Every business should have one, regardless of its size. The thing is, when you mention online strategy to some people, especially small businesses, they freeze. They see strategy as some fancy word used in the corporate world. I used to think this way too. The good news is, you don’t have to. An online strategy can be as simple or as complicated as you like. However, I’d suggest it should be as simple as possible. This way you and your team (if you have one) will have a document they can actually refer to rather than a useless piece of paper relegated to a corner.
Now, how to start? The first thing is to have in mind what you’d like to achieve with your online strategy. Is it increase the number of visitors? Leads? Conversion rate? The second part is equally simple. When would you like to achieve it? Give yourself a realistic timeframe. Answer these two questions as honestly as you can – no point in saying that you’d like to increase your conversion rate tenfold in two days. Be honest. Would that be feasible? The best thing about being a small business is that you can change quickly. Use that to your advantage and re-evaluate your goals constantly. Now you’ve decided what you’d like to achieve and given yourself a realistic timeframe, let’s start breaking it into smaller projects and tasks. For the purpose of this article, let’s say that you’d like to increase your online conversion rate by fifteen per cent within the next three months.
– The first thing you need to do is to review your copy. It might have been done by a professional copywriter or by yourself. In either case it doesn’t mean that it is unchangeable.
– Once you have reviewed your copy and are happy with it, start creating (or hire someone to do it for you) a second version of every page that’s important so you can do some A/B testing (link). At this stage you should also consider whether it will be necessary to redesign your site. I’m assuming that, for whatever reason, you’ve decided not redesign, otherwise this post would be far too long.
– While you’re doing your A/B test, you might see interesting results. Play around, test again and make sure that the copy you choose is right for you. Once you’ve done the testing and have decided which copy is the best for your site, maybe having added some graphics/imagery, the next stage is to monitor your visitors and see whether the new copy is working as intended.
With three relatively simple steps you’ve laid the foundation with which you can achieve your goals. Now let’s move to the next stage: generating more traffic.
You don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune in order to generate more traffic. All you need is dedication and a bit of patience. The first thing you could do is review your blog and social networking (I’m assuming you have a somewhat neglected blog and Twitter/Facebook account).
Start writing posts that are meaningful to your audience. Be helpful, offer ideas and solutions related to your industry. Let’s say you sell niche winter holidays. Be sure to write (as a personal account, if possible) why this or that resort is better for seasoned skiers. Give examples and be detailed. Explain the pros and cons of off-piste snowboarding. Be engaging! Talk to your audience like you would talk to a friend. That’s for both your blog and Twitter. This way you can be sure that your audience will notice the difference and will spread the word that your blog is an obligatory stop for whoever is planning a snow holiday.
The secret here is to write meaningful articles about topics that are interesting to your audience, so you can engage with them in a relaxed manner. Also, pay special attention to the comments/reposts of your articles. You might find valuable insight that can be used in your business.