A couple of years ago, I use to ask clients if they were ready for the “Oprah Effect” almost everyone wishes to be on her yearly must-have list, but few people are ready for that. Preparing your business to go viral is essential, so you have no missteps for when that moment happens. For example, last year, thousands of black-owned businesses’ success skyrocketed as people wanted to invest in that business. However, a large percentage of those small black-owned businesses were not ready.
Let’s walk through some tips to prepare your business for the fifteen minutes of fame for when it happens and maintain that success level.
Update Your Website
Nothing worst than landing on a website in July, and they’re pushing winter jackets from two seasons ago in their call-to-action banners. Updating your website gives visitors a reason to return and share your business with their friends. When you increase traffic to your website, this shows searching engines the content is relevant. When you’re doing site updates, here are some things to check for
- Broken links or forms on pages
- SSL certificate
- Site Speed – Test on Google
- Check product descriptions – I recently had KSYE’s updated via Fiverr.
Update Social Media Bio
I don’t know how many times I went to a business Instagram bio, and they lacked 1. a website or 2. information that would help with the sale. If you’re planning on launching a business creating a landing page, and currently have a business, do these things.
- Name | what you do. Example: Tasha | Business Consultant
- Call to action
- Where you’re located
- Relevant hashtag
- website
Have Tiered Product Levels
One thing I consult clients on is having multiple products for your consumers to shop. You want to prepare your business to go viral by having an introduction product that most people can afford and doing a tiered level of products from the chosen. The other day, I googled CBD body butter, and a brand came up that was featured in a plethora of magazines. They only had one product in stock, and it wasn’t the one with the rave reviews. They had all this great press but lost the sale because of the lack of products. Give your audience options. Most shopping carts such as; Shopify and WordPress have plugins that will show your audience similar items or items others were looking at.
Service Businesses
As a service-based business owner, I know it’s drastically different preparing to go viral for a consumer stan point. Instead, focus on things that can serve the audience when they find you.
- Blog content that they can read and engage
- digital ebooks
- online course or programs to purchase
- break down your services with prices listed
One of my biggest pet peeves is going to a service-based business website, and the pricing is missing. Regardless of how great they are, chances are I will not use them. Most people have a budget in mind, and they don’t want a complimentary call to discuss options.
Create canned emails
When you repeatedly get the same questions from your visitors, canned email is the ideal method. It prevents you from writing the same answer every time; instead, a standard response can save you time. The canned response can be helpful in customer service situations and for filtering leads. You will utilize the FAQ page of your website to help create these canned emails.
Update FAQ
Market research suggests that 70 percent of the visitors prefer using a website that gives comprehensive answers to their queries. This depicts the increased importance of the FAQ section for the growth of the business.
Updated FAQs can improve the whole buying process. It also allows people to have minimum contact with the company during the buying process. Here are some of the benefits of the updated FAQ section;
- Minimize incoming phone calls and emails
- Increase in the sales
- Provide an idea of the company’s expertise
Check your form
In the web forms, the visitors provide their emails or personal data that you can use for processing. Such forms help you to collect and embed the right kind of information into your website. Checking out all your forms allows you to obtain customer-related information, attract them and boost the leads to your website.
Other benefits of checking your forms are
- Help to gain the trust of the audience
- Improve your conversions
- It makes the visitor’s experience easy
The tips mentioned above are designed to help you prepare your business to go viral if the chance happens. Remember the little things such as; updating the website and social media bio, choosing different product lines, creating canned emails, and regularly checking your web forms, can maximize your traffic and boost your income.
Photo by Daniel Thomas on Unsplash
