For you, your employees, and your business, the goal is simple: more customers = more revenue = more traffic = more money. That may be a little too on the nose, but that is really what we need. Every startup, every SME, every Nike, McDonalds or Apple needs to generate more custom so it can continue to innovate and drive traffic to the websites, so products are purchased.
Image Source: Max Pixel
It’s a simple cycle, but we are now bogged down in the finer details; and for your business, it can be a simple equation. But the process to get to that point is the hard part.
For every new business, there are hundreds, if not thousands of competitors out there. This means we need to work harder and smarter, but ultimately faster than all the others out there.
Speed is of the essence now, more so than it has ever been in the history of business. So what can you do to speed up the fundamentals in your company?
Productivity Tools
Your tech shouldn’t be at the forefront of your mind if you want to run a personable business in a human way, but they can certainly help to pick up the slack in specific areas.
For businesses that are operating en masse, the importance of productivity by each and every member of staff is the equivalent of each cog in a machine; each worker is one essential part of a whole.
While your tech needs to be top of the line, it needs to function as a work aid rather than a thing that does the job for so many people.
The recent cyber-attack that hit 150 countries has shown how helpless we can be without the internet. So we need to make sure it is an enabler because if we rely on it too much, we are operating with our hands tied behind our back.
Productivity tools are a simple and effective example of a way to keep employees focused. You can either use analytical tools or a simple spreadsheet that your workers can fill out, but as distractions in the workplace is so common, you need to find a way to make workers that bit more productive. Even a basic site like the Pomodoro one has been a little way to help keep people on track.
Make Your Site As User-Friendly As Possible
Your website is your entryway to the world, it is your mouthpiece for the most part because this is where people will decide to delve further into your products and services or click away to a competitor.
You need to think about each part of the site. Is it simple to use? Does it communicate your ideas in a simple and effective way? Even, does the site have enough power to sustain a certain amount of traffic?
There will be a very small reason to click away, and you need to hook people in as quickly as possible. If you have too many people click on and the site crashes, are you likely to see many of those people again? No.
Hosting companies like a2hosting are suitable for small businesses and for websites that have a high amount of traffic. So you need to establish if everything on your site is built to sustain the “virtual weight.” And if your site doesn’t contribute to a user-friendly experience, it doesn’t help build up your image, and it, frankly, looks somewhat amateurish.
Make Your Marketing Perfect
Every business has a voice and a brand, and this has to be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. Each method of promotion has been done a million times before, there is nothing you can do to change that, but you can certainly make your voice stand out from the crowd. This is where a promotional product can make a big impact.
Commercials that stand out a mile, or a podcast, or online video blogs (or vlogs) can all contribute to a business identity that will place you ahead of your peers. The trick is to make sure you are confidently using the right marketing methods to stand out. A podcast can be a great marketing tool, but the length of every podcast means that you will have to work harder to hook potential customers, especially if they are of the Vine generation. Likewise, the printed word can work incredibly well to gather interest from a certain age demographic.
The marketing is a vast process, and it all depends on your business voice, your chosen customer demographic, your budget, the list goes on… Speed is of the essence to get a product into the minds of consumers, and this is where brand positioning comes into play. But every marketing procedure is based on a solid foundation of preparation and research.
Research your target markets, research your competitors, and research every fine detail you can get your hands on.
Trust Your Vision
To get a business operating effectively and quickly, you need to believe in your own ideas. It might be a very simple and obvious thing for many, but there are so many companies operating without a safety net that it might not make people put their faith in your ability. Speed is about accuracy too, and your vision is what matters, not what one member of staff thinks.
This is a big one for new leaders because having that unshaken faith in one’s own ability is difficult! It’s all about confidence and believing that your idea is worth it. If you are in need of changes to your business, you will likely encounter people who will try to shoot you down. These people are a waste of time and money.
For every person who faces resistance to a process that you need to implement to speed up your whole business, you need to reinforce your vision, and this is what everyone has been working towards in the first place. If you need to speed up certain processes or make your company appeal to the masses as fast as possible, then you need to be unwavering in your vision, for doubting yourself is the biggest waste of time of all.
