Having an online business has never been easier or more profitable. Gone are the days of putting your business’s ads in the local newspaper or sending out flyers. Today you can create, share, and promote content and ads all online for less money while also reaching more people. While it may be easier and cheaper to promote your business online, there is a method to the madness. Simply running a Facebook ad or sharing an article or blog post will not generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here are 3 tips for growing your online business.
1. Create Engagement
A successful online business creates engagement with their audience. Sure you can buy followers and likes on social media, but none of it will matter if those people or accounts don’t interact with your content, brand, or business. Successful Entrepreneurs must create narrative, a story, a reason to get their consumers talking, commenting, and sharing the content you’ve released. When writing and releasing your content and advertisement focus on making it engaging. This will keep customers loyal and also attract new customers.
2. Always Build Your Audience
If you are not expanding your business is dying. Your target market is not limited to a specific number of people. You can always be working on expanding and growing your audience. While creating engagement is great for maintaining customers and bringing in others, focus on ways to expand your audience and attract more and more people to what you have to offer. There are many different strategies for doing this. A few are working with and writing for large authority sites, being featured or interviewed on popular sites, or even just visiting popular sites and engaging with their online audience. A good entrepreneur always seeks ways to grow and expand their audience base.
3. Learn and Adapt
The internet is always changing and evolving. New features, apps, and tools are always being added and always changing the playing field. It is your duty as an Entrepreneur to stay on top of these changes and trends. Keeping an internet business alive and thriving is no easy task. Most end up in failure. Staying up to date with the latest technology, tools, and trends is essential. If you’re willing to do the research and adapt to the lastest internet innovations, you will have a significant advantage over your competitors. Be open-minded and willing to try new ideas.
Ryan- I think it’s great that you urge your reader to engage their audience. What are some companies effectively using this method, and how does it look? I think Patagonia does a great job creating narrative- however it fits their brand perfectly. I would suggest that maybe not every business model or marketing plan involves a strong narrative. What are some other ways in which we as entrepreneurs can engage our customers without using a narrative?
Ryan- I think that this is a great post! Very informative and i especially liked your paragraph about learning and adapting your online business. Keeping your online business and any business in general up to date to current trends in the market. Keeping your online business current and updated can draw a lot of engagement with your audience who is seeking up to date information about the product or service that they are interested in. Adapting is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from other businesses you’re competing with and can subliminally communicate to your customers that you are knowledgeable about this market. Great post Ryan!