3 Ways to Grow Your Business On and Offline
The surge of online businesses and work-from-home life during the pandemic has transformed how we work, stay connected, and build our businesses. For many of us, this has given us the final push to become online entrepreneurs and pursue our passion!
With seemingly endless government mandated lockdowns and travel restrictions, we have resorted to building relationships and our businesses entirely online for almost two years. Yet, hopefully, despite all this, you have been able to reap the benefits of building business connections and friends online from the comfort of your couch through the use of social media such as Facebook Groups, Instagram, and Clubhouse.
With the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions we can finally start to think about growing our business not only online, but finally, in-person.
Here are three types of methods to building your online business as the world re-opens:
1. Social Media
Of course, social media is still one of the, if not the, most popular mechanisms to grow your online business. Staying up to date with trends and mastering algorithms can exponentially improve your business’s social media following and community. It’s important to note that the days of just posting and growing are over. The online community is overwhelmed by content, so in order to stick out and get your message across follow our Golden Rule of Thumb: “Grab their attention in 5 seconds or less, and make sure an 8 year old understands it”.
While you don’t necessarily need a social media manager to secure high amounts of growth, it’s important to plan out your posts, adapt to using video, go ‘live’ frequently to build trust, know and life factor, and to interact with your followers as much as you reasonably can. Video is the prefered content of choice in 2021 to help your followers feel connected to you and ultimately get obsessed with your content, so challenge yourself to get creative on TikTok and Reels!
In the online space, consumers are saturated by scrolling past celebrities and influencers with millions of followers promoting products or services. To avoid this trap, follow the recent trend towards authenticity and vulnerability. Consumers like supporting business owners who they can relate to, admire, or who have a good story. This is particularly true for female business owners who are reportedly sharing more of their daily lives to increase those connections.
Like-Minded Business Friends
If you have friends and/or family members who support you and your business consider yourself very fortunate! It’s an amazing thing! However, it’s also important and helpful to have peers in the online space with whom you can talk, share ideas, and build connections. Consider these people your community. They understand what you go through on a day-to-day basis as an online business owner. We encourage you to take your URL connections IRL (‘In real life’). Do not be afraid to book that trip or schedule a lunch to meet the like-minded business entrepreneurs who you’ve met virtually this past year. Meeting in-person can help solidify a strong and long lasting relationship. This helps build your network and theirs – in-person and online! These relationships are priceless.
PRO TIP: If you book a trip for business purposes, whether it be meeting other entrepreneurs, visiting a client, or partnering with other businesses, you can write it off as a business expense!
Word of Mouth
Believe it or not, some online businesses don’t use any social media at all or don’t rely on it as their main source of marketing! These types of online businesses thrive on networking and reputation. Networking can be an intimidating term but it’s a skill that you can develop! All of a sudden, it won’t feel so scary.
Here are some ideas on how to successfully network:
- Rewards Programs: By adding a rewards program for previous clients to refer you, this drives incentives for former and future clients to tell others about your business!
- Coffee Dates: Try to set up 5 coffee dates per week with your LinkedIn network, in-person or online! You never know where these connections can take you. You will be surprised by who wants to support you, who will introduce you to your next big client, or who will hire you!
PRO TIP: When sending out messages via LinkedIn or Email, first write a draft in a word document so you send out consistent and professional information. Then do a little research to make sure youcustomize the message before you send it.
- Support a Non-Profit: Try to link up with a non-profit of your choice. A small percentage of your profits could go to the non-profit of your choice and attend their fundraising events. In this day in age, consumers are looking to support socially responsible companies and are holding others accountable. By partnering with a non-profit you will build a community oriented reputation and increase advertising opportunities, your company’s morale, and your client base and increase your sales. Some of the most profitable businesses, such as the shoe company TOMS, built their business on the premise of giving back. By donating a little bit of your profits, you will receive exponential return on your investment.
- Join a Society in Your Field of Work: Speaking with other entrepreneurs in your field of interest or line of work is so valuable, and you can often meet these people at society events in your hometown or even out of the province. We would encourage you to become a board member of a society to really take full advantage of what being part of a society has to offer! You’ll probably learn a lot at these organization meetings and your membership will pay itself off quickly!
We hope by now you’re convinced that the best way to build your business is through the combination of purposefully growing your social media, making like-minded business friends, and good ol’ fashion word of mouth.
P.S this is your sign to book a business trip to finally meet your online business friends in real life!!
Author Credits
Gillian Turvey is a final year law student in the UK and a 2021 EFV Legal Intern, She is specializing her studies towards Criminal and Family Law, and can be found playing with her puppy. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
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