When the Economy Heads South, it’s Time to Step Up Your Online Presence
Melissa Campanelli has an article at Entrepreneur.com about how to start an online business in the down economy. But what if we already have a small (or large) business? What can we do?
In general, e-commerce is the bright spot in the retail world today.
“Online retail continues to grow at a pretty nice clip,” says Jeffrey Grau, retail e-commerce senior analyst with eMarketer. “If you look at total retail sales, annual growth is in the low single digits. However, the online channel has been growing in recent years in the low to mid-20 percentile.”
While Grau warns that the economic downturn is slowing e-commerce sales, online sales are still growing at triple the rate of store sales.
“It’s still a very desirable marketplace,” he says.
And more and more online shoppers are turning to the web instead of paying for gas to go to the mall.
A new poll conducted by RetailMeNot.com, an online coupon website, found that nearly nine out of 10 American consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of high gas prices.
The poll found that out of more than 1,000 respondents who voted multiple times:
* 45 percent said they plan shopping trips together to use less gas
* 42 percent said they shop less
* 22 percent said they do as much shopping as possible online
* 11 percent said there was no impactWhether or not the economy is bad, there are some best practices to keep in mind…
Campanelli goes on to describe some steps for researching how to start an online store. For those of us that already have a business, I recommend the following:
4 Steps to Increase Your Online Presence
- Make sure that there is a link to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. I am sure that we can all come up with a list of the top 10 questions that our potential customers ask. Write them down, and answer them as completely and honestly as you can.
- Create a second page of “Questions that You Should Ask”, the top 10 questions that we would like our prospects to ask us in order for us to build rapport and let these probable purchasers know that we are a credible advisor and expert on the topic.
- Give value first. Make sure that your website or blog has obvious links to your products and the latest pricing. Include the pricing of your competitors, and let the reader know why your product is preferable, even if the price is higher.
- Invite your prospects to join your community in Social Media, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn - people like to make connections. LinkedIn is a great resource, as it has the “Question & Answer” feature, allowing you to get in front of people that may be looking for a solution that your business can provide. Search through the questions, and answer the ones that you can, without making them into ads. Establish yourself as an expert.
- Reach out to your existing community. Find the people that are already talking about your business and listen to them. Ask them if you can help with their business in these tough times. You may find a way to “partner” with a customer and create a profitable synergy.
This is just the starting point for increasing your social media presence, and I suspect that these steps will lead to more questions. In fact, other internet marketing experts are starting to talk about the very same thing, with a great deal of enthusiasm for starting something new. Naomi at Ittybiz had a post on this very topic - “Blood in the Streets” - and this is what she has to say on the subject:
1. Small business competition is flatlining.
The average person is looking around saying, “I’ll keep my safe day job, thankyouverymuch.” (Yes, because your day job is SO F*****G SAFE right now.) The rate of new business creation is going to slow dramatically. The rate of people bailing on their existing businesses is going to skyrocket. People are running scared back to the best day job they can find, and as the illustrious NYT tells us, “the unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent in August, a five-year high, so …small-business owners might find it harder to land another job“.
Your competition is scrambling to find a job at Denny’s. Hello!?
Ah, yes, the New York Times thinks that this is a terrible time for small business - that we should shut the doors and go back to working for the big companies.
Nancy Levine, a senior executive recruiter at the Pacific Firm in Berkeley, Calif., also has observed an uptick in the number of candidates who are business owners. “In slower economies, we get more calls from sole proprietors,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like musical chairs: the economy stops and entrepreneurs dash for a spot back at the larger companies.”
Go, entrepreneurs, go! Now the field is opening up for the rest of us. Now is the time to pick up the pace and get out there, make something happen. Buy out our competition.
Let’s have a discussion about how you can get your business noticed. Leave a comment!
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