An online business in South Africa, whether you call it an e-commerce or m-commerce business, needs to not only turn a profit but strive towards the future. To do this, the business owner needs to consider strategies to grow the online business.
The growth of a business can be seen in multiple ways. It can be growing in the number of products listed, services offered, number of employees, or area it serves. Growing your number of staff is usually directly related to the growth in profit (or work) caused by product expansions, more customers gained, and more areas serviced. But before you can expand in those areas, you need to grow your business to the best it can be as is.
Market Your Business To Create More Awareness
Growth starts by creating awareness for your business and the products or services it sells. You can use social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook to share your discounts, product updates or direct traffic to your online store. Social media helps target businesses on the go. You can even partner with influencers to reach a wider audience.
Optimise Your Website For Mobile
Most people have access to the Internet through mobile devices. In fact, in 2022 it was calculated that the number of mobile Internet users in South Africa was almost 47,8 million, roughly 78,7% of the population.
To ensure that you grow your online business, your website should be easy to navigate, load quickly and encourage users to return over and over again. You also need to optimise all marketing materials for mobile viewing, as this is mostly how your audience will interact with your brand.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is also a vital part of this strategy. A website that has a good SEO score is also more likely to appear on search engines when the micro-moment hits and your audience shows intent for searching for your products or services.
Customise For Your Audience
Do you know your target market? Do you understand this audience’s needs? You can tailor your business’s website to the needs of your clients by offering a website that is in their language and currency, or that is accessible to persons with disabilities. This might also require you to understand some of the cultural nuances if your brand is focused on a particular group of people.
Claim Business Listings
Business listings are spaces in directories such as Google My Business or Yelp. This helps your brand awareness as your business will appear when a user surfs the web. You can use these listings to ensure that customers can easily find your business address, important information, trading times etc, and enhance your chances of appearing in search results.
Respond to Online Reviews
Monitoring and responding to online reviews is a great way to grow your business, specifically awareness of your business. It allows you to interact with your customers and deliver aftersale service in the space where your business is situated: Online.
Here you can address complaints, thank customers for compliments and gain insight into the shopping experience your customers have. This can also provide insight into areas of growth within your business.
Invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a digital marketing tool whereby businesses only pay for the adverts that customers click on in the search results. It is an effective way to drive traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, and generate leads. You start by targeting specific keywords and demographics that define your ideal audience.
Two of the most popular platforms that support pay-per-click are Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Track Website Analytics
It is vital to keep a diligent eye on your website traffic to see what is working and what isn’t. This is also the first place where you will see if your efforts to grow your online business are succeeding.
Google Analytics is a free tool that connects to your website to indicate the traffic to your website. Here you can see the most popular pages, where traffic is originating from online, and the geographic location of the users.
By using all of these tips, you should be able to grow your business to the point where you can hire more staff, or look into expanding your offering.
