Make a Big Noise on The Web This New Year…

on Nov 4th 2009 with 7 comments

As any successful business will tell you; planning is key to success. It’s never too early to start thinking about your future strategies, and what better time to put some new ideas into practice than over the Christmas/New Year period?

Many companies and individuals suffer from a lack of appropriate planning and decision making. This leads to an anti-climax in success and in turn, a big drop in enthusiasm for what was once a thriving project.

If you run an online business, set yourself some achievable goals for the New Year:

• Get more targeted traffic – explain how you intend to do this and stick to it. For example, you may want to obtain one new backlink from an authority domain every month for the first six months. Just putting this on paper makes it seem a little more within your reach.
• Improve areas of weakness – ask for customer feedback, ask the opinion of a designer or simply view your stats. Is your delivery policy a little confusing? Maybe that’s putting people off – write a new, more reassuring one!
• Looking to expand your operations? Look at hiring salespeople on a basic fee + commission basis and offer structured bonuses. Alternatively, look into affiliate programs and expand your reach this way.
• Trouble keeping hold of your customers? As long as you’ve captured their data, you can win them back with a nice offer and an intelligent email marketing campaign.
• If you simply need more sales, look at offline avenues such as networking events and cold calling. Whilst these methods are more long winded, they help build relationships, which is a crucial factor in success.

These are just a few ideas that transcend various website purposes. Be specific to your own business and even if your growth plan is relatively small, it’s a step in the right direction.

This article was written by Matt Saunders, owner of Leeds web design agency Northern Web which specializes in intelligent and responsible web design and marketing solutions.