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Have the pandemic hit your business? Most of the cities have imposed lockdown or lockdown like situation. People are compelled to close their shops or office all the day. The situation is more alarming than the previous year. At this situation we can’t even think of getting out of our home. But what is the other way to carry on business? No one knows how long the lockdown would go on. ICMR, WHO have already predicted a third wave. Who knows there can be a fourth wave or fifth wave? In this situation how long you could close your business. Well the previous 2020 lockdown has already taught us the only way to create a sustainable business is to go online. But no one tells the right way. You can’t simply post your products in different Facebook groups or in your timeline. Lots of people do that, even I have done that at some point of time. But it is like you are roaming in a market and a man jumps right in front of you and screams “Flyer lelo, Flyer lelo” (get my Flyer). Do you buy that? You feel like who is this fellow and probably feel irritated. So today we are going to look at some simple steps to create our online presence strong.
Have you heard to BTC? I am not talking about bitcoin. I know it is hyped now. B = your BLOG/Website T = your Tribe/ Community C = your Content/ Product.
These are the three pillars of an online sustainable business.
First thing first, you need a website. If you are getting customers from Facebook, Instagram that is great but still you need a website. Do you remember what happened to Kangana Ranaut recently? She had a great following in Twitter but suddenly one day twitter suspended her account. All the following she build for years went in vein.
And this can happen for any social media network out there. You must have experienced reach down in Instagram and Facebook. The number of businesses is increasing everyday in Facebook and Instagram. So the algorithm is bound to show less posts to its users. The same has been happened with Tiktok advertisers in India. In 2019-2020 Tiktok was a hotcake. Everybody was going crazy over tiktok. Even I used to run Tiktok ads. Then one fine day Tiktok just vanished. Never build your dream home over rented place. Your customers visiting on Facebook are not your customer. They are Facebook’s customer. If someday Facebook restricts you they won’t care. They would find someone else who is posting content in Facebook. To make them your customer you need to build your own community. You have to have their name, email, phone number of your customers. If someday there is some problem with Facebook you still can reach your customers over email or sms marketing. And every digital marketer out there has confirmed they have seen the most ROI on email. The average open rate of an email campaign is 25-30% and if you can nurture them effectively you have great conversion rate. And the great news is email marketing hardly cost money. Let’s understand with the graph. Suppose you have a Rs 100 product and you sell to 1000 customers. You spend Rs 100000 on advertising. So you are breaking even. Most people would say what is the point in this? Why I would invest Rs 100000 only to break even. The point is not for making profit or loss, it’s all about acquiring customer base. Once you have details of 1000 customers you can nurture them, give some offers to sell your Rs 1000 product. And they already know you and your product. So it’s not hard to convert them. Now this time you don’t spend anything on advertisement. You are just sending them emails. Imagine if 25% people buy again you have 25×1000 = 25000 in revenue. And this is not the end, you can again pitch them your different products or services. This is the power of building a community. And once you are connected to the community, give them valuable content you build trust with them. Trust brings customers.
Why would you create a website?
See every business invest time or money on something keeping in mind 3 factors.
Do you know 70% of customers check website before buying a product even for an offline product? A nicely built website is an asset. Website is your identity. It creates authority. Before creating a website remember 8 of 10 customers takes buying decision emotionally subconsciously visiting your website.
Important components for a website-
Always think from a customer’s perspective. Why a customer would care about your product. Suppose you have launched a brand new phone called Mango in market. Your copy can be get more likes in instagram, get beautiful selfies even in low light thanks to Mango’s AI dual camera. The end goal of a selfie lover is to get more like and comments in social media. Triggering emotion in website copy does wonder.
A clear call to action button should be there in multiple places in website. The call to action button should stand out and should be clearly visible and readable. Call to action can be Add to cart, Buy now, Start Free Trial if you are directly selling something. If your buying cycle is longer it can be Learn More, enquire, and ask a quotation depending on your business.
Always have phone number, email, chat system, physical address (if you are have a physical setup), ticket system (if possible). Your customers should know this is a legit business and he can reach you for support.
When you buy a phone in Amazon what is the first thing you check? The reviews right? You want to hear what other users are saying about it. May be you want to see what picture quality it has in cameras, how the phone actually looks like. You always want to hear previous customer’s feedback. And if they had a good experience you are also convinced. Always include review/testimonials in the website.
People always visualize the outcome of the product and then purchase. If you are a real estate owner have a beautiful looking bungalow and a happy young couple in front of it. Why young couple? Because people of age 25-45 buy house more often. At this age they are earning and plan to shift to their dream home. Humanizing a website is extremely important otherwise using only graphics or animation will feel like you are talking to a robot. Your website is your digital version. Think like you can’t be always there in front of your customers so you have created your digital avatar as a form of your website. The same feeling, the same vibes should be passed to your customers through your website.
If your product needs any manual or instruction always mention in the website. The customers should not feel your product is complicated to use. It becomes an objection. And your goal is to clear all the objection of customers.
You don’t have to distribute your brochure/ catalogue in business seminars. People can just visit your website and catalogue is available in just a button click. No travelling or manpower is involved to distribute pamphlets/catalogues.
Instead of hiring a front desk guy you can automate the answers of questions of your prospect through chatbots of FAQ section. Businesses have reported they have reduced 20% operational costs with their websites.
Market share only increase when you have a great visibility. Earlier before buying something we used to ask someone that where they have bought from, how much did it cost. But in this day of age when you need something you do a quick Google search rather asking your friend, right? Website creates visibility. You can always run Google ads for a particular keyword. Suppose you are into interior decoration in Mumbai. You setup Google search ads for your website. Now when a customer search for “interior decoration in Goregaon, Mumbai” your website shows up.
Visibility brings prospects and website turns prospects into paying customers.
If you are posting your products in Facebook groups you must have experienced people ask “how much price?”, “PP?”, “COD available?”. People mostly ask price and never buys in Facebook groups. Just calculate how much time you have spent posting in groups and how many repeat customers you have made.
A website with proper strategies not only reduces operational costs but increases brand awareness and increases profit easily from 20-40%. The best part is that you can generate leads and customers throughout the year in an autopilot mode irrespective of lockdown or any other issue. Have a lead form in your website. So that customers can generate queries and you have details of your customers. You can talk to them and close the deal. In this way you generate high quality leads. These people know why they are visiting you unlike prospects of Facebook group.
People spend lots in offline ads. Offline ads are costly and can’t talk to niche customers. Whereas if you have a website you can create personalized messages for your customers. May be you can write blog post, video, run Google or Facebook ads. People particularly interested in your niche can see your ad. This increases conversation. The people who are visiting your website but not buying can be retargeted through retargeting ads or email campaign.
I am not saying social media is bad. The idea is to leverage social media traffic to your website. So that you can reach your customers irrespective of social media platforms. And it is a strategy which would make you stand out from the competition. The only way to beat your competition is to think long term and think from base principles.
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I am a digital marketing specialist and consultant with 4 years of experience. I help businesses to generate more revenue using digital marketing, building their brand visibility and crafting message which resonates their customers.
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