If you have an online business, chances are hundreds of other people are offering the same product or service. We all practically live online and do almost everything on the internet. This includes shopping for products and services. Building a profitable online business is not easy. It requires grit and hard work, and a willingness to make certain hard sacrifices. If you’re reading this and you’ve still not created your brand identity, your logo, or a well-designed website, what are you waiting for? Send us an email right away!

One common excuse a lot of people give is that they don’t have a lot of money to do online marketing. The good news is that you don’t need a lot of money to grow your online business. All you need is creativity and dedication. Here are 9 tips that will help you grow your online business.

1. Create high-quality content– The importance of content can’t be overemphasized. Create relevant and engaging content that provides information and encourages visitors to come back. Your content should be simple to understand, factual and educative. Whether it’s your website copy, product description or blog content, make sure it gives the reader relevant information. The delivery of your content also matters. Ensure your website loads fast, your website layout is clutter free and the content is straight to the point. It also helps to incorporate SEO best practices, in order to make your website visible on search engines.
2. Include the important elements of a landing page – Landing pages are used to convert visitors into leads by making them complete a transaction, or by getting their contact information. All effective landing pages must contain the following:

• Optimise your images
• Make sure your buttons are big enough to easily click with a thumb
• Put only relevant links in your navigation menu, so it doesn’t look bulky and overwhelm mobile users
• Most mobile devices don’t work well with flash, so try not to embed any flash based videos
• If all this is a bit too technical for you, don’t worry! When you build/design your website with Atlas Creative Consultancy, we ensure that it is mobile friendly from the very beginning.

3. Make use of social media– Social media can help you reach millions of prospective customers. You can read our in-depth post about social media marketing, here to learn how to create a social media marketing strategy that gives you results.

4. Focus on your target audience– There are different categories of people, looking for different things online. The best thing to do is to find the audience that’s interested in your product and target them. Your target audience will influence your business, from the type of content you create to your product and marketing. If you plan to succeed, you need to find out your target audience. If you don’t know who your target audience is, try using Google Analytics to monitor the activity data of your website. You can also look at your direct competition and see the audience they cater to.

5. Take advantage of free marketing tools– After creating your marketing strategy, find out what free marketing tools are great for your business and start to use them. You can create awesome images and graphics on Canva. You can also use Buffer’s free plan to schedule social media posts. The list is endless. Do your research, and find the tools you need.
6. Create an email list– Social media is great, but it’s not advisable to rely exclusively on social media. Create an email list, get people to sign up and send them timely, relevant content.
7. Have great customer service– Customer service is an essential part of retaining customers. You need to make the buying/sales process as easy as possible for your customer. You should also follow up in order to get relevant feedback. You can learn more about creating your customer success strategy here.
8. Build trust in your online company– Customers need proof that they can trust you. You can do this by ensuring that your site is excellently designed and there are no loopholes. Using a robust website protection plan will help ensure that customers information is safe with you. You should also create an ‘about us’ section where you tell your brand story.
9. Optimize checkout– For online e-commerce sites, make sure the checkout process is smooth, and not too long. The easier it is for customers to checkout and make payment, the more likely they are to complete the purchasing process.

Building a successful online business is very possible! However, your foundation needs to be solid. Make sure you have a proper website, and everything else will follow. Contact us if you’d like us to help you build, design or rebuild your website.