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CHAPTER 21 10 steps to increase your profits
If your website is NOT up and running and should now be providing your business with a healthy income. Don't listen to the media. 2004 is the time to put your plans into action. Don't wait. Now is the time to act.
The online market is maturing and 2004 will see it continue to grow. There is certainly a lot of opportunity in 2004 for companies who are not online.
The barriers to growth, such as customers' suspicions about online security, are eroding. You have to be ready to take advantage of this marketplace, which is massive.
Take a close look at your business. How many of these initiatives have you implemented, and how many can you action now? Each step offers new or established businesses a tangible method of increasing profits today!
1)
Customer Service
Ultimately if you are selling services for tangible goods,
the level of customer service will always be under close scrutiny. In the high
street customers will return to shops where they have experienced high levels
of customer service; this is also true of a website.
2)
Develop a community
One of the most intuitive means of attracting customers
to your site is to act a host for a community. Once established, this captive
audience can then be marketed to. But be careful that your sales message is one
that the members of the community are open to receive.
3)
Start a newsletter
Staying in touch with your customers is an important
element of any businesses. Online businesses have the advantage that they can
contact their customers frequently and at very little cost. One of the most effective
ways of doing this is to offer your customers a free subscription to your newsletter.
Customers are happy to receive HTML-based emails as long as your message is relevant
to them. As with a community, you must always put your customers' wishes at the
centre of your publication. My newsletter readers are very loyal and much focused.
I know that they want information about certain products and services and I can
deliver that direct to them. If we have a new or seasonal product, our newsletter
is a swift way to present that item to the customer just when they are looking
for it.
This marketing message will have a direct effect on your business's profitability. Online businesses have the advantage of being able to react to market trends, and inform their customers of new services and products weeks and sometimes months before offline businesses can. Take advantage of this marketing channel now. Try using services such as NewsWeaver and eGain.
4)
Improve your check-out and trolley
A fast and efficient checkout and trolley
system is essential if your business is to avoid terminal abandoned trolley syndrome.
Today,
online shoppers expect to have to register their contact and payment details,
but once this is done, shopping on your site should be as straightforward as possible.
No one - whether online or offline - likes to wait in a queue.
Amazon leads
the way with its now much copied 'one-click shopping' methodology. Your business
doesn't necessarily need to copy this, but you do need to ensure that your customers
can shop securely and easily.
Put yourself in their shoes and do some tests on your own site. How easily can you find a product? Is it simple to put this in the trolley? Can you delete an unwanted item? And above all can you move to the check-out with just one or two mouse clicks? If you can't answer yes to these questions then your business is losing sales now.
5) Use loyalty
cards
The supermarkets have proven that customers like loyalty schemes.
The huge uptake of these in the high street has shown that this form of marketing
can be very powerful and highly profitable.
Online, gaining loyalty points and then redeeming them has become big business in its own right.
One of the key things that a loyalty scheme does give you is a customer database, which gives you customer insight. This in turn allows you to segment that database and recognise patterns that then allows you to market to those specific groups instead of to just a perceived average customer.
6)
Use other channels of communication
Your customers are sophisticated and
comfortable with handling and receiving information from a wide variety of channels.
It makes sense, therefore, to use as many of these as you can to reach existing
customers, and gain some new ones.
7)
Search engine rank
The internet offers any customer a huge amount of information
and retailers to choose from. Making your business stand out from this very large
crowd can be achieved and then translated into higher profits. A good search engine
ranking is therefore important because if no one can find your business, no one
can buy from you.
Companies such as Espotting and Overture can help your business make the most of its search engine ranking.
Make this kind of marketing exposure one of the key strands of your marketing mix. Keeping your existing customers coming back to your site is important, but so is finding new customers to keep your business profitable in the future.
8)
Premium rate content
If your business can offer high quality, unique and
authoritative content, this can be offered to them at a premium rate - which can
then become a very lucrative revenue stream for your business.
Paid for content is still in its infancy but it will grow over time. The Online Publishers Association states that US customers paying for online content nearly doubled in the third quarter of last year to 14.8 million. Make this kind of content an integral element of your online business now.
9)
Integrate your offline and online businesses
If your website is just the
online component of a larger business don't treat these as completely separate
entities.
Mail order catalogue companies that are well versed in supplying goods via a printed catalogue have taken this knowledge and applied this to their websites. Hybrids such as Littlewoods with their Index chain store and Argos with its Additions range, integrate their various sales channels together.
Offering multiple purchasing opportunities to your customers will illustrate to them that your business knows who they are and how they like to buy your goods.
Make the integration of your offline and online business seamless and your customers will become loyal to your brand, which will translate into a more profitable bottom line for your company.
10)
Get your site right
One thing to learn from the boo.com debacle was that
if you do not have a website that actually allows your customers to buy your goods,
you won't stay in business.
The 'design over function' debate continues to rage. Ensuring that your website looks modern and engaging is a pre-requisite for profitability, but aesthetics should not be your only governing factor.
The look of your site is important - especially if you are reinforcing an existing brand. However, resist the temptation to use every piece of new web technology. If you're basic site structure is sound, concentrate on the content as this is after all what your customers will pay for.