It seems recently there has been a massive boom in the number of people starting their own small businesses.  Not only have I read this is the case in various news articles, but it also seems to be the case in my close circle of family and friends.  Perhaps it could be to do with my age.  Now I’m in my thirties and have settled down with a family, many of my friends are in the same situation.  We’ve re-evaluated what’s important to us and want a flexible working lifestyle that fits around our children.  We are also tired of working for other people for low wages to make only the bosses at the top richer, and thus we seek the more satisfying reward of earning our own income.  Nowadays it is becoming much easier to start a small business, generate leads online and market a business effectively thanks to the wonderful world wide web.

Here are six ways you can use the internet to effectively grow your small business:

Use online quizzes to generate leads

There are now many great quiz maker tools you can use to create interactive quizzes to help generate leads online.  Whether you want to capture email addresses for your newsletter, a potential client’s interest or customer details, using an attractive quiz makes things a whole lot easier for you and your customer.

Talk to your customers in real time

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a question as a consumer and having to wait several days for a reply to an email.  Luckily you can now reply almost immediately to queries using online chat or social media.  A fast response can make the difference between a customer deciding to purchase from you or looking elsewhere for a quicker reply to their answer.

Share your expertise through blogging

Blogs are a great way to share your expertise and prove how knowledgeable you are in your field.  Blogging gives you more content for your website to increase your digital presence and make you more visible online, especially when it comes to search engines.  There is an abundance of blogging tips and guides online to guide you through setting up a blog.

Show up in local business listings

It is super important for you to list your business in business listings and especially in the search engine business listings, such as Google.  Almost everyone nowadays will perform a search online when they are looking to buy a product or need a service.  There really is no better way to be found than online in the present age.  Make sure you have a local Google listing to show up in local search results.

Prove your professionalism through your website

First impressions really are key.  In the online world this translates to an easy to use, professional looking website which is optimised across all devices.  If your website is cluttered or hard to read, people will soon click away and find a more visibly pleasing competitor of yours with a friendlier website.  It’s also important your website can be accessed by a mobile as more people use mobile phones to browse the internet than ever before.  Creating a website is very easy thanks to the internet and there are ready made platforms even for those with no technical knowledge.

Showcase your reviews

If you offer a great service or product, then let everyone know through the power of reviews and testimonials.  Set up a testimonials page or a review feature for your products and share these on your website.  A bucket load of five star reviews is sure to sway any pondering customer’s mind.

 

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