As a business owner, your main motivation for going to work every day is to increase profits. Of course, you care about what you do, your staff, your business ethics – but it is profitability that underlies everything else.  
Without a healthy bottom line, it can be hard to provide well for your staff. Without the resources to practise good business, it may be essential to cut corners or not do things the way you would like. That’s why profit matters. 
 
All of this means that any way you can boost your bottom line becomes a must-have tool in your kitbag. Which is why being online is essential for any modern business. 
 
In fact, it is so necessary to modern business that many new companies exist only in the online realm. They have dispensed with the costly overheads of a physical premises to sell goods and services. Which means they can also do away with the associated costs of insurance, bills, rates, and more. 
 
However, it depends on the line of work you are in whether or not this is possible. For many businesses, a physical shop, warehouse, or office is a must. But online activities can be used to increased profits nonetheless. 
 
Here are just some of the ways you can use the internet to grow your business. 

1) Affiliate marketing driving passive growth 

Amazon is one of the biggest companies there has ever been. But what is it that they sell? OK, in recent years they have started to make some technology products, but the Amazon model relies on creating a huge marketplace for others to sell their goods. 
 
Amazon has enough web traffic that millions of smaller businesses and sellers use them to shift their goods. Of course, Amazon take a tidy margin off the top and continue to dominate the world. Now, we’re not saying your business is going to be Amazon, but the model can work at scale too. If you have a website that generates enough traffic in your particular field, this gives you a valuable service to sell. You can leverage this traffic to other sellers who can move their products through your website. 
 
Without having to do any marketing, source any new products, or develop any new services, you can add valuable passive income. 
 
Of course, this all depends on you having enough web traffic. And below we will go into more detail about how to use the net to drive more traffic to your site. 
 

2) Social media marketing 

Social media has immense power. There are several huge platforms that you can use to promote your business. But it’s about more than just having a page for your business. In order to really drive traffic and build a community, you need to use social media to engage with your customers. 
 
That means responding to reviews and queries on Facebook in a timely way. It means uploading regular content to Instagram, and encouraging user-generated content. This will help to develop trust and build emotional connections with your brand – all of which makes your customer much more likely to continue spending with you over time. 
 

3) Online marketing 

In the past, you may have spent your marketing budget on print or radio media, placing adverts in the local paper, the Yellow Pages or even on local radio stations. But these days these are less effective but still costly. However, there are online marketing platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook ads where you can target your marketing in a much more effective way. 
 
It’s all about using data, and social media and other online platforms have given us access to more of this than ever before. If you are not utilising this power, then you are missing out. You can still use these tools to advertise to your local area – in fact you can target your marketing using all sorts of metrics, such as age, gender, location, interest – meaning every penny you spend is much more likely to get results. 
 

4) Google ranking and SEO 

Another way you can focus your online marketing strategy to increase growth is through your Google rankings. Everyone has done a Google search, and seen the list of results that come up. If your business is not on page one of these lists for your core products or market areas, then your business is not performing as well as it could be online. 
 
This is where search engine optimisation comes in. SEO allows you to make the content of your site more visible. Using keywords and specific types of content in the right way, search engines find your site and the information you are providing of more use. 
 

5) Expand your horizons 

Most importantly, going online means you can expand your marketplace without any investment in infrastructure. Once you have a website, you have access to a global market. Which is why it makes sense to ensure that your website is well designed, works well, and is visible to search engines. 
 
It is also why it is worth investing time and effort in your social media strategy. This is a tool that allows you to engage with people from around the world, building a community of customers that could sustain your business for years to come. 
 
In these challenging times, never has it been clearer that the power of going online can help businesses to survive and thrive. Of course, we appreciate that not everyone has the skill set or time capability to dedicate to their online marketing campaign. That’s where we come in. Our team of skilled and experienced online marketers can help your business to take full advantage of the power of the internet. 
 
We can help you to grow your online presence and create content that engages your customers, by creating a custom designed and affordable website for your business that provides you with maximum opportunities for success.  
 
Get in touch today to find out more about what we can do for you. 
 
Share this post:

Leave a comment: