By now your business should have cottoned onto the fact that you need to have a strong online presence.
Either that or you’ve just closed up shop altogether.

Well, not only do you need a strong online presence but you also need to be selling online – no matter if that’s a product or a service.

It’s all very well me saying that, but, naturally, not everyone is tech savvy or knows the best options for moving online for their business.

In this article, I’m going to run through a few ideas, hints and tips for maximising your online sales to hopefully help you decide if you should stay (and grow your business) or go.

Talking Heads
One of the most successful ways companies have embraced the online world is by using video. In particular, we’re talking about Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other video chat platforms.

“How and what can I do to make the most of this?”
If you’re running anything like courses, networking, seminars etc, basically anything where you (used to) have a load of people in a venue, using video conferencing opens you up to a world wide audience.
Platforms like Zoom and Teams are good for this, but also take a look at Remo and if you really want to be flash, look at VR platforms like Mixtive or VR Conflux.

At a minimum, you can also look at using these platforms for customer support.

Talking shop
If you’re selling products, physical items that you ship out, you need to integrate ecommerce into your website.
Again, there are many ways you can build an online store depending on what and where you’re selling, but, in general, possibly look at using Shopify, Big Commerce, Prestashop or even WordPress and WooCommerce.
Via these platforms you can use Paypal or Stripe or even hook into your bank’s system for payments and all the major courier companies for shipping at a minimum, but, my advice would be to speak for a few acquaintances to see what they recommend.
If you’re able or need to take card payments, you can use SumUp or other card machine operators.

Talking about me
So, you’ve got yourself set up online and … now what?
Now the fun begins!

It’s all very well having a great online presence, having the stuff people want to buy, but, if nobody knows about it, you aint gonna shift no boxes.

Now you need to get social. Join local Facebook groups, look at using nextdoor.co.uk and Twitter, then depending on what you’re selling, maybe start posting on LinkedIn or any of the other thousands of social networks out there.
The point here is to start marketing yourself, but, be careful not to just become a business bore – join in with others conversations, start up threads of your own and, every now and again drop in a special offer, a promotion or even a hint/ tip on how to best use your product or service.

As a side point – when running any promotion or offer, look to building a relevant landing page linking to the actual details rather than just sending people to your general website.

Hopefully, I’ve given you something to work on and keep your business running but, of course, if you need a hand or have any questions, feel free to get in contact any time.

 
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