7 proven performance-driven strategies to grow your online business
If you want to grow your online business successfully, you need to practice proven, performance-driven strategies that can help you acquire and retain customers, boost your brand’s reputation, and increase revenue. Whether you run a small or large online business, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ve broken down several top-tier strategies to help you grow your online business from scratch.
7 strategies to grow your online business in 2023
1. Be unique, be you
The first strategy to practice is uniqueness. It’s not enough that you offer a high-quality product, great prices, or other benefits to consumers. You have to prove that your business is unique in some way. This is called the “unique selling proposition.”
Your marketing campaigns should highlight what makes your business different from the competition. The more unique you can make your company seem, the more memorable it will be. Then, when a customer has to choose between your business and another, they are more likely to choose yours.
For example, say that you run a small dental clinic that primarily serves local clients. Your dental office’s digital marketing campaign could highlight the following things to stand out among other similar clinics:
- A modern and recently refurbished facilities
- Your stellar reputation
- The fact that your business is family-owned, etc.
This same practice can be applied to your online course. Your unique selling proposition may be your niche course topic, your method of teaching (say you offer a mix of video courses and live coaching, for example), and most definitely the perspective you bring to the topic. Remember, uniqueness is the same thing as memorability in the eyes of most consumers. The more unique you are, the more likely a new customer will choose you over your competitors when shopping for what you provide.
2. Think on the go with mobile optimization
More than half of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices these days. Therefore, you need to optimize your website and online ads for mobile viewers. Bringing a prospective customer to your sales page doesn’t do any good if your website looks funky and clunky on a mobile screen.
The same is true if you post lessons or online classes for your students. Everything should be optimized for mobile, from the smallest advertisement to the biggest landing page and the broadest online store.
Mobile optimization is now an industry standard. When you build a website, you should be able to choose a theme and layout perfect for mobile viewers. Be sure to do this, so you don’t cut yourself off from a potentially massive source of revenue. As a Teachable creator, you can rest assured that sales pages, courses, and lessons are all optimized for mobile experiences.
Download our guide to building your ideal audience personas.
3. Go out of the box with voice search functionality
It’s also wise to tailor any search engine optimization campaign for voice searches. Voice searches are becoming more popular, and they can help your online business grow rapidly. Voice searching lets customers find products, services, or online classes using their voices instead of typing keywords. This very convenient way of searching for information should be considered when lacing keywords through your online content, creating your digital ads, etc.
4. Expand marketing efforts with PPC marketing for boosted leads/revenue
You can also use PPC or pay-per-click marketing to boost your lead generation and revenue. This type of online advertising is especially successful compared to posting random banner advertisements on websites across the web.
The benefit of PPC marketing is its ability to target specific consumers. You’ll make more money advertising directly to your target audience than you would marketing to the general public.
Say that you run a course on helping families find the best universal life insurance and want to draw new customers to your brand over the next quarter. PPC ads, when targeted properly, could help you generate lots of leads. You can focus on people who have:
- Families
- One or more health conditions
- Some reason to worry about the future of their loved ones
This information can be gathered and targeted using modern machine learning and AI-driven tools. Once you’ve identified your target audience, PPC ads will be displayed to your ideal consumers, and you may turn a significant profit over time.
Even better, PPC ads only cost you money when someone clicks on them. Do heavy keyword research before leaning into PPC marketing, as some of the more competitive terms can be expensive on a per-click basis.
5. Build brand authority
If you run an online business, you probably have a blog (if not, make one now!). That blog should be filled with high-quality, brand authority-building content. Informative, educational blog posts do a lot to bolster your business, such as:
- Showing prospective customers that you know what you’re talking about
- Answering customers’ key questions before they make a purchase
- Offering studies and other science-backed information to show industry authority
Not only that but posting informative content on your website will also boost your brand recognition. You can put keywords in this content, which will make your website more likely to crop up when someone searches for keywords related to your business.
Publish high-quality content often enough, and your business may grow because of those top-tier blog posts.
6. Get visual with video marketing
Then there’s video marketing. Many studies indicate that video ads and other marketing content appeal more to consumers than static or image-based ads. This makes sense when you think about it; after all, a video ad is a lot more engaging than an ad that doesn’t move at all.
Therefore, you should invest a part of your marketing budget into good-quality video marketing productions. These can be basic commercials, animated ads made by a digital advertising agency, or something else.
Alternatively, you can do video interviews and testimonials from past customers. If you offer online classes through platforms like Teachable, you can provide a video teaser of some of your classes, so that prospective students know what to expect if they sign up. Video ads can be posted on your website and social media platforms. This leads to the next good strategy…
7. Connect with audiences via social media marketing and capitalization
Your online business should take advantage of the opportunities of social media marketing. Be sure to have profiles on all the major platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Not only do these pages provide funnels to direct customers to your online business, but they also allow you to engage with current or future customers by answering questions, offering special deals, and making announcements.
Social media marketing is all about building long-term connections with your customers. If you want your business to thrive in the future, these long-term relationships need to be the backbone of your revenue streams.
There are lots of ways you can grow your online business consistently and successfully. All it takes is a little planning and preparation. Each of the above strategies should be leveraged in conjunction with one another. That way, their benefits compound and will, hopefully, lead to improved revenue and business growth across the board.