Want Your Online Business To Grow? Do These 4 Things

Do you want your business to grow?  Of course you do, but what have you done to ensure it really grows?

It won’t grow on it’s own.  Remember Stephen Covey and “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”  Habit number 2: Begin with the end in mind.  This means knowing your outcomes, and laying out a path to get there.

Your online growth strategy needs real goals and objectives you can measure.  For instance, making lots of money is not measurable.  Give it an amount.  How much is lots for you?

Every business will have a different desired outcome and differing goals and objectives to get to the end you had in mind.  These goals and objectives should be reviewed often.  Most agree that quarterly is the maximum time between reviews.

However, there is common ground in growing your online business.  A few essential building blocks exist to make your marketing effective, keep your customers happy, and ensure growth throughout your entrepreneurial life.

Create your customer avatar.

This is how Eben Pagan taught me this, but it is also essentially saying you need to know who your ideal customer is.  Where do does this customer live?  Is the customer a male or female?  What education does the customer have?  What is the biggest fear or pain this customer face with regard to your market?  How old is this customer?  What pain will this customer experience if they don’t use your service or product?

Give your ideal customer a name and talk directly to him or her in your marketing.  Knowing these things about your customer is key to finding them and selling to them.  You can’t do either without this.

Define your value proposition.

What is a value proposition?  According to Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of MECLABS Marketing Experiments, your value proposition is best understood if you can answer this question in the first person:

“If I am your ideal prospect, why should I buy from you rather than any of your competitors?”

Essentially, you need to be unique in just one dimension in how you will focus on your customer segment and your ideal customer.  It gives your customer a reason “why” he or she should do “what.”

It’s specific and definable.  It’s not conceptual and it neither esoteric nor abstract.  It must be understood nearly the same by anyone fitting the description of your ideal customer.

Have defined metrics.

You must be able to measure in order to know if you are moving forward, standing still, or going backward.  Online, there are some common metrics used such as your earnings per click (epc), your opt in rate, your sales conversion rate, your cost per customer acquisition, and other metrics.  You can refer to these 7 marketing metrics for further guidance.

How will you create more revenue?

Do you know how you will increase your sales and cash flow?  What will be the source?  There are a number of ways to go about this.  You might get new leads, add more products, partner with other business (joint ventures).  Do you know making new sales to existing customers is considered the easiest way to grow by most successful online business owners?  Maybe you will expand into new markets.  There are many more ways.  You simply must know what they are for you.

These are just 4 ways to guarantee you grow.  There are more others include in their list.  However, I have found these to be the easiest to grasp, and the most vital for you to get a handle on right now for your business today.