As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats, but few of those hats take up as much time as getting your online presence just right.
You have to think about websites, social media, blogs, email campaigns, and more that can make you wish you never went into business for yourself in the first place!
Don’t give up on your business just yet. Half the battle is knowing which mistakes to avoid, like the ones on this list.
Having a Bad Website
Many entrepreneurs think the absolute worst thing you can do for your business is to not have a website. That’s pretty bad, but it isn’t the worst. The very worst thing you can do is have a bad website.
That can mean a lot of things like:
- Crummy content that isn’t written by a skilled content marketer
- The wrong colors, fonts, and layouts
- No use of SEO
According to BuildFire, it also means not optimizing your website for mobile viewers. By using a progressive web app (PWA) you can make your website function as if it were an application, which is great for people browsing the web on a mobile device.
Not Having a Mobile App
A PWA is a great way to make sure potential clients and customers are able to browse your website easily, but don’t think it means you don’t have to have a mobile app.
You want to eliminate as many barriers as possible between your customers and clients and their ability to access information about your business. The best way to do that is to create a mobile app that is downloaded directly to their device, providing you with instant contact day and night.
You Have a Great Website, but That’s it
Maybe you’ve got the website thing down and you even have a mobile app. Some entrepreneurs mistakenly think their job is done when it’s really just beginning.
A great website is only the first step. If that’s the only presence you have on the internet, you aren’t likely to dredge up a lot of business. You have to expand your reach, which means heading over to social media websites.
Social media marketing is one of the best ways to draw customers and clients into your business because it can:
- Increase brand recognition and loyalty
- Provide you with higher conversion rates
- Give you better search engine rankings
- Provide you with free marketing opportunities
- And more
Don’t think you have to do it all at once. Try tackling one platform at a time while you build your empire. As you become more successful, you can employ social media marketers to help keep your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts up-to-date.
Not Using Local SEO to Your Advantage
You probably already know about SEO. You may already be optimizing the content you put on the internet for certain searchable keywords and phrases that will increase the likelihood of potential customers of finding your business, but do you know about local SEO?
Local SEO isn’t such a big deal for people at home using a desktop or laptop computer, but it’s everything to people using mobile devices to look up information on the go. They want to know what products and services are nearest them, which means you have to think about using local SEO in your content as well.
Not Doing Ads the Right Way
As an entrepreneur, you know that ads can be deceptively difficult to create. They require the right images and the right words to make the biggest impact. Well, it turns out, ads also need to be designed differently depending on where they are found, which means creating ads specifically for different platforms.
Search intent is very different for someone browsing the web on a desktop computer than a mobile phone. It turns out people using stationary devices are a lot less likely to commit than a mobile phone user who wants instantaneous results. That means your ads should differ depending on whether they’re being seen on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone.
Although you want to do your best to avoid these mistakes from the very beginning, don’t let the potential for making mistakes keep you from taking risks. It’s much better to give everything your best shot knowing that you’ll have to tweak a few things as you go. As you learn more about what it really means to run your own business, you’ll get better and better at avoiding mistakes like the ones on this list!
