Why the Internet is an essential tool to develop your business

Your customers are on the web, how about you?

Companies, craftsmen, freelancers, they all have every interest in being present on the web. It is a fact that cannot be disputed: all consumers are on the web and they are looking for information.

It is estimated that a 90% of online shoppers consult the search engines before making a purchase in an online shop.

Moreover, apart from search engines like Google, customers and prospects are also very connected on social networks. The average person spends on 3h30 on his smartphone per day! The web is not a separate world, it is part of our daily life...

It is therefore necessary for you to establish your brand on the web. Your customers are there, it is now up to you to attract them where they are and to grow your business.

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Understand the buying process on the Internet

To maximize your success with online business, we advise you to be present at each step of the customer's buying process.

Here are the different phases that follow one another in the purchase process:

• Stage 1: exploration: your prospect is getting information about a product or service
• Stage 2: selection: this is when the prospect compares different offers
• Stage 3: action: the prospective customer finally becomes a real customer
• Step 4: loyalty: once the purchase is complete, you must now ensure that the customer is satisfied and will return to you in the future

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What is the best way to develop your business on the Internet? Some actions to implement

Attract your customers

A company website: the foundation of success

The website is the basis of your strategy to develop your business on the web. A website that is accessible and pleasant to navigate is essential for businesses!

To attract your customers and prospects, focus on making your offer and products clear. From the home page, all the way to the individual product pages!

Your message and your mission must be easy to understand. Also, it must be easy to contact you. This is the minimum to build trust with your visitors.

If you sell products online, you can build an e-shop using our web tool Qart. It will require no upfront investment to build your online business.

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SEO and SEA to attract traffic to your website

In order for your website to be visible online, you must also take care of your natural referencing.

This means dedicating space on your site to the keywords that your prospects will use to find you.

Take stock of the expressions which define your activity and your products. For example "swimming pool in Toulouse" or "installation of electric outlets in Marseille". Try to position yourself on these queries by creating special content pages.

The higher your website will appear in the first results of the search engines, the higher your chances to make a sale. Especially if you appear above your competitors!

Similarly, it is also possible to advertise online in order to get visits to your website quickly.

To do so, you will have to go to Google Ads, the advertising tool of Google. As soon as you pay, your website is highlighted on certain key phrases. This is a good way to make yourself known when you are just starting out or if you have temporary offers to promote!

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Convince others that you are the perfect choice

Have a company blog

Now that you have a website and are starting to attract regular traffic, you need to move on to step two. That is, you need to convince your prospects and web users that you are THE company they've been looking for.

To do this, the best way is to regularly feed your website with content. For example, writing a blog article or buying guides on your products will show your expertise.

This approach is full of advantages: it serves your natural referencing and it informs your visitors to help them make a purchase. Moreover, it is also a great way to humanize your communication. You can talk about your company behind the scenes and present your current issues transparently.

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Connect on social networks to develop your community

Social media is another tool to help you develop your business.

Social networks allow you to keep in touch with your customers. They are perfect for your establishing brand online: to attract new customers but also to maintain awareness of your products and services all year round.

So interact with your audience, share your best ideas, communicate regularly and take the opportunity to show your business behind the scenes. It's the ideal way to create a close relationship with your web visitors.

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Get your prospects to take action

Landing page and call-to-action

At this stage, you have done the most important work: you have built a website that presents your offer and your products. You have attracted interested prospects...

Now you need them to take action and buy your services or products.

To do this, don't forget to create web pages that give a very simple overview of the steps involved to buy from your site.

Thus, you should design your web pages with "call-to-actions" placed at the right place.

Call-to-actions are buttons that invite readers to book a discovery call or add a product to the cart. But be careful, each page of your website must propose only one action! Otherwise, you risk making your website overly complicated... And your customers won't like that!

Remember to include testimonials from your satisfied customers on your landing pages to attract new prospects and gain their trust.

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Inbound marketing

To develop your business on the web, you can implement an inbound marketing strategy.

This means attracting prospects through dedicated and gated content.

For example, a company can organize a free webinar on its field of expertise. Or write an e-book about a specific product.

To participate in the webinar or download the documentation, your prospects will have to leave you their email address.

This creates a valuable list of prospects that can be reused for future communications.

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Build loyalty to continue to develop your business on the Internet

Offer a high-quality customer service

There you go, you are making regular sales on your website: bravo! Now keep up the good work and don't disappoint your customers. They are the future promoters of your business.

So, take care of the customer experience. Your after-sales service must be ultra efficient. This will give your customer a good opinion of your company and encourage them to recommend you to others.

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Take note, adapt, innovate

Thanks to the web technology, you will collect a lot of information about your customers and prospects. You will know which content is preferred on your social networks, which product is best sold, which web page converts the most... A gold mine of data for your business!

So, don't forget to regularly review all these data points to adapt your web conversion strategy. Get into the habit of checking each statistic to improve your performance. Give up on a tool if it doesn't do the job. Instead, test new things to diversify your revenue streams. In short: have fun!