There are no magic bullets for doubling your business growth overnight, but some tactics certainly work better than others. As an e-tailer or other business online, you need to make sure your efforts are well spent. Fortunately, a lot of the leg work has been done for you, the statistics are in, and there are some avenues that simply work better and faster than others. For example, start by joining the right LinkedIn Business Groups as defined by the pros instead of diving in blindly and trying to network with no direction.
Whether your goal is to partner with the right Chinese counterparts in 2015 or simply to move up the search engine optimization (SEO) rankings for certain keywords, it’s all about growth. Here are ways to bolster it with minimal time, effort and funds:
1. Get a (good) blog
Blogging isn’t easy, and the best approach is hiring a professional blogger to take care of this for you. Sadly, the vast majority of blogs get abandoned and they’re not always removed from the site. A neglected blog is worse than no blog at all, and you need to figure out the best times and dates to post for your website/industry. However, when done well, blogs are highly shareable and give a face to your business.
2. Re-vamp your SEO to include Amazon
Every website could be doing better at SEO, but make sure the SEO guru or agency you use is optimizing for Amazon. Check out Moz’s tips for optimizing on the biggest shopping search engine in the world, and make sure your audience is finding you there, as well as on Google. While some keywords are of course more competitive than others, it’s still in your control to get a little closer to the top spot on search engines.
3. Actually manage your social media
You probably have a social media account or two for business, but is it being professionally managed? Does your website clearly link to your Facebook, are you keeping an eye on your metrics, and is it basically doing you any good? Social media is a great tool for building communities and engagement, but only if it’s done well. Otherwise, it can be a huge waste of time.
4. Partner up
Link exchanges and other partnerships with complementary, (but not competitive) businesses are a great resource. There’s power in numbers, and if a web design company partners up with a content creation company, fantastic things can be born. However, you need to make sure you’re both getting something out of the relationship and there’s no overlap in competing for clients.
5. Encourage reviews
You can ask your customers to post reviews, and even entice them by offering giveaways, discounts, etc. Just make sure you don’t require a certain type of review or star, because that can be seen as buying their reviews, (which isn’t just bad ethics, it's illegal on most review sites). Instead, ask for honest reviews and be quick to address any complaints that might pop up.