Business Blunders: Simple Mistakes That Are Putting Off Your Customers
There are so many plates to keep spinning as a business owner. Providing products or services that people want (at the right price) is just the start.
There are lots of things that could be putting customers off and affecting your profits without you even realizing. Here are some examples, and how to address them if you need to.
A Poor Website Design
In most cases, your website will be the first interaction a customer has with your business. If it looks amateurish, cluttered or spammy then it’s likely to instantly put people off.
Even if the design is good, things like slow loading and errors can also cause a customer to click out. Have it created by a professional designer, and then use a company like ClearFuze Networks to manage your IT services.
That way you can quickly get up and running if anything goes wrong. Your site needs to look smart and professional, and be running smoothly.
Another thing to consider is does your website have a way to generate leads. A lot of people start a website and all they do is sell their products.
Certainly selling and promoting their products and services in one aspect of your business. However, not everyone that visits your site for the first time is going to buy.
This is why it is essential to have some form of lead generation and ways to capture information from your site visitors. This gives you the opportunity to re-market to them and provide value on an ongoing basis.
It will help you develop a relationship with your list, and build trust and rapport. Down the road when timing is right, they will come to you over someone else.
If you’d like to learn more about setting up a lead generation system for your business Check out my Free Lead Generation Boot Camp Here!
No App
The biggest businesses of the world have all tapped into what an app can do for their business. But so many smaller and medium sized companies are yet to do so.
More sales are now made on smartphones and tablets compared with computers and laptops, and on these devices people prefer to use the official app. While your site should be optimized for all devices, an app looks much smarter and can also make you look more professional and reliable.
Invest in an app, it could improve your overall reputation and lead to more sales. For now at least, it allows you to get ahead of your competition.
No Blog Or Poorly Executed Blog
Another thing you should definitely have to promote your business is a blog. Many businesses may have a blog, but they often don’t use it effectively to generate leads and sales.
The point of the blog is to create a valuable resource for your target audience. In your blog posts you want to create content that helps solve your target market problems, answers their questions, or provides solutions to their issues.
When you do this, it becomes a place your target market will frequent often. Once they are there you can also offer lead magnets, and products and services for sale.
It also is a form of evergreen content that can work for you on an ongoing basis. This means you can create content once and it can continue to work to grow your business forever.
Be sure to that you make a blog a part of your online marketing strategy.
Negative Reviews
Reviews can make or break a business. Particularly when you’re a little newer, people will often search reviews before shopping with a company for the first time.
Negative reviews are always going to be off putting, so it’s important to avoid these where possible. Provide the best service every time, follow up with customers to check that they’re satisfied.
After transactions have gone through, send a follow up email shortly after and ask if your customers would leave you a review. They might not do it automatically, but many will be happy to if you ask.
Another thing to understand is that as you build your brand and business you are going to have haters. They will criticize everything you do, and you need to understand it’s just something that’s going to happen.
You can do everything right, and you’ll still run into negative people that are against what you are doing. For sure negative reviews are certainly something to pay attention to, and do what you can to avoid them, but in reality it’s just something that happens.
If you go into business trying to please everyone you’ll never be successful. Understand that negative people are going to be a part of your journey to success.
You just need to keep moving forward. Another thing to understand is that if you don’t want their results, don’t take their opinions.
Counteract Negativity With Testimonials
A great way to combat negative reviews, or heaters, is through positive testimonials on your sites. No one can sell your product better than a satisfied customer.
Testimonials tap into the power of social proof. When you have someone that has created success thanks to your help, it goes a long way to sell your products for you.
The more testimonials you can collect the better. Make sure anytime you have someone order, and buy from you at least ask for a testimonial.
The more great results you can document from other people working with you, the easier you’ll have selling your products and services. Make gathering testimonials a part of your marketing strategy and use them anywhere you can.
Poor Social Presence
A strong social presence can help a new company prove that they are who they say they are. It shows they’re not a scam, and others are shopping with them and are pleased with the service.
Running competitions and giveaways can help to build your followers, being responsive to questions and re-posting pictures of customers using your products can all be beneficial.
Writing a blog is another way you can be more present online, and shows that you’ve put time and effort into your business.
I mentioned it above but writing a blog is a very important aspect of your marketing strategy and building your social presence. There are three aspects to building your business on social media.
They are building your audience, engaging your audience, and finally selling to your audience. In my opinion a blog is very good for engaging your audience, and selling to your audience.
You’ll most likely want to build your audience on other social media platforms, and then share your blog and content on those platforms. Look at your blog like a hub that you continually want to bring people back to.
If you’re new to blogging I’d recommend taking this blogging course to learn the ins-and-outs of how to make money blogging.
Outdated Marketing And Ineffective Marketing Strategies
Most businesses will benefit from a multi-faceted approach to marketing. But some methods are better suited to specific companies. If yours is using the wrong methods you could simply be wasting money.
Consider outsourcing to a professional company who will be able to get this right.
One common area I find people waste a lot of money on is with advertising their business too soon. You will have a learning curve for building your business, with things like social media marketing, prospecting, sales, as well as advertising.
More often than not, I find people haven’t gone through their initial learning curve of the basics for building their business, and they’re already advertising it. They think that more traffic will fix all the problems they have building their business.
Unfortunately it’s usually not a traffic problem it’s a conversion problem. This means that if you’re spending a lot of money on advertising to things that don’t convert, you are just wasting your money.
This is why it’s very important to master the foundation skills first, before you jump into advertising. aAvertising has its own learning curve, so it’s best not to jump into it until you’re actually making money in your business and looking to scale it.
If you’re looking for an effective marketing strategy you might also enjoy my post on a simple five step marketing strategy to build any business.
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