Some helpful hints to help you expand your business online.
Hello,
You've all heard about our company's growth over the last few years -- then again, maybe you haven't, but we take every opportunity to share this bit of information with people because we're proud of the fact that you know who we are.
Since a lot of you are responsible for helping us build our network, we want to share some of the tips that were passed onto us to help you build your business online.
1. Hop on the social media band wagon. You must have heard all about the benefits of using Facebook and Twitter to promote your products and engage your customers, and wondered if they're actually true. They are! Everyone is online now and many businesses are seeing the positive side of starting a Facebook fan page.
It establishes an online presence, gives your customers a place to ask questions and share their ideas, feedback and grievances (this isn't a bad thing; everyone has complaints and a lot of the time they can help you improve your products and services). Check out our Facebook page, if you haven't already.
Blogging is also a great way to engage your customers and turn up in search engine results (like, the first few pages, rather than the last).
But there are more social media outlets than blogs, Facebook and Twitter out there, so venture out into the web and see what else you can find.
2. Create good web content and make your site easy to use. This will always be a work in progress, as we're learning, but it's worth the maintenance time. The objective is to explain things clearly and create user-friendly interfaces so as to avoid confounding and confusing your customers. You do not want to do that since they may choose to spend their money elsewhere.
If your web content is original, engaging and customer-centric, people will be able to find you in the vast wilderness of the world wide web with greater ease, and they'll like you even more for it. This means more traffic and more sales for you!
3. Offer sales, contests and coupons. If you offer perks to stay competitive, then your customers will come back for more. They will feel valued and that you care enough about their desire to save some money. Keep in mind that they may be able to get a better deal somewhere else -- the internet is quite boundless -- so you want to show them them the deals so they can show you the money!
4. Build a mailing list. Aside from promoting your products and services through social media, you may also want to notify your customers by email about these things, as well as let them know about exciting news and surveys you might like them to complete. Mailing lists also allow you to target specific groups of people within your customer base for a more personalized touch.
If mass mailing is a concern for you, worry not. There are plenty of inexpensive third-party mass mailing solutions available who can take care of the nitty gritty of mailing your customers; you just have to write the content.
5. Meet the press. Publish regular press releases to get found on the web and to share all of your exciting news with the world. You may even get some interview requests.
We hope these tricks help you as much as they have helped us. Thanks again for your support!
