How to Make Your Business More Visible and Accessible

You might have the best product or service in the world, but if no one can find you, your business won’t succeed.  The same is true when customers can find you, but they can’t figure out how to buy what you are selling.  Put in a positive way, the more customers who know about you and the easier you make it to buy from you, the more likely you are to see your profits rise. Make your company stand out to the people who need what you do.  Then, give them a smooth, simple experience to make it easy for them to hand you over their money.

Networking

The adage “there’s no need to reinvent the wheel” is completely true when it comes to networking.  There is no substitute for having network of personal contacts in business.  One of the huge benefits of your contacts is that they also have their own contacts that they can pass your name along to, or who you can reach out to for information or help.  Through the power of word-of-mouth, having one good contact can actually be like having ten contacts. So much of business relies on trust.  You have to trust that the company or individual to whom you are giving your time, money, or resources, will act responsibly and honestly.  The more interaction you have with clients, the more comfortable they will be that they know who you are and that they can trust you.  Face-to-face networking is optimal.

Outsource for Cross-Promotion

When selecting an outside company to handle part of your business needs, consider how that company can actually be part of your networking and promotion.  For example, working with an accountant in your area, or who serves companies in your field of work, can be a great way to gain customers and expertise.  Your accountant wants its business clients to succeed.  A good accountant will also be a match-maker, introducing clients to each other who might benefit from the relationship. The same can be true for a variety of types of outsourcing companies.  If your outsourcing company knows what you sell, they might pass your name along to another client of theirs who needs what you do.

Community Engagement

Client building is all about building trust.  There is no better way to grow your company’s image as a trustworthy community player than to get out into the community and do good.  When your customer base believes that you care about the same things they care about, they will not only see you as a company to be trusted, they will actually help promote you. Community engagement is a triple win.  Your company establishes a positive brand image.  Your target demographic will actually help promote you to their networks, for free.  You and your employees get to make the world a little better, which feels good and makes your company feel like a nicer place to work.

Social Media

Although most companies know they should have some social media presence to be current, many are not sure how to effectively use social media. Badly done social media can really hurt, not help your business. If you are going to do it, do it right. Choose the social media platforms that make sense for what you do.  Not every company should be on Twitter.  Decide in advance what your image and messaging will be.  Stay on brand.  Even when it’s tempting to share a joke or another company’s post, be ruthless about maintaining the integrity of what you put out there for the world to see.  That includes, managing other people’s comments on what you post.  Allowing trolls and bullies to run amok on your social media page can be just as harmful as sharing a joke some people take the wrong way.

Simple, Intuitive Web Design

After you have done all the hard work of finding and persuading your customer to buy what you sell, don’t throw all that effort and time away by allowing it to be too confusing or complicated to complete the transaction.  Keep your website design simple and intuitive to use.  Give your customers a feeling that you are there to support them, even if they are shopping online, with click-to call software. Even if they don’t use it, knowing that they can simply click a button for immediate assistance is a valuable piece of trust and confidence for the customer.  The bonus for you is that, in the event that they have questions about how to make the purchase, you can answer their questions, and thus not lose a lucrative sale.