The twists and turns of online business
10 February 2010
You're looking down the barrel of a year with the potential to be incredibly successful. It's exciting to plan the new turns your business can make. But have you asked yourself whether your business can twist?
When looking forward in online business don't get ahead of yourself. The internet isn't the place for five year plans.
Sure you need a strategy, I'm certainly not talking about flying blind here. And, yes, you can put tactics in place that will get you from point A to point B. You can do that - but it will all change, I can guarantee it.
The internet moves quickly, so you need to be able to react to the pace. Twelve months ago most businesses hadn't even heard about Twitter and now it's on almost everyone's radar. It won't be long before the next big thing comes along for us to get swept up in.
Yes, it's very important to keep up but it's not the pace or the technology that will change the way you do business online. Ultimately, it's your ability to listen to your customers and build relationships. Awww, I know, doesn't that sound all warm and fuzzy.
Here's a big hot tip for you: if you're smart you'll focus on creating fans this year - not on closing sales. You'll discover that when you create a fan, the sale will come to you - in multiples. Who doesn't like multiples?
You're going to listen to your customers and give them what they what, regardless of what you may have already planned.
The first place you're going to start listening to your customers is with social media monitoring.
Don’t get ahead of yourself when looking forward in online business – the internet isn’t the place for five-year strategy plans
Social media monitoring will become a bigger deal in 2010. If you're in business and you're not monitoring what's being said about you, quite frankly, you need to pull your head out of the sand. It's not that difficult and you can start monitoring for free: use Google Alerts to start with.
Please don't try to justify why you don't need to know what your customers are saying about you. You do. End of story.
Now that you know what your customers are saying about you, you're going to help them refer business from their network to you.
How are you going to do that? You're going to make them a fan of your business. Fans love the object of their desire and they enthusiastically tell their friends about it. In a world where an introvert sitting in his bedroom can have tens of thousands of online ‘friends', this is more important than ever.
You're going to listen to what they're saying and then you are going to give them what they want, in your offer and your product range.
Go above and beyond what they expect. Keep in touch: send newsletters that are helpful, not sales pitches. Help make their week better. Be personal, make contact to say thank you. Importantly, please don't use a template.
Haven't got time to send a personal email to everyone who's spent money with you? Funny, that's what your competitors say, too. It's what your customer's want - who's going to be the one to impress them?
Don't look too far ahead, don't be rigid. The beauty of the internet is that we can twist and turn at a very low cost. You can move, you can be loose. You can give people what they want and get what you want, too. #
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