Running an online business is an exciting venture, a chance to learn new things, make a difference, and practice your passions. If you’ve got a small online business, and you’re looking to increase your profits, you need to create an action plan. To help you start making more money for your online business, check out these seven ideas.
Focus on boosting conversions
Simply put, if you want to make more money you’ve got to focus on converting more customers. Once you’ve got visitors to your website, there are a few things you can do to boost your conversion rates.
- Use pop-ups: According to Crazy Egg, if you use pop-ups in the right way, ‘you can reach the top 10 percent of pop-ups which average a 9.28 percent conversion rate.’ To increase your pop-up conversion rate use a delay of around 30 seconds and ensure your pop-ups are easy to close. You should also make sure a pop-up appears just once for each user.
- Use testimonials: Positive testimonials and reviews are an excellent way to boost conversion rates on your website.
- Use Chatbots: Chatbots are a great way to boost conversions, when customers are undecided about making a purchase, chatbots can clear up their queries fast, (and do some subtle persuasion)!
When you’re running an online business, having a great website is crucial. Ensure that you work on improving your UX, and use heat mapping tools to gain useful web page insights.
Apply for funding
Want to boost your business finances? Why not check out a few grants and funding opportunities? Each grant has various eligibility requirements, but here are a few options to get you started:
The Cartier Women’s Initiative: The CWI awards grants to female entrepreneurs every year. The grand prize is $100,00, while the finalists receive $30,000. This award scheme favors companies who have a positive impact, whether socially or environmentally.
FedEx Small Business Grant: This grant is intended to help small businesses grow. The 2021 grant prize is $50,000. All businesses who apply must have been operating for 6 months or more.
Expand your horizons
To make your business more money, consider expanding to offer your products internationally. Use a third-party service to ship your products, there are plenty of services that can help you to do this on a budget. You should also look into offering international payment methods, (to make it easier for your international customers). If your business needs to transfer money to the USA, online platforms such as Airwallex can help you to do this.
Regularly assess finances
To help you make more money for your business, you’ll need to assess your finances regularly. Use budgeting and forecasting software to keep on top of things, and accounting software to manage your invoices and taxes. Without a clear visualization of your finances, it’s difficult to improve your financial health. A few of the leading budgeting and forecasting options include software such as Scoro, Prophix, and Float.
Focus on customer loyalty
To keep on increasing your profits, you’ve got to focus on improving customer loyalty. You can approach a customer loyalty strategy in several ways including:
- Enhance your customer service across all platforms, from socials to your website.
- Create a loyalty program to encourage your customers to stick around.
- Listen to customer feedback to make improvements.
- Nurture your relationship, offer great content and discounts.
Of course, you’ll want to branch out to new customers too, and there are so many ways to do this. You could offer competitions; put on free events; or improve your content marketing. Gaining new customers is all about exposure. You’ll need to work on improving your online presence, to reach new audiences.
Save money where you can
To keep your profits high, it’s helpful to save money where you can, there are plenty of ways you can save your business money including:
- Take advantage of free tools: whether it’s for business communication or SEO.
- DIY your marketing efforts: write your own blog and use Facebook Live to host talks.
- Go green to save money: remove the need for paper and embrace remote work life!
Review your budget and look for areas to cut costs. Consider using second-hand items where possible, and shop around for suppliers to get the best deals. Increasing your profits can take a little time, but with the right tools and resources, you’ll gradually see things improve.