social media, traditional marketing is still just as necessary today as it was twenty years ago. Despite the niche you’re in, you need to invest in marketing in order to reach out to your target audience and be the first (even being the second will be considered an extraordinary achievement) to present your products/services.
Marketing is also scalable according to your budget and it’s available for several industries. Some marketing specialists focus on one area of expertise, so make sure you research which marketing experts are needed.
There are specialists available in attorney marketing for law firms, SEO marketing for online businesses and all other types of marketing services, so it’ll be easy for you to find a company offering a service related to your niche.
Forrester Research reveals that half of the total dollars spent on U.S. retail businesses will be under the internet influence by 2016.
2. Get human readable content created
While you may have read several articles and reports telling you to gear the content created for the web pages of your business for the search engines, the reality is that alone isn’t going to work anymore. Instead, you should be investing in top-notch writers who write for human appeal.
Content that’s human-readable and engaging is going to be beneficial for your ROI, because it’s the customers who’re most important for the success of your business. Try to find good authors who create meaningful content about your products or services.
3. Manage your online reputation
Online reputation has a big role to play in your ROI. Imagine how many customers you’re going to lose if someone leaves a bad review about your business on a popular review site. There have also been cases when people have been paid by rival companies to write negative reviews.
Reputation management will protect your business from getting defamed. If you’ve already been running for couple of years and have some negative search queries against your name, reputation management is just the right option as it’s going to remove the negative results from the (most read) first pages of search engine results .
4. Allow customers to have a say
Many online businesses are running successfully today because of one thing: they created communities where users/customers can participate, engage and help each other as well as reach out to the company. The best example comes in the form of TripAdvisor, the travel giant which created an online community for travelers to share their experiences about locations, restaurants, hotels etc.
Several mom bloggers have also created online communities and their ROI is increasing day by day. You can try to do the same for your customers by providing them a platform by which they can relate to each other with your products or services and can connect with you as well. This can be done by creating a forum, a separate website or even a small social media platform.
5. Focus on building authority links
One of the best ways to build authority is to get links from reputable sources to point towards your domain. While you’re not advised to pay for getting links, you can reach out to influencers and reputable websites in your industry through other tactics.
For example, if a post has been published on your blog that you feel offers something new in the industry, you can send an e-mail to other relevant authoritative websites with the link to the post and tell them it’s something new and will be helpful to share. They may share it on their own blog if they find it useful, getting you authoritative links in the process.
6. Don’t give up on e-mail marketing
While you may read several published headlines saying that e-mail marketing is now old-fashioned and social media is the new realm, it can actually turn out to be the opposite.
There have been many changes made in the way e-mails were being used for marketing. Some of the things you should now take into consideration include linking to responsive landing pages when sending e-mails, keeping the subject line short and breaking the e-mail text body into several small paragraphs.
7. Make your website responsive
Mobile internet use is poised to take over desktop internet use in the next 5 years according to many consumer finance reports. This means that it becomes quite vital for online business owners to invest in a design that fits in nicely on smartphones, tablets and other similar devices.
A responsive design may also give a high return on investment as more consumers are shopping from smartphones and tablets compared to desktops. Therefore, your chances of selling your product/service will increase if you’re able to provide a good user experience to mobile users.
These are some simple online business strategies to improve your ROI for the year of 2013. What are some tips you have for other readers? Share in the comments!
Image Credit: Direct Annuaries