No one expected 2020 to get off to the start that it did, and little did we imagine that the COVID-19 pandemic would throw a surprising new curve at the global economy. But, as is usually the case, not all the news that this pandemic has brought has been bad. While the onset of the pandemic has befallen many industries as a liability, the online digital world has actually benefitted from the significant lifestyle changes and limitations that this global crisis has imposed. With a huge percentage of people around the world now spending more time at home in self-isolation, online activity of all sorts has increased dramatically. This means that, for those targeting online consumers, the pandemic actually presents an incredible window of opportunity.
E-Commerce is thriving under the pandemic, and there has never been a better time to scale your business online. As many brick-and-mortar businesses shut down or suspend their operations, online businesses have managed to pick up the slack. This means that, if you invest in expanding your online marketing right now, it’s likely going to pay off, because, even as many businesses begin to reopen, many consumers will still be wary of leaving their homes to go shopping for months to come.
What should your eCommerce business focus on right now?
Your best bet is to focus on expanding and growing your online presence and visibility, attracting more traffic and making more conversions. You should also always consider and plan for future growth and how you will continue to grow and expand your brand. This is known as scaling your business, or laying the foundation for future growth.
Why is it important to scale your business and brand?
Scaling sets you up to manage growth as it happens, it means your business will have the ability to grow unhampered because the foundation and mechanisms for growth are already in place. Scaling your business requires planning, a bit of funding and investment, and the right infrastructure, such as personnel, technology, systems, processes, and partners.
Everybody wants to grow into a million-dollar business, and while this is possible for some, it won’t happen overnight. You’ll have to put in some effort, time, and money. But scaling your business provides a powerful strategy to manage your brand’s continued growth while ensuring that you will be able to fulfill market demand as it increases.
Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to learn how to do this. Scaling a business is achieved by means of proven methods that have worked for thousands of brands.
1. Keep track of analytics
In order to evaluate the growth of your brand you must get used to evaluating your sales performance continuously. How quickly are you seeing your sales growing? What factors have led to this growth? Monitoring your sales performance is a key indicator of scalability, because this is how you keep track of how well your business is doing. Other metrics also provide key information as well, such as:
- Brand performance
- Lifetime value to customer acquisition ratio
- Conversion rate
2. Take advantage of technology
Let’s face it, as an e-Commerce business you rely on technology to reach your market. As your company grows, the technology you use to run and support your business must be adaptable to your growth. It often happens that when start-ups begin to see rapid growth, they hit their sales ceiling and are overwhelmed by consumer demand. You can avoid this pitfall by switching to a tech platform that can actually scale your business. This is also the most valuable form of support you can provide for your customers, ensuring that market demand will always be satisfied. RevenueWire is an excellent scaling platform that provides you with purpose-driven innovations to help your business grow and expand.
3. Increase traffic through social media
As your business grows, you’ll want to keep your customer base engaged regularly by creating a continuous online buzz that promotes your brand and products. You can maximize your growth by taking advantage of the traffic and public interest that your brand has already developed to engage new interest and followers. Social media has provided many brands with a formula for doing this effectively, such as having influencers promote your brand, or by providing value for your customer base in the form of a webinar or podcast. In any case, social media is a highly valuable tool for driving more traffic to your site. Learn to use social media effectively and see how your traffic increases.
4. Develop a trusted team of content providers
Many startups begin as a home-based operation with only one person preparing all of the site’s text and images. But as your brand grows more established, the quality and continuity of your web content becomes increasingly important, as more and more eyes will be on your site. Once you begin to see that you’re struggling to keep up with the fresh and vital content that your customers rely on, it’s time to hire a professional content production team. Outsourcing these functions to qualified and seasoned professionals can make all the difference to growing your business effectively, as your site content is the bar by which your business will be measured.
5. Prepare for e-mail automation
E-mail automation benefits all types of businesses. No matter what you’re selling online, you can boost sales by means of automated e-mail campaigns. For example, if you run an online store, you can e-mail out coupons or special offers on certain products to increase sales of those products. From this practice, you can also create segmented lists, filtered by customer sales history, that allow you to provide continuous offers for your customers based on their purchase history and habits. This period of self-isolation is an excellent time to set up automated e-blasts to drive sales, as more and more people are home reading emails and shopping online.
6. Think globally
When you start your online business, it may be easier to focus on a specific geographical area to keep business operations simplified. For instance, you may wish to sell your products only within the US to avoid having to deal with complexities associated with internationals sales, such as currency conversion tools or international tax, shipping, and customs regulations. But once your business begins to grow, and you gain valuable experience in local markets, you’ll want to think about expanding globally and distributing your goods all over the world.
How can RevenueWire help your business grow?
While scaling an online business is significantly easier than growing a traditional brick-and-mortar operation, you will still require assistance in the form of tools and technology to help you achieve your goal. RevenueWire is committed to helping your online business reach its maximum potential.
RevenueWire provides online businesses with a tracking platform that helps you keep track of referrals that occur from the sales of your products. The platform also provides constant content helping businesses create high quality content for their website. RevenueWire is a solid performance marketing solution that automates tracking of promotional offers to learn how they are impacting your sales. This means that you’ll be better informed as to the sales strategies that are working for you and those that are not. This information can be vital to your brand’s growth and expansion by helping you to get to know your customers and their preferences.