Given how quickly the landscape of business is changing, it’s easy to feel at least a little “behind the times” if you’re just now looking at taking your brick-and-mortar business online. However, while the best time to do something might have been yesterday, today is the second-best time. You don’t want to rush your transformation into a digital, online business, however. Here, we’re going to look at a few tips to help you manage that transition to set you up as best as possible.
Building your new online home
You might already have an existing website. You might simply have a Facebook page. Whatever the case, if you’re moving your business online, which means providing access to your products and services directly through the internet, then you’re going to need a new website and, to that end, you should make sure that you’re either working with a web design and development team that’s suited to the specifics of your business or you can look at using website builders to much the same purpose. There are some that are ready suited for certain kinds of business, such as online stores, so take a closer look at the options that are out there.
Getting the right host
It’s not just the website itself that you have to think about. You also need to consider how the website is hosted. Without a host, your website isn’t going to be accessible online. There are hosted platforms available if, for instance, you want to set up an eCommerce site but, otherwise, you need to compare and choose your website host. You can even host your own website, which allows you to more easily customize it however you like, but this also tends to be more expensive since you need to run the server equipment that keeps your business online. Think about not just what your hosting needs are but also what they are likely to be in the future so that you’re ready to scale when you need to.
Hit with a real splash
One of the best things about relaunching your business online is that it’s your second opportunity at a launch, which can be great for pulling old customers back in through new channels, as well as getting some entirely fresh eyes on your business for the first time. To make sure that your launch goes as effectively as possible, you should consider working with some of your local experts in digital marketing. Aside from managing a good marketing campaign leading up to the launch, you can take this opportunity to learn about online advertising, social media, and the other various channels that you need to be working on to make sure that your business has the kind of reach that it needs.
Rethink your brand
With a relaunch also comes the opportunity to change how your business presents itself and what kind of impression you want to leave on the user. Your brand is naturally going to present differently online because rather than visual merchandising and physical presentation, you’re going to rely on digital and visual media a lot more. As such, choosing the right colors for your brand identity, the right logo, and what kind of imagery you’re going to make use of is all going to play a much larger role in ensuring a clear and communicative brand. Boil it back down to the basics and don’t be afraid of doing away with old branding ideas to evolve with the time.
Optimize your pages to ensure they can be found online
This is something that a web marketing firm may very well take care of for you but you need to make sure that you understand the premise and basics of search engine optimization well enough to be able to keep up with them as you add to and further build on your website. Effectively, these are a series of practices that make it much easier for your site to be found, in particular by having it show up in the results of relevant web searches. Search engines play an unfathomably huge role in directing online traffic, so you want to make sure that you’re one of the smart players who benefit from how they run.
Use the opportunity to get data on your customers
In business, it’s not always the most revolutionary or the most dedicated to customer service that wins at the end of the day. Often, it’s those with the most insight that stand to gain. As such, you should learn about the analytic tools you can use to gain more insight into your website, your social media, marketing methods, and more. You can learn what does and doesn’t work towards certain goals, whether it’s gaining traffic or driving customer conversions. Set yourself up with analytic reports on a regular basis to see how effectively you are engaging your customers and when it looks like you’re not engaging them very well, what you can do to change this.
Understand the differences in your customer base
Any business that’s really looking to succeed should already have an idea of the buyer personas that they’re trying to appeal to. However, when you’re selling online, you could be selling to different and new demographics of customers, reaching markets that you haven’t reached before. As such, it’s a good idea to revisit these ideas and create online buyer personas, using the data your site and marketing platforms gather on factors such as age, location, gender, goals, pain points, and buying motivations. The more information that you have on your buyers, the better that you’re going to be able to speak to them, market to them, and sell to them.
Use email to keep them in reach
With online business, how you stay in touch with your audience is just as important as how you win them over. To that end, email campaign tools can be very effective in regularly sending out content, including offers and deals, that can keep you more continuously engaged with your customer base. You can either convince them to keep coming back for more purchases or you can even remind them that your business exists in the first place. You can use your store checkout or access to premium content to encourage them to sign up. Of course, you have to offer them the option to opt-out of emails, but a lot of people will sign up while they’re buying if you can promise deals.
Start producing content
A saying you might have heard about online business, already, is that “content is king.” This is very much true, content drives a lot of traffic and can garner a lot of interest for your business. Optimizing your website content so that it is as relevant and clear to your target market is crucial. However, you should also consider creating content more specific for the purpose of bringing in more visitors. Many businesses run an online blog, that typically publishes not just things relevant to their own products, but the pain points their consumers are likely to have, with tips and information pages to help answer their questions. Not only can you help by posing your own services and products as one of the foremost solutions featured on those blog posts, but you can attract readers who might not initially know the brand or have an interest in your offerings, but may grow that interest with increased exposure.
Connect the online with the real
If you’re still running your brick-and-mortar business at the same time that you’re expanding online, you can start to connect them in ways that not only use the benefits of both but helps you better address common challenges. Omni-channel marketing can help you use your site and online presence to reach out to those who might be close to your physical stores, for instance. You can use your stores as pick-up points for online orders to help customers save on the cost of deliveries, too. Think of the other ways you can partner with the online and in-store experience.
Support is everything
Since your customers are able to access your business at any time once it’s online, you should make sure that they’re also able to access the help that they might need on a much more regular basis. You can keep it to business hours and don’t necessarily need to run your customer support channels 24/7, but you can make sure that you’re much more easily reached by providing contact details online, having a customer support-centric social media, or even making use of tools such as on-site chat windows that your customers can use to reach someone in no time at all.
Take your time and make sure that you get your transition to online business right. Rushing and making the wrong decisions when it comes to your site and online strategy can cost you a lot more than it would to simply delay your relaunch by a few days or weeks.