Do these 5 things to get more customers online in 2024
Trying to get more customers from the internet is hard.
Or, is it?
Well, it turns out that getting new customers from the internet may not be as hard as you’d have thought.
All you have to do is keep on doing what you are doing and add these five small tools.
In this article, I’m going to show you exactly how we go about getting businesses new customers from online with these 5 tips to grow a small business in 2024
If you want to know more, all you have to do is read on…
How to Use Google Business Profile
Phone Calendar to get recurring appointments
Use Facebook and link to Instagram
Google Search console
Review your website
Small businesses are taking advantage of the easy access that Social Media provides by giving their Business an online presence, and that’s great! The most popular platform for small business is by far having a Business Facebook page. We talk to businesses all the time who tell us that they get a lot of their business through this platform and they don’t even have a website. But we think they are missing out on potential customers by not having a website. This post will explain why!
If you haven’t heard of Google Business Profile, then you are not alone. It’s been around for a while now yet people still don’t know about it, and the beauty of it is that it’s easy to set up and easy to use.
Also, it’s Google! If you want to be found by Google, use Google tools!
So what is Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is a little bit of the internet that Google is happy to give to you. For free.
You know when you type in a Google
“Electrician in Durham”
Google checks its Index and looks for Electricians registered around/in Durham and it looks like this.
The businesses that use this effectively have a better chance of
- Google showing the business
- Your customer calling you
And did we mention this is free?
If you have no idea how to set this up, then you need to take a look at our
How to set up Google Business Profile Page, but this post is how to use it for your business.
Digital Business Tip 1
pTip 1
Use the Google Business Profile.
Go to your phones app store and look for an icon that looks like this
And download it. You need to log in using your details and you will be greeted with your home screen that looks like this if you have set it up previously. If you are new, then all that will be different is that you will have no numbers.
Put pictures on Google Business Profile
Make sure that you upload as many great pictures of whatever your business does. If you make things, get a picture. If you bake things, get a picture. Get your business logo on it. Get a picture of yourself on it too. Not many people will be comfortable with that, but it is a great psychological tick for customers to see who you are. So do it!
Get reviews!
How do you go about that?
Easy. Ask for them. If you don’t feel easy asking for them, you can send an email with a link to your Google Business Profile review. You could have the option to review you on your website. You can even create a username in Google Business Profile so that they can go directly to your Google Business Profile Page. Ours is @webzlee. Go on. Go to Google and type it in. Easy!
You can find that option in your app and it looks like below
The other great thing about doing this is that it creates a URL that you could use on business cards, or in your email signature or you could link it to an image. When somebody clicks on the link, bam! It goes directly to your review page. That address looks like this www.g.page/webzlee/review
So, if you can’t see it, the structure looks like this www.g.page/yourusername/review
Have you used the Post function In Google Business Profile?
Start posting using Google Business Profile. This is still new (ish) but again it is an effective way of putting yourself in front of prospective customers, and you are using a Google tool. You can create a post and link it to a service you provide or give an update on current news in your industry.
Specialists say that you should at least once a week (How many times should I post to Google Business Profile) and they also note that it can help your search results too, so that is a double whammy!
It’s easy to post on your Google Business Profile app. When you open it you will be greeted with these three options. Make sure that when you do create a post that you include a good quality picture.
There we have 4 tips on how to use Google Business Profile. We think that the amount of time and effort needed to put these few tips into action is low, but the opportunity to get more customers is good, so why not try it for the new year.
Digital Business Tip 2
Tip 2
Mobile Phone Calendar
We believe that this tool, that everybody has access to, is massively underused for business. Especially in small businesses.
Let’s put this into context. We were working with a Chimney Sweep business. Their business is a once a year occasion for homes, and it isn’t sexy. People don’t think “yay, I’m going to get my chimney swept!”
So people forget, and they forget the business. What made things worse is that the chimney sweep kept all his appointments in a paper diary. He was essentially leaving yearly business in a book at the end of the year.
So this is what we did.
When they went to make an appointment, they put it in their Google calendar app, they invited the customer to the appointment and then set it as a yearly event.
4 easy steps, and here is how it’s done using Googles Calendar app.
Open the calendar app and click on the big plus sign (+)
When you have done that, you will see this screen
Step 1 – Add the event details. We have put the title as chimney sweep, but in reality, you could just use the address and chimney sweep like “ 123 Street, Durham, Chimney Sweep”
Step 2 – Add the time and date.
Step 3 – IMPORTANT Set the appointment to remind every year
Step 4 – Add your customer email, so that they get your appointment and you get their email address.
And that’s it. It takes two minutes and you are essentially booking in work for the following years. Easy!
This is what it looks like when it has been done for the following year.
Work booked in for a year in advance. All that needs to be done closer to the time is to reconfirm the appointment and that’s it.
Digital Business Tip 3
Link your Instagram account to Facebook
You can do this both ways, but just for this, we are looking at posting on Instagram and publishing on Facebook.
When you do this you are saving yourself the time of creating two posts, creating two images and messing about with two social media platforms.
It is an easy process that is described in the image below. You can also find these instructions on the Instagram forum for how to link instagram to facebook
When you have completed this. Once you have published a post on Instagram, it will automatically update on the Facebook page as well. If you want to be really funky, you can also have your Instagram feed on your website, so that when you update Instagram, you update your Facebook page and your website at the same time. If that sounds like something you would like to have for your website, you should check out our Web Design page to see what websites we could make for you.
Digital Business Tip 4
Get Search Console put on your website.
You may not have even heard of Google Search Console before, but it has been around for years. It used to be called Webmaster tools. But what is it?
Google Search Console shows you what your website is getting found for when people search on Google. It shows you what searches you come up for and other handy tools.
Here is a shot of one of our clients who is a car detailer in Gateshead. So knowing this, you would think that people would be searching for a Car Detailer. Well, you would be correct. Check out the image to have a look.
This is showing the data of the number of times the website gets seen, but it also gives us targets that can be used to improve on getting more visitors.
You can install search console yourself if you follow the instructions on the video that we created, or if you don’t feel too confident about doing it yourself, drop us a message and we can help out.
Digital Business Tip 5
Trustguard does damp proof repair. I know this because I have used their services. If you take a look at their front page, yes it has got Damp Proofing Specialists there, but it is very busy, lots of text and there is a book survey option, but out of the way. If I want to read through all that you could. But you won’t. Humans now have an attention span shorter than a goldfish. The human attention span is 8 seconds. So if your website takes two seconds to load you have 6 seconds to get your message across. We think this is better (although it does still have room for improvement)
If you are wondering what we would improve about this page? It needs a Call Us button underneath the 30 Year Guarantee (which could also be in a better font, it’s a bit hard to read.)
Now check your website on mobile!
The majority of people looking at your website are more than likely looking at it with their phone. So you do it. How does it look? Again we are going to use Trustguard (sorry guys, we are not being horrible).
No phone number, no survey form, tiny tiny writing. Remember, 8 seconds. If you were to find this on mobile, where would you go to find out what they did, what the contact details are?
With Damp Stop, you can see what it is that they do, and they also have a chat option on the bottom so that customers can get in contact easily.
Is your website Mobile Friendly?
The reason behind the differences in the two websites featured is that one of them has been made so that it is mobile friendly. If you are not sure if your website is mobile-friendly, Google have a free tool that will tell you. If you want to have a test, this is the Google Mobile Friendly Test.
Why does my website need to be mobile friendly?
Well, we will be blunt.
-
Google prioritises mobile-friendly websites in their search results
Most searches are done on mobile
Wrapping it up
We have given you more than 5 tips for you to try out in 2020 to get more customers online. Even if you try just one of them and give it a good go over a period of time, then you are going to get more customers than trying nothing at all.
Have a go, and if you think this could help somebody in 2020 then feel free to share it on the buttons below.
Getting online, on a budget
We love digital! If you want to find out what we can do for yur buisiness then give us a call. Hit that big blue button!
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