How To Grow Your Business Online

Many businesses today have a misconception concerning marketing their products or services on the web. Most businesses think that the only requirement is the presence of a site and they will eventually get wealthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a few ways a potential customer can find your site, none of which are fool proof. One method could be from a reference, another by surfing and finally, by way of some type of online advertisement, which could be very expensive. Remember, there are 750 million other sites that are trying to get recognized just like you. Client contact management by way of email marketing is essential in stimulating growth of your business in today's digital environment. Below are a few fundamental things you can do to ensure success.  

A. Provide a means to capture visitors' email address.  Based on a national poll, most visitors would like to engage themselves in some type of inter-activity with your site. This can be achieved by placing a simple form allowing the visitor to leave his or her email address, along with any other data you may wish to capture from them. Likewise, if you conduct business over the counter, you should ask the customer for their email address while transacting business with them, and explain why you would like to have it (i.e., promotions, coupons, sales, etc.).  

B. Utilize captured email data As an entrepreneur.  We sometimes put more emphasis on the wrong things that relates to our business. For instance, we may put more value on a fancy website and not enough emphasis on how to market the site. We all have our priorities and sometimes these work against us. The captured email data is extremely valuable and deserves respect on how to use it.  For starters, the data should go directly into a database of sorts, not a folder with many other printed copies. By using a database, the data is organized and provides ready-to-use bulk mailing list to your prospects or clients. There should be a relationship between the database and an easy to use email management system. We know that time is money, so this system should allow creation and sending of a mail campaign in just a matter of minutes. Contacting your prospects should not be a mundane effort.  

C. Offering Coupons and Gift Certificates/Vouchers.  In addition to emailed coupons, online coupons can greatly energize your web site by allowing coupons you create and manage, in a real time environment, be readily available to your website visitors. Likewise, offering gift certificates online for family and friends can also alter your position from a business standpoint. 

D. Chart your marketing strategy for the entire year.  Once you truly understand the value of email marketing and the need to establish it, then and only then can you consider yourself among the elite Internet marketers of today. The same way you allow for forecast and projections in your business, the same logic can apply to marketing your business online. When was the last time you contacted your clients?  

Let's take a simple approach to laying out a marketing strategy for the year, keeping in mind that it could also be monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual. Using a year approach will be used as a way to provide a better scenario on how this can be done. Again, it depends on how often you want to present your company to your clients. Having a campaign management system allows you to schedule the sending of mail campaigns well into the future. A best practice would be to layout all of your campaigns in advance and let them run automatically when they reach the predefined sending date. For instance, create all of your campaigns at the end of the current year, for the entire new year and be done with it. 

E. Online interactive Registration Form can engage the user and give them more control over their reservation activities, such as altering or rescheduling an appointment.     

F. Online Shopping Carts have also proven to be a successful means to generation additional income.. Detailers can sell select items that depict their line of business, such as car care products, T-shirts, Caps, etc.

                                                                  Example email campaign scheduled letters for year 2015

                                        Jan - New Year News Letter                                        Feb - President's Day Sale 

                                        Mar - Quarterly Newsletter                                          Apr - Coupon Offering

                                        May - Preferred Customer Discount                      Jun - Summer Vacation Special

                                        Jul - Independence Day Sale                                       Aug - Back To School

                                        Sep - Labor Day Sale                                                       Oct - Winter Special

                                        Nov - Thankgiving Sale                                                  Dec - Christmas Special

Depending on the frequency that you use, (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual), it should be repeated on a regular basis. We acknowledge that Detailers are experts in their craft. However, marketing their business can be a totally different story. In most cases, detailing, for a lot of craftsmen is seasonal. Marketing during the off season has, in most cases, been lacking. 

You will experience, over a period of time, constant growth if you adhere to these simple procedures without fail. You should have achieved one full year of promoting your business with minimal expenses to you. Lastly, to further assist in campaign development, pre-designed templates should be readily available to help expedite newsletter creation.

In conclusion, incorporating a few changes in your business practice, that won't break the bank, can greatly enhance profits, and add stability to your company. I hope you find this message useful in managing and promoting your business online.