Are you happy with your business’ current turnover? Maybe you never thought you’d get to a position like this, or maybe you think it could be a little better? Either way, you might be ready to think about borders beyond your own, and take your creative and innovative business model and products to the global market.
The global market is out there, and you could very well grab on and take it by the horns! With the invention of modern technology, and the use of the online world, international markets are more accessible than ever, even if you only started your company a couple of weeks ago.
So, with all that in mind, might it be time for you to take the plunge and move into the global market? Could you be the next big thing on the international horizon? Who really knows – but your chances of success could be improved tenfold if you remember the points below as you go on your journey.
Determine Your Target Market
Your move into the global market needs to be done in stages, and that means one country or region at a time. You need to target one market at a time, and do so with a lot of research behind you to back you up. Most of all, you need to think about the product you’re planning to open up to an international market, and ensure it has relevance to any (if not all) peoples and cultures in other countries.
Think about your own culture, and how it approaches a product like yours – will people in a foreign country do the same? Probably not, so you need to think about their daily habits and routines, and how they differ, and how you can change to fit these. This could take a lot of time and effort, which is why it’s best to target one market at a time, rather than get too excited and try to move down multiple avenues. You are a small business, after all!
Make it Easy to Take International Payments
One of the main things you’ll need to do when moving into the global market is ensure you can take international payments. After all, the more countries you plan to reach out to, the more currencies your business is going to be exposed to, and it can be hard to convert these currencies into your own and still get the same amount of cash you were expecting. Plus, you’ll often have a lot of fees to contend with!
If you can bypass this hiccup before you’ve even reached out to an international audience, you’ll be able to streamline the process entirely. Often enough, if you’re getting smaller payments (a.k.a., anything under a grand) from a customer, it’s much better to use an online service, rather than a bank, as it’s a lot cheaper to filter the money through. Most of all, in order to contend with all of these worries, ensure you’re pricing your products at a rate that accounts for both fee percentages, tax, and the actual value of the item you’re selling.
Take a Period to Get Settled
And finally, make sure you take some time to get settled into your new market, and set attainable goals for this period, to ensure you’re tracking your success in a foreign market properly. You want to feel safe and comfortable in this new country, in order to keep sales up, and properly put the effort in to serve the consumers over there.
So, take at least 6 months to get acclimatised, and ensure you’re feeling like you’re doing your best whilst overseas. If you’re not living over there, or you’re not planning to, it might be best to book yourself a place to stay within your new market, to ensure you’re getting acquainted with the people and practices. You’re going to need to get up close and personal with them at some point, so why not include a trip like this as part of your market research? It’s one of the more fun sides of business anyway!
Moving into the global market might seem like a massive and unreachable move, but it’s something your business could be doing within the year. If you spend the time collecting resources, and doing your market research, you could very well set your sights on expansion within the next 6 months. After all, the more time you spend in preparation, the further your efforts will go.
For a lot of business owners, much of your energy and attention will go towards getting customers to the point of conversion. When you finally get them to click on that purchase button on your website, for instance, it can feel like a big victory. However, when it comes to maximizing profits, retaining your customers is just as, if not more, important.
The higher the lifetime value of your customer, the more money each and every conversion is worth. As such, it’s important to look at the marketing strategies designed to keep your customers coming back, too.
Offering the support they need
First of all, you should anticipate that many of your customers will need some kind of customer support or service after they have already made their purchase. Few things can be more frustrating to your customers than to find they are having trouble with their purchase, but they can’t do anything about it because they don’t have any means to get in touch with your support team. Connect with your customers online with technology like on-site live chat windows. The smoother you make the process of requesting and receiving the help that they need, the less frustration your customers deal with, making it more likely they have an overall positive experience with your brand.
Staying in touch over time
Of course, you don’t have to leave it entirely in the hands of your customers for them to form their own impressions of the business. The more consistent your communication with them, the better your chances of influencing those impressions. Staying active on social media and engaging with those who get in touch can not only help you influence the brand perception of that individual but also creates a better public brand image, too. Click here to see how social media marketing can benefit your business. It not only drives new sales but also creates a positive rapport with existing customers that a) shows positive social proof of your brand loyalty to newcomers and b) fosters stronger connections with existing customers.
Incentivizing their return
You can always make a repeat purchase much more exciting if you sweeten the pot a little. Customers love good value deals and there are plenty of ways to make it happen. You can click here, for instance, to see how loyalty systems work, utilizing the points that customers earn in making purchases with you to help them get discounts and exclusive offers that see them becoming repeat customers. You can also incentivize them to utilize positive word-of-mouth. By setting up a referral program, not only can you use existing customers to help you convert new customers, but you get them engaged with the brand in a positive way, and those positive perceptions are likely to linger on even after the referral offer is over.
With the tips above, hopefully, you can recalibrate your focus to ensure that you’re not always looking for what’s new and exciting too. With a lot less investment, you can ensure customer retention that is truly key to business growth.
We are currently in the midst of a global crisis, and if you have no idea what we are talking about, you have either been living under a rock or on the moon. Yes, we are talking about the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic that is currently sweeping the planet. It is causing whole countries to go into lockdown. Of course, while this is having the desired effect that very slowly it is reducing the number of cases and deaths, it is also bad news for many businesses.
If you are trying to run a business from home and are worried about how you will stay on top of things and keep your head above the water, fear not. In this article, we will briefly cover some of the things that you can do to take some of the pressure off so that you can concentrate on keeping you, your family, and your business safe during these challenging times.
Create a virtual office
You may not be able to open your physical office for obvious reasons, but that does not mean you can not get all of your employees in one place in a ‘virtual office.’ While your staff probably don’t want to be on a video call all day, particularly if they are juggling looking after children and trying to home school at the same time, regular group check-ins using an app such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom is a great way to stay in touch. It allows everyone to talk as a team, bring up any issues and socialize, albeit through a screen!
Delegate
You may be balancing childcare and homeschooling as well as trying to keep your business afloat, and this may mean less time to dedicate to your business. If this is the case, instead of trying to do it all and failing miserably, delegate some of the tasks. This might be to other members of your team or outsourcing to a third party. Tasks that you could outsource include accountancy, HR and payroll, social media management, and even reception work – Ruby Receptionist can take over this role on your behalf.
Utilize workflow management software
Trello and Asana can be your friend here. It is easy to lose track of who is supposed to be doing what, but by putting it all into a workflow management system, everyone will be able to see what they need to do and mark when it is completed, so all jobs get done, and nothing gets duplicated.
Use ‘the cloud’
You may well be using this anyway, but if you aren’t, why not? By storing relevant documents and information on your company cloud, whether a free one such as Google Drive or a more professional one, your staff can access the things that they need to be able to work remotely, negating the need for them to be contacting you constantly to get hold of documents.
Even after this pandemic has passed, some of these tips can help you to remain organized and take some of the strain away.
If your business has one or more job openings, then what are some smart ways to get more eyes on your vacancy? Here are some great suggestions during a time when grocery stores, hardware stores, and other places are looking to hire more people.
Create a Social Media Presence
Have you thought about posting hiring news on your website or on social media? If not, you might be missing out on a valuable candidate who wouldn’t otherwise know about your vacancy.
If you don’t already have a Facebook business page or a presence on LinkedIn, now is the time to create them and get the word out about your company. In addition to having another place to recruit potential workers, you will also have the potential to attract future customers and boost sales over time.
Use QR Codes
Another way to spread the word that your organization is hiring is to send a mailer about it. Include a QR code that people can simply scan to get the job info or anything else you want them to know about right now.
If you have more than one QR code, then keep them organized easily using Flowcode. If you’re a tech firm, including these Quick Response codes is a great way to quickly convey information to your target audience, whether they have Android or Apple iOS phones.
Incorporate the Latest Tech
Another great way to attract talent is to provide the most advanced technologies to your employees. If someone is considering working for your organization, and then they see that they have access to the latest software and laptops, it’s likely to win them over.
Working with new tech is exciting for most employees – and that’s especially true if your business is in the tech sector. Make the workplace interesting to those who are thinking about working with you. Remember, they might have other job offers, and you want to have the most enticing one!
Investigate Salary Expectations Online
One of the key factors in winning over job candidates is salary. Make the salary one that they can’t say no to, and they’ll accept your job offer.
But how do you learn what their monetary expectations are? By using tech, of course. You might conduct a survey or research online what competing companies are paying staff in comparable positions. Then sweeten the pot with benefits or other enticing ways to get the best candidate for your job opening.
Final Words on Getting the Best Person for the Job
If you’re still struggling with how to use tech to attract employees, or you can’t seem to find someone who is a good fit, you might team up with a recruiting firm. They specialize in this type of work, so they’re likely to get the task done efficiently. Then you can focus on the daily operations of the organization.
Finally, make your business one that employees want to stay in, rather than hiring them only for them to stay on a few months before going elsewhere. Keep them interested by nurturing a positive workplace environment and encouraging worker feedback.
Address any concerns within a reasonable time and tell your employees regularly that you value them. Finally, if they want to have more tech in their position, try to make it happen! A happy employee is a productive and loyal one.
Newsflash; cybersecurity is a big deal in modern business. In fact, given that the average data breach can cost even small companies as much as $2k, it’s unsurprising that most managers spend significant amounts on overcoming this setback. Add this to the fact that more than half of small businesses can expect an attack at some stage, and it’s fair to say that this is a pressing priority.
Sadly, while the risks speak for themselves, only 6 in 10 managers actually protect themselves here, with a shocking 66% of senior decision-makers believing they won’t be targeted. Even if you are taking adequate steps to stop security breaches from happening, you may be leaving yourself open in unexpected ways.
The fact is that security can be challenging to get right, especially when those risks are unseen and unquantifiable. With that in mind, even managers who do dedicate plenty of their budget to this purpose could soon find themselves chucking money down the drain if they don’t take care of the following issues in-house.
Cybersecurity is unpredictable by nature. As such, spending a fortune on security measures that protect you from just one risk or platform is never going to work well for you. You’ll simply find yourself chucking money at this issue and still facing problems. By instead seeking comprehensive security offerings with continued monitoring like those offered by Syscomm, you could save yourself money and still improve those defences. That’s because an outside company with experience can provide you with all their know-how and equipment for one fixed fee. Even better, they’ll never leave any security stone unturned.
Internet use with no limitations
During the day, your employees are going to use your business wifi in all manner of ways. This includes work and…well, less professional pursuits. To some extent, the chance to check private email is a perk of the office job, but you should be wary here, too. Even with the best cybersecurity in place, specific websites or email attachments can breach your defences if employees invite them right in. That’s why limitations on certain site access and private purposes can prove so beneficial to your business. With these in place, you’ll be able to rest easy that no one is undermining the money you’re spending here.
Security plans that stagnate
Let’s say you invested in a cybersecurity package about three or four years ago. So far, so good, and you see no reason to change as a result of that. Sadly, the cyber risks that you’re facing will have evolved a great deal since then, leaving you open to risks despite your outgoings. It’s fair to say, then, that any stagnant security solution is a waste of company money. Instead, you should either seek ever-evolving outsourced security solutions as touched on above, or revisit your approach at least every six months. That way, you can be sure that the security you have in place is the best possible protection available at all times.
Ranking well on traditional search results is vital if you want to drive more traffic to your site. The majority of people will not look past the first page of results on a Google search, so if your site doesn’t make the first page, you will not get very many clicks at all. The very top result gets 35% of clicks, and most people won’t scroll beyond the first 3 results, so you have a very small window of opportunity. Unfortunately, that window of opportunity is even smaller where voice search is concerned.
Smart home devices like Google Home or Amazon Alexa are becoming so popular, and the majority of people have voice search functions on their phones as well. It is estimated that, by 2020, around 50% of all searches will be made using voice technology. This presents a big problem if you do not change your SEO strategy because smart home devices only return a single result, while voice assistants on smartphones only show the top 3. That means that it is absolutely essential that you rank at the very top for voice searches if you want to increase traffic to your site.
Ranking well on voice search often requires a different strategy, so it is important that you change your SEO approach. Although some concepts remain the same, there are some things that you need to do differently if you want to improve your rankings on voice search. This great infographic outlines some of the key factors involved with voice search rankings and has some great tips on optimizing your strategy for voice search in the future.
