How Can I Grow My Business Online?

Here’s 6 Reasons Why Your Business Isn’t Growing Online and My Tips to Fix Them

Are you feeling frustrated that your online presence isn’t creating the results you were hoping for?

You created your website and signed up for all of the social media accounts only to hear crickets.

You’re not alone if you’re feeling like this.

Many small businesses struggle to grow online, but the good news is that when you find out the reasons for the lack of growth, you’re able to fix them to see steady growth in your small business.

Let’s take a look at the 6 common problems I see online and the solution to fix them.

How to Avoid the 6 Most Common Problems and Have Online Growth in Your Small Business

Problem: Your website design isn’t appealing or user-friendly. 

Solution: People are drawn to appealing visuals. Using professional, relatable images and videos will help connect your audience to you and your small business.

The design of a website should include:

• Legible fonts. The best fonts to use are ones that are easy to understand and scan.
• Cohesive colors and knowledge of color psychology. 
• Scannable copy to keep the reader interested. Use headers to separate content.
• Intuitive navigation. The navigation bar on your website should be clear so the user can easily understand where to go.

If you’re interested in using stock photos or videos to uplevel your site and have visuals curated for your brand, I highly recommend Pexels for free stock photography. Although, sometimes it’s a bit hard to find what you’re looking for on Pexels, so stock photography sites like Shutterstock are also viable options. A new stock photography site that has my attention is Lummi, an ai generated stock photography website where you don’t have to worry about licensing issues. However, the best photography is the custom, personal photography you can capture with a nice camera or hire a brand photographer to help take for you.

Problem: You’re not being consistent on social media.

Solution: Make it a point to post on a routine basis to your social media channels.

I know, social media can be complicated and time consuming, but depending on your business, my best advice is to get back to the basics and put scheduled time in your calendar. Remember when social media first appeared? It was all about sharing photos with your friends and being social online. Get back to the same spirit by consistently engaging with your feed – double tap their posts, comment genuine comments, interact with stories, create your content pillars, share quick unfiltered highlights, and have fun with it! You don’t have to post daily (unless you want to), but a good recommendation for those businesses that work with the general public and/or looking to build their online community, my recommendation would be to post at least 2-3 times a week or whatever is manageable for you that you can stick to consistently. Social media is a great way to grow your business online so it’s important to make it a priority.

Problem: Your branding isn’t speaking to your target audience. 

Solution: Take a step back to reflect on your audience to get to know them.

Learning who your target audience is HUGE. For example, if you’re a residential roofer, there is no point to try and market to non-homeowners since they will be very unlikely to need your services. Some questions to work through about your ideal audience include:

• What is their age and/or gender?
• Where are they located?
• What is their income?
• What are they motivated by?
• What is their main problem that they need help with?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• Do they have children? Do they own pets?
• Is your audience well educated on your type of services?
• Who is the decision maker?

These questions are a great foundation to understand your audience. Another thing that I recommend is to look at your analytics – Google Analytics as well as Facebook and Instagram Insights to see the demographics, how your audience is finding you, and what type of content that they enjoy.

You can also use social media for market research by posting poll questions or a question box in your Instagram stories to hear directly from your audience and then plan your strategy around their feedback. Sometimes simply just having a conversation with customers that come into your store or call you and asking them a few questions can provide some valuable insight.

Problem: You’re not taking advantage of SEO on your website.

Solution: Either take the time to learn the basics or hire a professional to optimize your website and put a strategy in place.

Just because you built a website doesn’t mean that visitors will come.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is essentially how you make your website talk with Google easier to help it show up in organic search results. SEO can be complex but the best reminder is that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint! SEO is a long-game so while you might not get instant results – you will see steady results when you begin using SEO on your website. If you’re more of a DIY business owner, the way to begin with SEO is to research relevant keywords for your business. How does your customer describe your business? What words do you associate your business with? Then use a tool like Ubersuggest, to find out the volume of search and best phrases. In all honestly though, SEO isn’t easy. If you want your SEO done right, I recommend hiring a professional to help.

SEO can be overwhelming, but with the right strategy put into place, it can drastically help the outcome of your business to show up in Google search results.

Problem: You haven’t created compelling copy.

Solution: Hire a copywriter that is familiar with your industry.

Website copy – or copy on your other online outlets – is actually super important. Have you ever visited a website and left either not knowing what they do or not interested in their website? The likely problem was that the copy was not compelling and that can be a huge problem as a business owner if you leave your visitors confused! The goal of copy is to make the reader want to take that next step (contact you, schedule a consultation, book an appointment, purchase a product, etc.). It’s also meant to empathize with the reader and offer them a solution to the problem.

To be honest, I initially had a paragraph here about how to write your own copy. But in all honesty, I have seen so much bad copy that it makes my life so much harder to work with it. Unless you are actually a copywriter, I would recommend to hire one to make sure your messaging is clear and impactful the first time round.

Problem: You haven’t set up a Google Business Profile.

Solution: Set-up your Google Business Profile and stay active with it! 

Google Business Profile is one of my favorite tools (and it’s free!) to grow your business online if you are a local business. Google Business Profile is a free tool by Google that provides small businesses the ability to set up basic information about their business – phone number, address, website, hours, and reviews from customers. Are you curious how to set up and optimize your profile? Read my recent post to learn how to grow your audience using Google Business Profile and see how simple it is to get started with this amazing free service Google offers.

If you’re interested in having a structured training, then I have the perfect training for you that will show you how to set up and optimize your profile along with how to use the insights to make the best data-driven decisions for your business.

Final Thoughts

These are the six most common problems I see with businesses trying to grow online but aren’t able to:

1. Your website isn’t user friendly
2. You are not posting to social media regularly and/or lack social media presence
3. Your branding doesn’t connect with your target audience
4. There is no SEO strategy in place for your website
5. Website copy lacks clear messaging
6. Your business does not have (or lacks updates) a Google Business Profile

The great news is they’re able to be fixed! It just takes some motivation, time on the calendar, and if able, hiring the team to help you get those pieces of the puzzle into place. If you want to chat all things branding, website design, and online business growth, send me a note or DM me on Instagram – I’d love to connect with you!