Running a business is never an easy thing to do. From clients to strategies to employees, it can feel like juggling a hundred balls. Until you start getting results, you might not know how well you’ve been juggling. However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be true. By being proactive in your strategies and getting more out of your business, you can be sure of parts that will perform superbly. From how well your brand reaches and gets the attention of customers to creating word of mouth rather than waiting for it. If you want your business to reach more people than ever before, you need to start working for it.
Using data to make better decisions
Data or business analysis is a practice that’s becoming more and more popular in the business world. People take the cold, hard data of customers and people visiting their site. With the right know-how, they can see problems and solutions in this data that they apply to real world decisions. It could be a matter of where customers are most likely to go on the site. Or which products they’re likely to view besides the ones they bought. Adeptia ETL tools are an example of software that can help you better understand data analysis. For most, it’s a lifelong pursuit of finding the best way to make data speak to you.
Focus on building profile
Public profile is immensely important to both you and your business. It’s the personal brand that people will associate with you whenever they look at your company. It’s the prestige that can draw people towards a business they might have not had interest in otherwise. So how do you build it? Hosting and attending business events are great opportunities to both build and share your expertise. Content production is another way to disseminate this expertise and build your name that way. Having great services and making great impressions are two more ways that will carry a lot of weight going forward. Your reputation can affect your business big time, so cultivate it.
The visuals of the brand
Your own profile isn’t the only important part of your business’s reputation, of course. Branding is one of the keys to controlling how people see your organisation. A strong brand should be honest and should capture the essence of what your company offers. It also needs to take into account what your customers want it to offer. Make sure you create a strong visual brand that represents and sells your company. Then apply that branding to logos, website design and communication. Your organisation needs to embody its brand and vice versa if you want it to be recognisable.
Spend less time on better communication
The internet is so full of noise that a lot of us blitz past communication that has nothing to offer. Don’t add to the noise. Cut through it. Take your time creating great social media content. Then use social media management tools to schedule is carefully, not firing it out all at once. Take a similar approach to communication in the office. Have an open door policy and cut down on the tedious daily meetings. If someone really needs to know information, include them in it, but don’t waste everyone else’s time. Communication should be concise and with purpose.
Expanding your reach on social media
Social media is most likely to be one of the biggest arms of your reach. So you need to focus on how to expand its appeal. How do you get more people to pay attention, to want to see what you post next? A lot of this comes down to finding the right voice. Being personable, funny and human is a major part of it. Having great content is another. The content doesn’t even have to be yours. Be willing to share content for all kinds of sources if it’s what your audience shows interest in. Become the audience of your audience. Learn their ways and adapt. Yes, this includes hashtags!
Convert more visitors on your site
One of the things that your website should absolutely be doing is turning more of your visitors into customers. If there are pages that aren’t trying to make customers out of whoever’s on them, consider getting rid of it. Firstly, make it easier for visitors to become customers. We know it can be tempting to wring all that juicy data out of them. But if they’re opting into a service or buying something, ask only for the essentials so they don’t get tired of your questions. Wait until after the sale to ask for even more data.
Search engine optimisation
You’ve probably heard of SEO. It’s the art of using website design to appear higher on search engines. It’s the space that practically every company with a brain’s fighting for. So you need to know what the keys to good SEO actually are. First is links. Make sure that good, relevant articles and sites link to your services. Second is content. The more relevant, interesting content you can create on your site, the better. The more likely that search engines are to treat it as relevant to people browsing their results. Make sure you know what your site’s about and where to best use keywords, as well.
Knowing your customers
We’ve talked a lot about data and using it to make better decisions. These decisions can involve what products and services to offer next or how best to market. But how do you actually get the data to know your customers? A lot of it will come from your site and by analysing your own data. You can get a start to defining your target demographics with tools like Google Analytics, however. Similar, using social media to follow those following you can give you a much more in depth look if you have the time for it. Research more potential customers as well by looking at your competition. A keen eye can glean a lot about who their competition’s aiming for and use that information to one-up them.
Using your customers
Customers aren’t only good for the delicious data they can provide your solution creating machine. Never, ever underestimate word-of-mouth. Goodwill goes a long way and people usually create this by talking about how good services were. Testimonials are just one way of turning a customer into a brand advocate. However, they are possibly the least covert of ways. Building partnerships with bloggers and influencers can be a much wider reaching tool. Using questionnaires can help you naturally find people willing to advocate. Then you make sure you give them the best customer service you can so they actually go out and advocate.
Making your team
Part of delivering an excellent service is by having excellence from top to bottom. This means not only you, but your team too. You need to be able to guarantee as much as you can that your team won’t do damage to the business’s reputation. Cross-train your team to give them all experience in dealing with customer service and communication. Make sure they understand the brand and how to represent it. If an employee doesn’t do justice to how you want your company represented, you may need to reconsider what it is they do.
Smarter networking
It’s not just customers you need to think about reaching out to. You need a good network of business contacts. This can provide partnerships, resources and information of tremendous benefits to you. LinkedIn and business events are two of the most widespread methods of creating these networks. The best place to start off with, however, is by having something to offer. Have something to offer and be truthful. Both about what you’re offering and what you would like. Build partnerships and relationships off of honesty and you’re more likely to get better results. Real relationships last a lot longer, even in the stereotypically cutthroat business world.
Waste less time
If you want to reach more people and make your business do more, you need to waste less time. We’ve already covered this somewhat with social media platforms and internal communications. But by using schedule software, you can also make sure things are ticking over as they should and you get tasks done when necessary. It’s also important for building that reputation of being timely and showing good business etiquette. Make sure everyone in your business is following a schedule so you can notice when time’s being wasted.
Reaching more people is about finding the right information and the right means. You need information on your customers and potential customers to identify them. Then you use social media to reach them. You use a brand and the right voice to make sure you’re sending a message they want to hear. Then you make advocates out of them. These are the basic steps to forming a community that can be the strength of an organisation. But it requires a lot of planning and a lot of action, so get to it!
