credit: pheaber

I won’t take credit for the headline - it came from a BusinessWeek article. Basically it is time to innovate your marketing strategy. With big companies slashing marketing budgets, you need to adopt new strategies that can bring marketers equal effective results but less costly.

With everyone else now starting to stand down and large companies preferring to hoard cash rather than spend it - this is the best time to stand out from the rest of your competitors because the odds are in your favor.

Consider these 10 things you can do today to build up your online business:

1. Watch your competitors and pace-setting online retailers closely. When you think they are doing something right, do it better.
2. Strive for excellence, just as Amazon does. Have a fast-loading site with easy-to-read navigation. Offer great promotions that keep people coming back for more, as well as a personalized user experience.  Have a great customer-follow up system for example.
3. Offer lots of information on your web pages without making them seem cluttered or overwhelming.
4. Build in e-commerce tools that make shopping go fast. Make it simple. Your customers will thank you by spending more money in your store.
5. Offer consumers a deal to try a new product or service. Then watch the responses.
6. Think about forging alliances with other companies. Think about host-beneficiary relationships.
7. Define your target audience. The more you know about your viewers, the more closely you can match your site to their interests and needs.
8. Your website must shows all its products in a clear and appealing way. And the better, more appealing something looks, the more likely people are to buy it. So how can you do this? By using colorful, realistic-looking photos with descriptions that are easy and fun to read. The categories and layout should also make sense.
9. Ask employees, friends or neighbours to navigate your site and listen to their comments and what they think. If they can’t find what they’re looking for on your website in a glance, change it.
10. Does your business sells physical products? Experiment by offering free shipping. And don’t be too quick to say you can’t afford to offer it. Look into it.