When it comes to running a business in this day and age, you want to ensure that your business has the latest technology to continue to grow over the years. While 2020 and 2021 have mostly been centered around business survival, 2022 has been marked as the year for business scaling.
So, we took a look at the various types of software that have entered the market that businesses are currently using to scale their operations. Technology and software evolve incredibly quickly, and it might be tricky to keep up with what works and what is already redundant.
That is why we thought we would take a look at some of the latest solutions that businesses are using to scale their business. Let’s get stuck right in.
Move To The Cloud
If you have not already, look at moving as much of your business operations to the cloud. Businesses all over the world found out the hard way during COVID-19 how crippling it was to have all business conducted through servers. Not only were employees not able to work remotely, customers were not effectively serviced.
Cloud solutions allow you to effectively upload, store, manage and access vital company information remotely. This means that you do not need to be physically present where your servers are to be able to access vital information.
Not only do cloud solutions streamline your business operations, it is also more secure than physical servers. Data protection and security is one of the top considerations for companies worldwide. Data hacking and fraud is not only prevalent but is one of the biggest risks to companies globally, costing billions of dollars each year.
The cloud also provides a buffer against data loss due to system failure. Thousands of companies each year lose vital company information and documents due to servers malfunctioning and systems crashing. The cloud reduces this risk substantially.
Gather Vital Information About Your Customer
In order to produce a product or service for your customer, and to market it to them, you need to know enough about them to do so. Luckily, there are a number of tools, platforms and integrations that will provide you with the information you need about who your customer is and where they are coming from.
If you are unsure of where your traffic to your site is actually coming from, a geo IP lookup tool is a great solution. It will provide you with data that you need of what region and country your traffic is coming from, what time they are currently in, and what currency you can market to them. In many cases, the tool will automatically convert key information on your site to reflect this for them. So, if you have British traffic, they will see your prices in Pounds, while South African traffic will see it in Rands, for example.
There are also a number of tools that you can use to get feedback from your customer about their needs and experiences. Simple surveys and product feedback portals allow you to engage directly with the client to find out what their experiences were. You can either choose to integrate it on your site as a simple pop-up or email them directly once the transaction is complete to find out their feedback.
These surveys can also dig a little deeper, and find out some more information about the client. Thousands of companies send out surveys requesting feedback about customers’ preferences and behaviors. Spend some time with your marketing department to figure out what you want to know about your customers’ interests and behaviors to target products and campaigns directly to this. You might want to also incentivize these campaigns in order to get the feedback that you are looking for.
Monitor, Measure, Track and Test Everything
The only way to know what is working, what is not working, and why it is not working is by keeping tabs on the activity on your site. Let’s start with Google Analytics. This tool allows you to monitor how much traffic is coming onto your site, how it behaves, and where it goes. So, you can see if traffic is being driven organically, from an email campaign, from social media or from paid ads.
You are then able to measure where it goes from the landing page that it lands on. Does it bounce? Or does it convert and move through the sales funnel? At what point do you lose the traffic? This will allow you to strategically map out future campaigns based on the success of past campaigns and also ascertain if there is something wrong with your site.
The social platforms and email tools will also provide you with information to understand how successful your campaigns are. You can track open rates and conversion rates on your email tools, as well as clicks and engagement on social platforms. Remember, you are looking for the campaigns that convert the traffic to the site, so when you see the campaigns that start working, you can somewhat replicate those for future success.
Last Thoughts
In wrapping up, keep an eye on what is happening on your site at all times. You can also test every single thing that you do to make sure that it will be working for your customer experience. Perform A/B tests as much as possible.
