3 Things EVERY Business Needs Online
Most of us have a smartphone in our pocket - it’s even likely that you may be reading this from one right now! Because of this, today’s customers expect a business to be accessible online - no matter how big or small the business is. Having these three things in place online gives you the opportunity to connect with more potential customers in the way that is easiest for them. And the bonus is that taking care of these three things can actually make your life easier too!
Here are the 3 things every business should have to capture potential customers searching for your products or services online.
Traffic Drivers
I like to think of traffic drivers as breadcrumbs that lead potential customers back to you. These things may or may not be directly related to your business. Traffic drivers are basically anything you put out into the world that helps a potential customer discover you and want to learn more. This could be your logo on a Little League t-shirt, it could be a social media post, being a guest on a podcast, handing out business cards at a networking event, putting your flyer on a community bulletin board, or running an advertisement in the local newspaper. All of these are opportunities you are creating for people to discover you. The goal of these breadcrumbs is to get people to drive traffic to essential #2 - Your Information Container
An Information Container
Your information container is exactly as it sounds- a place where you contain additional information about your business online. This could be a website, a Facebook page, an Etsy shop, or anywhere a customer can go and easily learn more information about what your business does, why they would want to make a purchase from you, and how they can do that. This might include your business location, answers to frequently asked questions, or an online product store. The ultimate goal here is to provide them with an online space to learn what your business is and how they can do business with you.
Contact Guide
This is the simplest one but it can save you a ton of time. All the contact guide on your "information container” needs to be is a single line of text or perhaps a link that indicates how customers or potential customers should contact you. If you are using your limited time to answer questions about your business on every social media platform, in email, over the phone, in person, and who knows where else, you’re going to get pretty frustrated and waste a lot of time. Your contact guide sets an expectation for how customers can reliably connect with you. That way you are only checking one point of contact instead of ALL of them.
Having each of these in place gives you the basic structure your business needs to grow and reach more customers online, or save you time from constantly repeating yourself or hearing the dreadful “I looked online but couldn’t find any info about you!”
Once you have these three basics in place, you can slowly uplevel them over time by adding more traffic drivers - such as additional social media platforms, running advertising if your budget allows, or attending new networking events. You can upgrade your information container by adding new pages and more information or easier ways to help customers find the information they need and proceed to make a purchase. Take your contact guide a step further by having an auto-reply message that lets your customer know when they can expect a response from you. When you deliver the response as promised, you start building a foundation of trust with the client.
Whether you’re a farmers’ market vendor, an online seller, or service-based business, these three are 100% required to help you get the business you deserve. Get the basics in place and you’ll be surprised how many people tell you they found you from a traffic driver you put up months ago or they visited your website to learn more about you.
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