In physics, a moving body tends to stay moving. With business, however, the law of diminishing returns seems to apply. Every business runs the risk of becoming stagnated, especially if they experience at least some degree of success. With online businesses, this stagnation quickly leads to decline. The highly-competitive online marketplace doesn’t allow for that kind of laxity.
When your online business gets into a rut, it’s time for some rejuvenation. You’ve got to breathe some new life into your business if you want to continue to grow into the future.
Here are five steps you can take that will get your online business growing again:
Get an influx of new website traffic.
The fastest way to breathe new life into your online business is to get a ton of new website visitors and customers. There are a number of ways you can go about giving your business a traffic boost, including:
- Implementing a new SEO strategy
- Starting a paid marketing campaign
- Offering a new component to your website, such as a blog
There are many others, as well. Check out some of the latest trends in SEO, or experiment with a variety of traffic-generation methods. Find new ways to drive traffic to your site and you’ll be surprised just how energizing it can be.
Implement a new web design.
In the same way that a retail store might remodel their interior from time to time, you should occasionally consider a website redesign. A redesign will do several things for you. It will:
- Make regular website visitors stand up and take notice, rather than just passing by.
- Allow you to feature new products or services, or bring attention to a specific product or service.
In many cases, something as simple as changing your banner and your color scheme may be enough to see at least a little bit of a bounce. Give visitors something new and interesting to look at and they’re more likely to take notice.
Social media have taken the web by storm in ways that no one truly predicted. If you want to expand your online business’ presence rapidly, you can do it with social media.
Start building a base of Twitter followers. Open a Facebook page, and begin building a community there, as well. You can interact with your customers directly through social media. You can use these sites to build relationships with customers, boost your customer service, and establish authority in your niche.
Rather than spreading yourself thin in the social media space by going after several services all at once, it’s best to start with a single social media site presence and then build from there. Having 1,000 Facebook fans with whom you interact on a regular basis is better than having 3,000 Twitter followers and 3,000 LinkedIn connections who forget that they’ve connected with you or why.
Offer something new.
Your former customers are happy with what they’ve bought from you; give them a reason to come back and buy something else. You might consider expanding your product line to offer a complimentary product. You might even add in a subscription-based service model, helping to insure on going revenue.
Think outside the box here; just because your site is known for the widgets you sell doesn’t mean you can’t also be customers’ primary source of widget-related materials. Expand your offerings, but make sure you’re still focused on your core business, too.
Repackage something old.
Upgrading an existing product or service can help breathe new life into your online business, as well. It may be something as simple as offering a new use for your old product. Repackaging and even rebranding are tried and true ways to generate new business.
Repackaging allows you to:
- Reach new customers with whom the former version of your product or service didn’t resonate.
- Generate renewed interest in your product from existing customers.
- Experiment with new marketing techniques.
- Make modifications to your overall branding strategy.
Repackaging won’t save a dying business, but it can certainly help to boost an online business that’s starting to stagnate.
Online business success over the long term means being agile. It means responding to technological changes, and it means being ready when the market shifts. Online businesses that make it over the long term are those that learn how to rejuvenate themselves when necessary, and are constantly finding ways to breathe new life and stay current.
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