If you’re a for-profit company, your goal is to make money. The ultra-competitive nature of today’s economy, however, is forcing businesses to refocus their money making strategies to the digital sphere in order to earn more customers and continually grow their business.
The advantages of moving your business to the web are endless. On top of the benefit of having access to more potential customers and the ability to grow your business at a faster rate, selling digitally can also be a much less expensive option.
One of the difficulties of getting started in the digital sphere is that it can be a confusing process if you’ve spent most of your business career gaining customers through a store-front and face-to-face interaction. Fortunately, there are several resources out there that can help get you started and guide you in the right direction.
Let’s take a look at five strategies that you can start utilizing today to earn customers online and grow your business:
1. Create and Grow an E-Commerce Website
While most businesses already have a website for marketing purposes, many have yet to make the move to creating an e-commerce site that allows them to sell their products online. Whether that is because they’re fearful of the technological aspect of maintaining an e-commerce website or the lack of time to do so, there is a tremendous amount of growth opportunity with e-commerce.
According to a recent survey, over 55% of US consumers shop online. With the population of the US being just above the 315 million mark, that means that over 155 million consumers have shopped online at some point.
The opportunity to reach that many consumers is something that every business should take advantage of. But what if you’re unaware of how to create a website or think that it would be too difficult to maintain?
Fortunately, with today’s technology, starting and growing an e-commerce website is as easy as ever. Easy to use website builders like Shopify and Volusion make the process of developing a website super simple. They have guides and resources that allow even novice internet users to easily create a professional looking website that can generate profits for their business.
With the information and technology that is now available on the internet, there is simply no excuse not to have an e-commerce store for your business.
2. Use Content Marketing to Solve Problems for Your Target Market
One of the most popular ways for businesses to earn customers online is by utilizing content marketing to solve problems for their target market. If you’re unfamiliar with content marketing, it can be described simply as a digital marketing strategy that involves creating and sharing online content.
If you view yourself as an authority in your industry and understand the problem’s that your target customers face, this can be a huge opportunity to develop your brand and earn customers. Content marketing can be done in a variety of different ways. Some companies have created blogs while others have focused on creating informational products such as e-books, white papers, how-to and tutorial videos, and intensive guides.
While many companies have seen success with their content marketing strategies, many others still leave a lot to be desired. Creating a goal that aims towards developing content that solves the problems of your customers can be highly effective because it can both build your brand and build trust among consumers in your target market.
While entire books have been written on how to create a successful content marketing strategy, the Content Marketing Institute provides a lot of great information for businesses that are unsure of how to get started. No matter what type of content you decide to create, focusing on solving problems for your target market is a proven way to earn customers online.
3. Develop Systems for Digital Marketing
From email and content marketing to social media and SEO marketing, there are several different types of digital marketing strategies out there for businesses to utilize. While getting started with any one of them can be a difficult process, doing so becomes much simpler when you start by creating a system for your digital marketing strategies.
For example, if you want to get started in content marketing, develop a system for how you are going to create and promote your content. This can involve developing a content creation schedule as well as creating methods for promoting your content through social media. You can even integrate email marketing into this concept by creating a landing page that encourages potential customers to subscribe to regular emails from your business.
Developing a system for your digital marketing strategies allows you to continually improve upon those strategies and creates consistency in how your marketing is handled. This is essential to earning trust in customers as they’re able to see that you’re consistently able to provide them with quality content and may begin to even look forward to receiving that content.
4. Create Useful Videos
Creating videos has also become a popular strategy for online marketers as the attention span of consumers continues to decrease. According to Video Brewery, 90% of online shoppers find that video is helpful in making their purchasing decisions. While this is a fairly new concept for many business owners, it is an tremendous opportunity to get ahead of the competition, especially if you’re competing locally.
Videos can be created for several purposes. While some businesses will use tutorial and how-to videos in their content marketing strategies, descriptive videos about your product or service can also be useful. Showing your product in use allows customers the chance to picture themselves using that product, therefore increasing their willingness to buy.
Even if you have no idea how to create online videos, there is an abundance of information online that can help you with the process. Online services like Flixpress also make it easy for you to create several different types of video even if you are unsure of how to get started.
5. Build a Social Media Presence
The impact of a social media presence on earning customers online has been debated since platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter became household names on the web. What can’t be debated, however, is that social media provides the opportunity to increase brand awareness and earn trust with potential customers. Consultants such as ShoutOurBiz and TapInfluence provide services that can significantly improve a company’s reach.
Creating a social media presence can be a difficult task, and it requires consistency and a plan to experience success. Entrepreneur provides a lot of good information about choosing the right platform for your business and, once again, there is plenty of information online about how to continually increase your social media following.
The Final Word
At the end of the day, earning customers online can be done in a variety of ways. Different strategies will have varying effectiveness depending on your business and the industry you operate within. The strategy that you choose will more than likely also come down to what you currently have to work with as far as time and employees.
Even if you feel that you don’t have the necessary time or amount of employees, getting started online is not as difficult as you may think. The technology and resources available throughout the web are endless and getting started with even one of these methods can be done in less than a day.
Overall, the opportunities available to you to earn customers online are endless. This article should serve as a guide to get you started but be aware that it is important that you continually test different strategies to figure out which will work best for your business.
If you commit yourself to getting started and develop systems for utilizing these strategies, there is no doubt that you will have an opportunity to earn customers online and grow your business exponentially faster than you can offline.