Tesla is expected to see a staggering surge of 30% in its earnings in the next five years per experts and trade pundits. Analysts even forecast a boost in earnings for the current fiscal year by 14% for Tesla. (Ref: nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/earnings-growth). This evidences that companies equipped with the right strategies and tools are able to strike it hard and quickly in today’s digital world.
As the digital business ecosystem continues to inflate at warp speed, there will be tons of opportunities for entrepreneurs and business leaders to create a major impact in the business world. However, doing so requires practicing utmost caution and avoiding some common mistakes that most of the entrepreneurs tend to commit that could restrain their success and growth.
Here are five common yet costly mistakes committed by entrepreneurs that can throw a business off-track in no time:
1. No digital presence
Seems quite hard to digest, but yes there are several businesses out there going without a digital presence i.e., without a website. Yes, without an online presence, it is certainly a tough thing for a business to be found.
Even if a business were listed on white pages or similar sites, most users would prefer visiting a company’s official website to learn more about it before they make any decision. So a business without a site is simply shoving away potential customers to its competitors.
2. Not doing SEO the right way!
After having a website, the next thing is to make sure that it is discoverable. This is where SEO or search engine optimization kicks into the picture. SEO might appear simple in terms of theory, but it takes an astute mix of right keywords for your site to rank in top searches thus, bringing your business closer to potential customers. The better your keywords are for SEO, the higher your page rank will be on search engines.
Though theory might seem simple, practical implementation is opposite. On the other hand, where the SEO rules keep on changing on a regular basis, it turns a daunting task to keep up. This is the reason it is advisable to employ an SEO expert in-house to avoid getting it wrong.
3. Choosing the wrong web hosting service
When it comes to hosting a site, you have the following options at hand:
- Cloud hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Virtual private server
- Shared hosting
Prices vary significantly for each of these options. The type of web hosting that would best fit your business depends on numerous factors such as download speed, business volume, estimated growth, reliability, etc.
Though it is not an intricate job like SEO, it is advisable to rope in the recommendations of an expert. For instance, if you have a website designer on board, then ask him/her for some suggestions. If you are doing it on your own, ensure to pick a reputed web-hosting vendor. You might also want to pick the best plan ensuring without overspending. Many businesses are resorting to cloud hosting these days due to its budget-friendly, scalability and maintenance friendly benefits.
4. Not being mobile-friendly
More than 50% of the people in today’s digital era access the Internet via smartphones. Thus, if your site is not mobile-friendly, you might lose out on a huge chunk of the audience out there.
To be successful in digital business ecosystem, your site not only has to be mobile-friendly, but it should also offer a navigation-friendly interface for the users.
5. No social media presence
It is awful to see a lot of companies these days that do not have a social media presence. On other hand, a huge number of businesses mark their presence on social media with a feeble Twitter handle or Facebook page with only a handful of followers and posts, which is similar to not having any social media presence.
In today’s digital era, businesses ought to be where people are, which means social media. They need to actively work towards building new followers and post amazing content for the users.
- More than 90% believe that a company must have a social media presence.
- More than 80% believe that a business should not only have a social media presence, but it should also interact and engage with the users on these platforms.
- More than 50% feel a strong connection with a business that has interacted with them on social media platforms.
- More than 70% are likely to buy from a business that had interacted with them on social media.
- More than 25% are likely to suggest a brand or company after having an interactive engagement with that business on social media.
Thus, with the right mix of strategies and talent, businesses can leverage the power of social media to attract more number of followers, generate more leads and close more deals whilst maintaining satisfied customers.
The digital era is not only becoming omnipresent, but it is turning much bigger and invasive. So for a business to survive in today’s cutthroat economy, it has to first emerge successful at going digital.
