1. Blogging
Your blog is your customer service desk on the Web.
Business blogging has exploded in recent years as a low cost avenue for small businesses to communicate with their customers and initiate conversation with their intended markets. With blogging, Small Business owners can engage with their customers and help tailor their services and products to better serve the customer’s needs. As a SBO you can use this platform to respond on the trends you are experiencing, keep your customers informed on improvements and developments in your company, ask for feedback and enhance transparency and trust.
In today’s competitive and niche market driven world, customers don’t want to deal with another faceless company or a recorded voice prompt phone call. Business blogging can help put the humanity back into your company’s image and let them know that behind the polished exterior there are real people that are passionate about their customer’s needs.
Blogging also helps to build a community around your website.
2. Interactivity
The internet is unique in that it is a platform that enables and encourages interaction. Whereas TV, Radio and Print media are mostly static platforms for communication and advertising, with the internet it is possible to get instant feedback from your customer base. Customers like to be entertained and are moving beyond the passive consumer culture to a more proactive role in the products and services they purchase and consume.
By using polls, surveys, suggestion boxes, feedback forms, games, and competitions on your website you can encourage the customer to interact with your business. If your interactive offerings are interesting and can manage to entertain and add value to the customer’s experience, they are sure to visit your website again.
3. Social Media
By using social media platforms and tools such as twitter and Facebook, your company gains the ability to reach more people and encourage feedback from it’s customers. These services are free and easy to use, with everyone from schoolkids to grannies getting involved. Word of mouth marketing is as important as ever, if not more so, with customers rather trusting a referral from a friend or relative then another salesman with a slippery tongue and sugar coated sales pitch.
4. SEO
South Africa is a relatively small country, and a strong web presence can help you as a small business owner to expand your business beyond the boundaries of your town, whether you are based in Cape Town or Biesiesvlei. As South Africans become increasingly involved and educated web users Small Business Owners ignore the impact and power of the web at their own peril. Customers have come to expect certain things from the web and companies web presence. They now find it frustrating if the needed and required information is not a ‘google’ away and this can lead to them taking their business to your competitor, the one who did sit up and listen.
This is where Search Engine Optimization comes in. With proper SEO your website can be made more visible in search rankings, leading to higher traffic and more business.
5. Domain Name
Your domain name is very important because it is the name of your website in search engines. In most cases you would want a domain name that is the same or as close as possible to your business name.
you want to pick a domain name that reflects what you do.
It is also important to consider the future of your business when choosing a domain name. Consider where and in what areas you will want to expand to when deciding.
It should be memorable, simple and consider the long term growth strategy of your business.
6. Sales
Use the widgets to transform your website into a commerce engine, capable of accepting orders and payments.
7. Upgrade to Pro
Upgrade to Pro and get your own domain and applications on top of the standard features.
8. Get a custom design
Let our partners at Lightspeed design a custom website based on your specifications.
9. Update your site regularly
Keeping your site’s content updated can increase your search engine visibility and will keep regular users of your site interested.
10. Add pictures and Video
Post videos and pictures to your site to make it more interesting, vibrant and engaging.
