Running a business is difficult, but when you have your bases covered from the top-down, that is strategy first, you are much more likely to succeed smoothly and with less stressful situations that often occur with growth. There are 3 “strategy power areas” your brand needs to master to truly set yourself up for success.
The three strategic areas you must have nailed down to truly grow:
1. Traffic
Do the right visitors land on your webpage? How do your target buyers find you online? Do you have a clear understanding of your user journey?
2. Conversion
Do you have clear plans to get your visitors to take the desired action (e.g. subscribe or buy)? How do you follow up and reconnect with visitors that don’t convert? How about the ones that do?
3. Product
How clearly do you and your team communicate your product or service? Do you focus on user benefits and have a clear value proposition? Can you write your value proposition in 1 sentence?
Let’s break them down one by one…
1. Traffic
Today it’s easier than ever to launch, sell, and manage a business. Although platforms are becoming more user-friendly by the day and setting up a digital e-commerce store complete with inventory and social media is easier than ever, the real struggle is how you make your business stand out from all the competition (which is also growing every day) and how you drive traffic (eyeballs) to your brand.
Let’s face it: the fastest way to improve your organic traffic is by investing in paid traffic. Paid traffic is a tool you should be strategically leveraging. Of course, take this with the knowledge that the leg work that drives organic traffic long term is an absolute must and an investment not to be skipped or skimmed. That said, over 42% of small and medium businesses consider Facebook and other social ads to be the most effective marketing method available to them — better than their own websites or email lists, according to a 2017 emarketer survey.
Your brand needs to be rock-solid in pushing forward paid traffic, or work with a media buying expert who can handle it all for you to make sure your brand is leveraging the right structure in ads, targeting the correct audience in terms of demographics, interests, channels, and more.
Part of doing it right means that research on your ideal customers is done before you invest heavily in paid traffic so that your targeting and placements are efficient.
2. Conversion
As traffic is flowing into your e-commerce or brand website, people are starting to get familiar with your brand, logo, and products. At this awareness stage, they are probably not yet interested enough to actually put money behind their wants and purchase. They need to be convinced. They need to be nurtured and then converted.
So what’s your plan?
Your plan should start with looking first at your customer journey and get absolute clarity on what the customer journey looks like through your brand’s stages: awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, and follow-up. To get your visitors to take the desired actions (e.g. sign up or buy) and translate into real customers, literally map it out on paper and pinpoint where traffic is falling off, where are areas of opportunity to improve, and where customers could be lacking information. Then continue building assuming you will retarget and follow-up on different “types” of customers (i.e. cart abandoners, collection page visitors, etc.)
Once you attain a warm audience, and you’re in the retarget stage, you’ve got a much stronger chance to convert as you build trust through value-add content.
3. Product
There are 2 basic aspects that your product or offer needs to master:
1. First, focus on communicating your unique value proposition. Your value proposition is what makes your product/service more attractive than the rest, and this statement should convince a potential buyer to explore your product/service. Your value proposition must be fully centered on the user benefits and provide a unique value to the users.
If you aren’t clear on your brand value proposition, you need to buckle down and spend the time to get this right. Work with an expert, get help from a marketing team, whatever it takes. Moving forward without this clarity will cost you way more in the long run.
2. The second aspect is to focus on reviews and subsequently, product development.
People might be trying your products and commenting about them. Some people have loved your product and some haven’t. Maybe a portion of users isn’t clear on how to use the product properly, or how to integrate it. Product reviews may start to suggest new product features.
It is essential to be on top of what current users are saying about our product/service in order to identify product gaps and also to have a good retention rate. If you don’t have a review tool – GET ONE. There are a ton of options that are easy to set up. If you need help, bring in an expert.
Once you have these 3 strategy power areas covered clearly, solidly, and with intention, your growth path will likely immediately start to look healthier, stronger, and more prepared for scale.
If you need help making your business thrive in the digital world, The Volt Studios has you covered. Let the professionals help you grow faster and more efficiently. Click Here to schedule a call with us.