feb17_images_digital

KB

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

10 TIPS for growing your online business in 2017 01. Ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly More customers than ever before are shopping with a tablet/ smartphone and are looking for the best user experience possible – your website should be up to the mark. Being mobile-friendly is seen by Google as a strong factor when ranking a website. er shopping journey will scare shoppers away. Even a brochure website needs to be clear and concise, and display all the relevant information to help customers make an informed decision.

07. Set up the basics to get seen on Google Google My Busi- ness is a simple tool that lets businesses share their information with customers when they’re searching for local suppliers. It’s quick and easy to verify your website with Google, so do it now. 08. Increase sales with email marketing Improve the way you communicate and stay in touch with customers by using email campaigns – a simple way to increase customer retention. Af- fordable packages with easy-to-use design tools are available. 09. Create a secure checkout for your customer In Novem- ber’s article we advised on how to take payments online securely and successfully, and what to watch out for. Create a streamlined, system for buying online so as to minimise email exchanges and telephone calls and to improve online productivity. 10. Keep your product range concise and up to date Don’t scare customers away by confusing them with hundreds of garments that are hard to tell apart and are similarly priced. Make their buying experience as simple as possible.

02. Try new things on social media Many garment decorators have a sporadic social media presence, posting pictures of the odd interesting job only when it’s quiet. Embrace social media and post interesting pictures, blogs and articles, run competitions and engage with current or new customers. Think outside the box to give someone a reason to follow you. 03. Write about your business When a customer lands on your website, don’t let them think it’s just another print or embroidery site: make it stand out with some interesting content. Write about yourself and your business: its story, core values and USPs. A website with a bit of personality and lots of interesting content – regularly updated – will boost your search engine rankings too. 04. Blog away Often underrated, a blog is a great way to share your knowledge, expertise and passion for print and embroidery. Writing a blog is also great for social media, with interesting, thought-provoking pieces likely to get followers clicking through to your website. It’s a simple yet effective way to increase traffic. 05. Harness the power of LinkedIn If you aren’t on LinkedIn then sign up: connect with like-minded people and join the dis- cussions; connect with customers and search for potential new customers. Grow a following and promote your business and its qualities, and watch the recommendations and referrals grow. 06. Provide your customers with a simple-to-use site Cus- tomers have more options than ever when browsing online so your website needs to be easy to navigate. A complicated website packed full of jargon and with an unstructured custom- For me the big buzzwords for 2017 are ‘content’ and ‘relevance’. How many of you are plagued by spam or irrelevant emails – and are you guilty of sending the same to sell your products? One gift distributor said to me recently, “Some suppliers we see are really valuable: they come and train my staff, and come up with relevant marketing campaigns for our customers. We have no time for people that just want to drop in for a coffee and show us a new catalogue.” Video is already big, and YouTube is second for web searches. It’s going to get much bigger in 2017 and if you don’t have a video content strategy you will be left behind by your competitors. Video is an effective educational tool as well as a great way to tell your brand story. The BPMA has used this to convey the power of promotional products through a really engaging animation video that members could personalise. Declutter your message. Millennials have a decreasing attention span and need to understand you and what you are offering in seconds. You need to be authentic and prove this.

Andrew Langridge is from eTrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. w www.etraderwebsites.co.uk

BPMA: How will things change in 2017? Gordon Glenister of the BPMA makes his predictions and suggestions for the year ahead

Online ratings continue to drive web and social traffic, but this needs to be well managed. I predict that we’re going to see greater automation of the processes used to print promotional products as well as in the way we communicate with our clients. If it’s not in the real world, the virtual world will certainly catch up with us. Happy promoting in 2017.

If you have any questions or topics you would like Gordon to address, please email editorial@images-magazine.com with ‘BPMA’ in the subject line.

FEBRUARY 2017 images 17

www.images-magazine.com