Anyone can open a business.
You only need to register your enterprise by completing some forms, make payments here and there, obtain the required permits, present a legit product, fulfill orders — and boom, you’re officially a business owner.
Succeeding as a company, however, is a completely different matter, though.
It entails applying the best strategies under particular industry conditions and some evergreen essentials, among other factors.
Here are some tactics you should know and implement for a thriving enterprise online:
1. Improve Your Customer Support
Customers are uber-essential for your business to prosper. Without them, you won’t have anyone to sell your products to. That translates to zero or minimal income.
However, this doesn’t mean they’re cash cows. Rather, they are people whose problems you can solve with your solutions.
Customers are also people with whom you form meaningful business relationships. To make them love your brand, don’t just offer excellent products. Take care of your dealings with them as well.
That said, invest in streamlining and improving your customer support. Doing so shows that you truly value your shoppers’ patronage and want to nurture it in return.
Do this by:
- Responding promptly and correctly to their queries
- Assisting and solving any issues they have with your products and services
- Providing valuable, beneficial information (not just sales-oriented copies)
- Communicating courteously, and others.
To bolster your customer support, maximize technologies with powerful and practical capabilities, including app integrations.
For instance, use customer service ticketing tools for timely help desk assistance and documentation of requests.
Customer relationships management (CRM) platforms let you harmonize your marketing, support communications, and consumer data for personalized business services, and so on.
2. Prioritize Your Cybersecurity
Security should be among your top priorities when operating your business on the Internet. Otherwise, you’ll be susceptible to cyber-attacks that can eat up your money and even shut down your enterprise.
Enhance your online security with these tips:
- Provide sufficient cybersecurity training for employees. Include recognizing phishing and other fraudulent tactics, creating strong login credentials, etc.
- Restrict access to private information. Encrypt valuable files (including online transactions and communications), and permit only relevant position-holders in your company to retrieve them.
- Regularly duplicate essential data assets. This includes your customer data, software code, and other resources your business is built upon (and can cause closing down when lost).
- Automate the duplication process for guaranteed safety and efficiency. For example, if you created your app on Microsoft Azure DevOps, you can use Backlight Up for instant and daily Azure DevOps backup activities.
- Install and frequently update your firewalls, software patches, and antivirus and antimalware tools.
3. Digitize Your Documents and Processes
Replace paper-based documents and traditional methods of completing tasks with digital ones.
Doing so reduces your operational costs and administrative workload. That translates to more savings and time for more profitable ventures.
A classic digitization strategy is using cloud-based tools for your workflows, reports storage and submission, communications, and others.
Modern rental companies provide an example. When examining their machines before and after renting them out, they use electronic equipment inspection forms.
Technicians only carry their tablets or smartphones around often-large equipment to tick checklists and capture photos and videos.
They can then hit “Send” to submit the report to the operations manager, who receives notifications and can approve the document or requested repairs immediately.
Renting customers can also sign electronically to acknowledge the report and get the equipment fast.
This is much more convenient than carrying a pen, paper, and clipboard around the huge machine, going to the office, placing the report on the desk, and heading to the shop to sign.
Similarly, electronic tools and methods help your team work faster and accommodate more clients. You can process payments quickly and enhance the customer experience, encouraging buyers to return.
4. Produce Top-Notch, Compelling Content
Creating compelling content lets you provide value and solutions for your customers’ real-life problems. This persuades them to keep consuming your material and saying “yes” to your offers.
You can write blog posts, long-form guides, or a series of themed write-ups. You can also display breath-taking product visuals with jaw-dropping effects to wow your shoppers.
For instance, if you’re selling bicycles, speeding up your product video gives the illusion of accelerated performance. It intensifies the content’s impact, thrills your viewers, and gives them the adrenaline boost to want the item.
Consider these other content ideas:
- Infographics sharing relevant industry, product, or other statistics
- Educational webinars and podcasts
- Stories and live videos showcasing your company culture, etc.
If you already have a library of various digital content materials, repurpose your content in creative ways.
This lets you freshen up your posts, share information from new angles, and even save brainstorming time and effort.
When doing that, choose content materials with the highest engagement. Then repackage them in other equally interactive formats to maintain or bolster your SEO, traffic, and conversions.
5. Build a Functional, Attractive Website
Websites act like your brick-and-mortar stores or offices — only virtual. So it’s only right that you design your storefront, interiors, and systems appropriately like you would your physical shops.
Begin by using (or switching to) the right platforms designed for your business type.
Let’s say you’re an ecommerce store. In that case, maximize straightforward ecommerce site builders. They have functionalities for payment processing, product marketing, sales pipelines, and others.
Next, follow these tactics:
- Develop customer-centered website experiences
- Set up an intuitive interface and navigation
- Display search buttons
- Simplify your checkout, sign-up, and similar processes
- Use blocks and sections for neat layouts
- Mind your page loading speed by minimizing or eliminating heavy elements, etc.
6. Hire the Right Person for the Job
Tap talents with relevant skills, abilities, and work backgrounds to take charge of various business aspects.
You can get a mix of highly experienced, novice but competent, and intermediately knowledgeable talents.
This lets you distribute tasks according to their difficulty level and other requirements and create a balanced working culture.
Here are some ideas to guide your talent recruitment process (for existing employees, full-time workers, consultants, freelancers, agencies, etc.):
- Understand your business needs and requirements
- Identify your ideal talent team
- Streamline and enhance your hiring experience
- Manage candidate relationships and communications
- Know your talents’ motivational factors (and not just focus on what you want to gain).
Gear Up to Build a Thriving Enterprise Online
With these and other strategies, you can begin or continue developing a thriving online business. They are a balance of marketing, security, customer, and other essentials to attend to.
Remember, your implementation might not be perfect at first, but keep going until you get into the rhythm and the ideal results.
Business success rarely happens overnight — so don’t give up too easily on attaining your company goals. You’ll get to them in no time!
