Add serious value to your internet business – or else
By Jonathan Wold
Have you taken a good hard look at your internet business lately? Have you taken a good look at a few of the thousands of other internet businesses out there? If not, you need too. With all those businesses fighting for your customers, you have to be sure that yours is standing above the crowd. You have to be sure that your business has value.
Consequences of not adding value to your business:
- Your visitors won't care – If your website is lacking value, why in the world should they come back? Your website will end up like the majority of other websites on the internet, good for almost nothing. Your visitors won't come back and your website will become another number added to the junk that the internet has to offer.
- You are forced to compete on price – People are always looking for a deal. If there is nothing setting you apart from everyone else, if there is nothing proving your value, then the only thing you have left to compete on is price. Don't let yourself fall into a price war, nobody wins. Your products and services will suffer with the price drop and subsequently, so will your customers.
- There is no sense of urgency – If your business lacks value, why should your customers buy your product now? If you're just another bargain site, they can take their time. They're looking for a great deal and so they might as well look at a few other sites before committing to a sale. What happens then? They leave your site and more than likely they won't be coming back.
- It becomes harder to develop multiple streams of income – A good website is full of value, and subsequently, they have their pick of income streams. Advertisers show up from all over the place and joint ventures begin to flow in with high demand. A business without value has far fewer options. Advertisers want to know that their message is going out to an audience that cares about your site.
- Your own life will be affected – When you sell a commodity, you become a commodity. If you're business is not providing value, where does your sense of fulfillment come into play? For some, this may not be important. But for a business to truly have value in your own life, you have to believe in it. You can't believe in something that you know has no value.
So how can you add value to your internet business?
You've just learned some of the consequences of not having value in your internet business, now how do you deal with that? What are some ways to create value? Well, one of the ways you can add value is to realize that..
The first sale is only half of the process
Many businesses fail because they simply don't take care of their customers. You have to be different. You have to show your customers that they are valuable to you and that they are important to your business.
Go the digital extra mile for your customers
There are so many easy ways to add value to your business; it just drives me nuts that no one ever picks up on them! So many people throw away opportunity after opportunity to turn their business up a notch by the simple act of adding value. How can you add value? Well, here are some of the ways I've found:
- Welcome packages – My good friend and partner Matt Geri helped me come up with this one - Use welcome packages in your internet business. After you get that sale and you have your customer, send them a welcome package. An extra nice thing to do is it send it snail mail. Spend a few dollars and put together a package for them. Include helpful tips and instructions and maybe even a free gift! You'll be doing something that they will remember and this will help to set you apart.
- Referral program – A lot of internet businesses are beginning to catch on to this clever idea. Create a referral program for your customers. As you're adding value and building that long lasting relationship, they're going to pass the word around anyway. A referral program is an extra incentive that can turn into a business opportunity for your customers. Sometimes a referral program can also be a deciding factor in a customer sale.
- Articles – These are a great way of adding instant value to your website. Whether you've written them yourself or received permission to feature someone else's, articles are a really good way to build credibility for yourself and give visitors a reason to come back. Make sure that as you write or find articles, that they are relevant to your business. Once they're up on your website, make sure your visitors know that they're there
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- Customer support FAQ – How do you provide customer support in your internet business? One of the ways that few businesses TRULY take advantage of is an extensive and helpful list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Sure, you see them all over the place, and when was the last time you found a really helpful one? Remember that you're going to be fighting against a stereotype that FAQ's just don't work. Make yours different and show your customers that it's different. Be extensive, useful, and thorough.
- Valuable Newsletter – This is a great idea, especially for internet businesses. Surprise your customers with a truly valuable newsletter that gives them useful information and updates on improvements in the company they are growing to love. They don't take much work to put together and they can really make a world of difference. Intellicontact.com puts out an awesome piece of software that makes internet newsletters almost too easy and they have a referral program!
And now for the 6 th BONUS way to add value to your internet business .
Bonuses – I'm sure you've seen them all over the place.. “But wait, there's more! We'll throw in this too!” Well guess what, bonuses work. Are you offering your customers bonuses? It can be as simple as a free report or it could be an additional product. Sometimes you can even cut back one of your services and offer it as a bonus! Bonuses encourage the feeling that people are getting away with something, getting something extra. Make sure that you're using them
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What value are you going to add to YOUR internet business?
Now that you know some of the ways, you have no excuse
. Take a good hard look at your internet business. Check out your website and spend time on each and every page. What are the pages doing? Are they giving any value to your customers? Are they selling your products? If they aren't doing anything, give them something to do or get rid of them. Every single month, take a look at how your business has done and what you can do to help it do even better. Add value.
-Jonathan Wold
Jonathan is a full time entrepreneur who makes a good part of his living in internet business, including webhosting and web design. He has a passion for business, whether developing his own or helping others with theirs. He travels the United States , spending 2-3 months at a time in places where he can add value to a business and learn from the experience. You can contact him by sending an email to Jonathan(at)Hostingfrog.com. 
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