This is a contributor’s blogpost …
Making the move to digital will save you time and money and improve the way your business runs. Stepping into operating online can seem like a big jump that requires a lot of planning and organizing, but in reality, it can be quite easy. Here are some helpful tips:
Marketing
A lot of businesses have stepped away from traditional marketing such as postal marketing, cold calls, newspaper adverts and TV commercials, in favor of the Internet. Some companies still make use of high impact advertising such as TV adverts, but their focus is still very much on Internet marketing. Your own business should be making use of this resource firstly by setting up social media accounts on channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn if you haven’t already. These platforms allow for so much more than just advertising your products and services. They offer a form of customer relations that didn’t exist in the past. You can talk to your customers and build real, lasting relationships with them. This will help you to get return customers.
Social media sites such as Twitter are great for sharing blog posts on your website. You do have a website, right? If not, then you need to get one. A website is going to be the number one way people can find out what your business is. Keeping an up-to-date, professional website will help bring in a lot of businesses for you.
On this website, you should have a blog that posts regularly. These articles should relate to your business or industry sector in some way. They need to be interesting and engaging for your customers. This is because it will be another way of getting traffic to your website. These posts will help with your ranking on search engines, and by having a lot of posts, you will come up in a lot of searches. You also get to share your posts through your social media channels.
As for paid advertising, you can pay for Google Ads which will mean that your website is guaranteed to come up in certain searches allowing you to be above your competition. You can also pay for articles on other websites that include a link to your website integrated naturally within. This will again help your SEO rank, but it will also mean that everyone who reads that articles have a chance to click through to your website. This is a popular way of building up a lot of websites who all link directly to your website. The more views and traffic your website has, the more chances you have of making a sale.
Office
It might sound strange to want to move your office online, but it is entirely possible. There are virtual offices for all sizes of business, and they offer a range of services that you might find really useful. One of the main reasons to do this would be to save on having to pay for a physical space and streamline a lot of your processes. Companies like yourvirtualofficelondon.co.uk – virtual office provider – virtual office provider offer a range of packages with differing prices and services, so you’ll find the ones to fit you. If you are a small business then paying for an office space can be a money sink you’ll be happy to avoid.
Tablets
Tablets are versatile devices. You can do so much on a tablet that would normally require you to have several other document folders, a laptop, a phone and a myriad of other pieces of equipment. Ditch a lot of those other things (keep the phone though, you’ll likely still need that) and invest in a tablet. Unless you absolutely need a printer to print documents, then save them to your tablet for reading and sharing. You’ll notice savings immediately, and you won’t miss having to carry around a lot of paper all the time.
Your tablet is also great for browsing the internet and looking up information on the go. Gone are the days when you’d have to wait till you were back in the office or with your computer to check on something. Now you can search online, check your emails and even make Skype calls all from your tablet. You can also check your online bank balance and manage your finances, all from a single device.
