Jolly Online Tips For A Successful New Year
This is time of year where the bells ring, cash registers ching, and don't forget the time you need to gear up your Website, Social and Mobile Applications to win. Here are a few tips and resources to help you add some flavour to your online presence.
Spice up the Site
Flavour
People don't want to go to websites that have everything every other website has. Try to give your visitors reasons why your website is better than others. As a business you pride yourself on being different than your competition so naturally your website should follow suit.
Impact
We often over judge the image of our website based on the image of our company. Yes we want our company to match our image and branding. However, the online world demands us to be creative and impactful. The online world is geared towards impactful imagery, sound, animation, colour and, most of all, the users’ experience. Just because your organization is based around collard shirts and ties does not mean you can't show a little wow. Determine in the new year how your organization can take a step to add a little impact.
Goal Setting
Businesses when developing a website are often so focused on their message, imagery, and the nuts and bolts that they forget about the real purpose. Just as a physical sales person takes the time and to ask the customer for the sale, your website should be doing the same thing. You need to have call to action methods in place. When you’re describing a service on your website, do you have a button that says "Get started now"? Your website can act like a seasoned sales person if you are willing to train it and invest the time to help it grow.
Grow Some Social Media
Interaction
Social Media is basically building relationships and communicating with others in a digital way. A business can't say they are not interested in Social Media if they have customers! Interacting with customers is critical to any business. The easiest way to start building your social media presence is to interact with your fans. Try offering a contest or two every once in a while. You can also try a few surveys to help build some interactions.
Commitment
Once you start building relationships you need to be able to keep on top of them. Just as a retail store hires more staff to manage floods of customers, sometimes you will need to put people in place to help interact with your online community. This is the direction that business is taking. Online sales are climbing, we are rapidly moving away from physical in store sales to an online market. Commit your organization to be forward thinkers and start investing in your online success.
Plan It Out
As the New Year comes we are either really busy, or we are trying to drum up new business. What if we could plan our projects, goals, and messages so they automatically populate for us? Why not have your Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in messages already timed and queued for launch? This will help you achieve the outcome you’re looking for rather than reacting to what has happened. Take charge and plan out your messages so you can focus on the follow up of your hard work.
Mobilize Yourself
Mobile Website
Mobile searches and requests are going through the roof. Everyday more mobile devices are put into consumers’ hands. Regardless of your client demographic, they are going mobile. Many seniors are flocking to the iPad because of its simplicity. This is great news for the accessibility and easy visibility of our businesses. That is if you have a mobile ready website. Many websites are not formatted or designed properly for a mobile phone or tablet. If your website is not formatted properly it can be very frustrating to the mobile user. They end up experiencing a broken, non-functioning, awkward looking website. This can ultimately cause them to look in another direction for businesses even though they came to you first.
Since it’s the season of giving here are some really awesome apps that will help you do more in business. These are available on the App Store for Apple devices.
Square
Accept credit cards on your iPhone or iPad and run your business anywhere with square. Now you can get the deposit right on the spot. Getting a commitment for a job has never been easier. Also with square there are no monthly fees, just a 2.5% transaction fee
Business Plan Maker by Shelia Cosley
Make a professional business plan to help you start or manage your new business in a few easy steps.
Trip Tracker
The perfect app for sales representatives, small business owners, or employees who drive their own vehicle. This app keeps a log of dates, distances travelled by multiple vehicles, and generates an easy to read spreadsheet that can be emailed to your accountant or saved for future use.