Running an online business

arpan911 · #1 (**permalink**) 20th July 2006, 12:10 PM

What avenues are best to bring customers to you and increase your visibility?
A very effective way to generate business, thus increasing your profits, is to talk to people you know; friends, families, neighbors, hit the pavement, spread the word to everyone you know, especially those who like your business and the products you have to offer. Be creative; if one of your products is a balloon consider going to all the restaurants in your area and make a deal to have your balloons given to the children who enter. When you go to businesses or friends take a few samples of your products to show them, leave your products with them so they can look at them while you are gone and then follow-up with them and find out what they think. Make them feel a part of your business.

Networking is a great way to make business contacts and you can do this almost anywhere that you go. Your local chamber of commerce often has networking functions where you can meet other business owners in your area. You can talk to them about their business and what works for them, exchange business cards. This is a great method for making contacts. After the social function make a point to go and visit their business, develop a relationship with them.

Be apart of a community with the people you want to do business with. Join the groups they congregate in. You want to be able to be a friend that provides advice and helps out. Speak to your friends and gain their trust. This will ensure that they will listen to your recommendations and will trust your instincts on this topic. The point is to make sure the people that are buying from you are not just buyers but trusted friends. They will be who brings you the most business. Word of mouth is the most powerful tool you have and is the hardest to get. This will let others in your community know that you are real and a person. Other questions to ask your self are as follows.

What can I do when I have been running an online home business site for a couple of years but your profits are not as strong as you would like? One thing to do is to review that you are getting enough traffic to your site, if you are satisfied with this aspect of your business you might want to consider increasing your sales through the method of follow-up promotions. The beauty of this idea is that it does not necessarily bring more hits to your site but it does bring more people to your site that will buy more of your products and this will generate more income. If you have customers, at least 30 percent of them will purchase from you again and this number will continue to grow if you use the follow-up techniques that are presented in this article.

Take a good look at your customer base and realize that you can have them buying many times from you than someone else if you follow-up with them. If they already like the product they purchased from you, there is a good chance if you offer them another product or a discount on what they already purchased, they will come back to your site and buy again, and then they will spread the news of your site to their friends. When customers like a product, they tell others. The more you follow-up and offer them items from your site the faster your profits will begin to increase.

One of the techniques used in the follow-up is to reward your customers for using your site and buying your products. In addition, you can reward them for referrals to others. Special notices that say thank you for their purchase or offering a small discount if they come back or refer your business to a friend are all great ways to increase your profit margin. Another technique is when your customer signs up at your sight are sure to send confirmation messages that their request was received though instead of simply saying, “we have received your request” add a little something extra in there. This is a great time to offer them something extra from your sight or a discount off there next purchase, be creative and you will be amazed at the responses you will receive.

The importance of this approach is to let your customers know that you are following-up with them to make sure they are happy with their purchase and that if they have any questions or concerns they can contact you. Do not overwhelm them with sales pitches let that become a secondary message. Make them feel like you really care about their satisfaction with your product.

By Earl Williams

maggots · #2 (**permalink**) 15th January 2007, 10:18 PM

another great article by earl williams, he's always good with saying things that make sense

great sharing arpan, keep it up

humpty · #3 (**permalink**) 28th January 2007, 08:50 PM

fully agree with ya maggots, great stuff, what's earl's background actually?

mini_0 · #4 (**permalink**) 3rd May 2007, 10:32 AM

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