The advancement of technology has changed the way we do business. It provides access to everyone to start their online business with ease, giving them an option to ditch their 9 to 5 job. And as people are embracing this trend, the competition in the online world is becoming more intense.  So it leaves us with the question: how to stay ahead of the increasing competition online?

Here are some tips to game up your online business:

1. Build your own e-commerce store

Are you still using your personal social media accounts to sell products or services? Doing this takes a lot of manual processes that slow down your business growth. Having an e-commerce store allows you to showcase your products or services and can be helpful in building your brand and online presence.

You can create your own e-commerce store for free through LINKER.store, and integrate a payment gateway for a seamless transaction that can increase customer satisfaction and retention to your site.

Also read: 5 prove strategies to boost your e-commerce sales

2. Leverage your social media accounts

Do you use your social media accounts for your business advantage? Social media is not just for networking, but you can also leverage it to connect to your potential customers and loyal followers. Prepare a social media calendar with the aim to educate, raise awareness, and entice your customers to purchase your products/services.

You can use certain social media automation tools like Buffer to manage your social media pages simultaneously.

Growing your business isn’t easy, but it’s always rewarding once you see the fruits of your labor. So don’t give up! 

3. Create a winning SEO strategy

If you just recently build your own e-commerce site or website, it may take time to rank your business on the first page of Google. But then you can eventually improve your ranking from time to time with the help of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

Here are the things you can include in your strategy:

• Check your website. Test all the pages of your site and find out if there are problems that need to be addressed. Remember, you don’t want to let your visitors experience slow pages or see broken links.
  
  
• Create quality content. Focus on educating and engaging with your readers and avoid pushing your products or services too much. Let your content drive and convince customers to buy your products or services and not the other way around.
  
  
• Maximize your web analytics. Analyzing data can give you a bigger picture on what people or your visitors are searching for. You can do this with the help of Google Analytics.  Understanding their behavior from the data will help you craft a better strategy or content for your business.

To equip and learn more about SEO, you can enroll in Coursera’s online SEO courses.

Also read: How SEO can help your business grow its online presence

4. Produce a timely campaign

Align your campaign to trends or the seasons. For instance, we’re already in the ‘ber’ season which means the start of shopping season where people are looking for giveaways or gifts. Maximize this season to come up with a timely campaign to make noise and get noticed.  You can offer discounted rates or promos to attract more customers. Creating a catchy hashtag or giveaways can also draw interest of new and potential customers.

The key is to be as creative as possible while still hitting your business goals. If you think conducting a brainstorming activity with your team is necessary, then feel free to do it.

Also read: 5 keys to Airbnb's marketing success that you can learn from

These strategies may seem intimidating, but once you see the result, it will surely motivate you to go even further. Growing your business isn’t easy, but it’s always rewarding once you see the fruits of your labor. So don’t give up! The digital world has a vast potential for your business, so you should learn to maximize it.

Image courtesy: shutterstock.com