All new online businesses face challenges, especially during the current economic downturn. To help ensure your venture is able to weather any storms and is in the best position to take advantage of opportunities, here are some helpful survival tips.
- Be ready and willing to adapt
Things can change very quickly in the market place and to survive you may need to adapt quickly. The most important requirement is having a mindset that is open to change and being willing to adapt when circumstances require it. In the current economic climate, the speed at which things can happen can be very quick. Supply chain delays might make products suddenly hard to get hold of, an energy price rise might make part of your operations unaffordable, and increasing traffic to your website might mean you need to upgrade quickly to a larger hosting plan to cope with demand. To be agile in such a volatile market, not only do you need to be accepting of the need for change, you also need to prepare for it. - Pay attention to data
As an online business, your website is the cornerstone of your operations. For this reason, it is important to examine the data to see what this is telling you. First and foremost, you need to set up data analytics so that you have a clear idea not just about web traffic, but also about performance in terms of conversions, sales, and costs. With these in place, you’ll have a better understanding of who your audience is; the pages on your site that perform well and those that don’t; and the search terms people use to find you and which of these you rank for. You’ll also be able to measure the impact of SEO and social media on traffic and see how well your advertising campaigns convert. The insights gained through having such data will enable you to make tweaks and improvements to your use of keywords, the content of your website, your PPC campaigns, and your social media output. - Keep control of hosting costs
At the end of the day, it is the companies that have more going out than they do coming in that end up closing. Online businesses need to keep a close eye on all their spending, streamlining where possible, eradicating waste, and setting defined budgets. When it comes to web hosting, savings can be made by choosing the right web host. Though you can find hosting that is unbelievably cheap, some of these cheap plans don’t deliver all the features you’ll need, and paying extra for these may take the price up considerably. Ideally, choose a hosting plan that not only includes website hosting but also professional email hosting, daily website backups, spam filtering, firewall security, SSL certificate and 24/7 technical support in the price. These all-inclusive web hosting plans can help you make considerable savings year after year, helping you keep better control of your costs. - Create great customer experience (CX)
Research has shown that 85% of consumers prefer shopping at websites that offer them a good customer experience and, importantly, that they are willing to pay up to 16% extra for those experiences. Delivering great CX can, therefore, transform your online business, attracting new customers and enabling you to charge more for your products and services.How do you achieve this? There are a number of important things to consider. These include mobile friendliness, fast loading and response times, easy site navigation, simple and quick checkout process, personalisation, fast and affordable delivery, no quibble returns, fast and friendly customer service, customer reviews and, of course, great products. - Make your brand stand out
Working to improve the reputation and value of your brand can often be a major driver of long terms success. By brand, we don’t mean your name, logo and company colour scheme, though all these have their function, more importantly, establishing a brand is about promoting your unique selling point (USP) and showing that you put this into action. A ‘brand’ is something that encapsulates the values your company has, its uniqueness and its promises to its customers.One of the chief aims of promoting your brand, whether on the website, in advertisements, or via social media, is to attract and engage customers who share your values, admire your uniqueness, and like the promises you make. To succeed, don’t just promote your products and your prices, show your customers what type of company you are too – it can make a huge difference.
Conclusion
In today’s turbulent market, all companies need to be cautious and agile to survive. Hopefully, the five tips given here will help new online businesses not just endure the current economic volatility but to continue being successful long into the future. If you are looking for high-quality hosting with many cost-saving features included in the price, visit our home page to see our wide range of hosting solutions.
