Most business owners are concerned with increasing profits. The two most common ways to do this are to raise prices and cut costs. The question is what are the most cost-effective and efficient ways to do both? You should consider the following 14 strategies in 2022 to make your business and yourself more money.
1. Set up e-commerce
Following the pandemic shutdowns, online sales increased significantly. People will still want convenience after the pandemic has ended, such as online shopping or curbside pickup. You should consider expanding your online shopping capacity at this time.
To implement e-commerce, you will need to make your website capable of accepting online orders. This can only be achieved by integrating payment mechanisms on your website. Some of these platforms can be directly incorporated into your website. If you choose to, you can also add a free standalone service such as Square.
The sale of goods and services online involves more than just accepting orders online: You'll need to consider mailing and deliveries, as well as curbside pickup. It also means accepting payments online.
Lastly, you may want to think about driving for a delivery service or as a part-time employee. Restaurants that would like to set up an online ordering system should consider this option.
2. Improve Your Website
Your website is often used by customers to research your business before doing business with you. What can you do to improve their experience and build their trust so they are more likely to use your product or service? There are four things you should be doing on your website:
- Introduce yourself and what you sell
- Attract the customer to buy
- The product or service should be easy to purchase
- Easy access to sales and customer support
As a starting point, make sure your website is clean, updated, contains the most current information, and is currently in its design. Ensure that your eCommerce elements are functioning properly.
After you have built your website, conduct a search engine optimization (SEO) audit. You will be able to better understand how Google and other search engines view your website after conducting the SEO audit. It might be necessary to make SEO-related changes to your website, which will boost its chances of showing up when customers search for what you offer. You should consider having your website audited by a technical SEO expert in order to rank higher.
Consider reviewing your overall customer communication experience along with SEO:
- Are there links to your social media accounts?
- Have you created a section where customers can leave reviews?
- Are there any questions that a chatbot could answer on your site
- How easy is it to get in touch with you?
3. Build reviews and word-of-mouth marketing
Responding to customer reviews is one simple thing you can do to increase conversions and sales.
Make sure you pay attention to reviews on these sites, especially negative ones. 46% of consumers say they are more likely to visit a business that responds to negative reviews. Share your positive reviews on social media and your website. Let people know!
4. Engage with clients
Customers expect relationships with the companies they do business with more than ever before. Interactions between businesses and customers provide valuable insight into customer behavior.
Make sure you communicate on both sides and don't ask only for feedback. Provide some sort of incentive for feedback such as advice or discounts. Consider the following ways to communicate and build relationships with your customers:
- You can take a little extra time to complete the transaction in person
- You can send emails to say thank you, request feedback, or offer coupons
- By newsletters
- The social media
- Website chat rooms
- Discussion forums
- Virtual meet-ups (invite a guest speaker)
5. Increase Your Advertising
Investing in advertising might seem risky. Maybe a marketer who promised results but did not deliver disappointed you in the past. Alternatively, you have tried advertising yourself, such as Facebook ads, but it did not work.
It doesn't matter how you've dealt with advertising in the past, ads work, but they are long-term. Consider the fact that some experts believe that a customer needs to be exposed to an advertisement twenty times before they decide to take action. The effectiveness of one Facebook ad to 10,000 people will be inferior to ten ads to 1,000 people.
6. Sell To Existing Customers
Your email list is a great way to do this. Your customers may seem to be demanding more emails from you. However, you're looking at customer emails all wrong.
Sales should come first in all emails to customers. Would there be any value you could provide to your customers by sending them emails? If you are in the business world, consider providing a tip, a recommendation, or some advice. Include a sales message after you provide the value.
7. Work together
Do you know of any businesses that are similar to yours but address a different need with a different customer base? Perhaps it was not on your mind when you first started your business, but you should consider collaborating or forming a partnership.
A simple way to promote each other is to promote each other in your next newsletter, or an even more involved one could be to bundle products. Be sure to establish clear guidelines regarding sharing of efforts, profits, and costs when collaborating.
Conclusion
To be profitable, it's more important than ever to be creative. Identify any costs that can be removed or reduced from your business expenses. Take advantage of free options like your email list and upselling to increase sales. Consider the paid options like advertising or a business investment, once you've explored the free options.
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