Improve Your ROI with Business Upgrades in the New Year

This post is sponsored by Visa Business and all content is the opinion of the writer.

Is your online business up to speed as we move into a new year? With another year quickly closing out behind us, a whole new year of technology improvements and business upgrades are in order. Technology is now progressing faster than ever and what may have been a top of the line server earlier this year, may be slow and archaic right now.

Right now is the best time for you to step away from the all the excitement of the coming new year and focus on some much needed upgrades and improvements for your online business. We’ve listed some of the areas that most businesses should look at to make sure their sites, platforms and business models are up to par.

Advertising

The internet is still growing every day and so are the different methods companies are using to target their audience. Advertising on the internet is no longer about throwing banner ads out there and hoping for the best, now it’s about drilling down into your target audience and pushing your ad copy until you can deliver the best conversion rates and ROI as possible. Through the use of search engines, social networks and direct email advertising you can now select who you want to advertise to based on their full demographics such as age, gender, location and even interests!

Web Hosting

The more information, content and people on the internet, the more data that is flowing through computers and data systems around the world. With more people and content being added everyday, new and advanced technology and data servers are being created everyday. While most web hosting companies do provide clients with a wide range of options, most of them will leave their clients on older and slower systems without notice. Make sure your web site and online business is running on the latest and fastest web hosting solution available. The speed of your web site is one of the biggest factors when it comes to someone staying on your site or leaving within the first two seconds.

Shopping Cart

For online shopping sites, a good shopping cart system can make all of the difference between getting successful orders or having a large abandonment issues. There are many top of the line shopping cart solutions that have been built for businesses of all sizes. Make sure you are using one of the top rated companies to manage your customer data and online ordering.

Customer Support

Customer support is one of the most important aspects when it comes to a successful business. While the “customer support” doesn’t exactly make you money or more business, it keeps the customers you do have coming back for more. It’s been proven that customers will buy more often and in higher quantities when they know they have money back guarantees or a positive experience with a brand and their customer support. Don’t slack in this area as it could end up costing you more money in the long run.

Thanks to the latest improvements in technology, customer service is now easier than ever for companies to manage. Instead of having to respond to every email or phone call one at a time, many web sites and businesses run off a ticket system where they can correspond to each ticket, while also keeping a record of the full conversation. Another improvement in the customer service area is creating online FAQs or Help areas that people can search on their question to see if it is already answered on the business web site.

Processing Transactions

To go along with the shopping cart and customer service features we mentioned, you should also make sure your business is up to speed on taking payment transactions as well. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be accepting all of the major credit cards and online payment methods such as Paypal. Losing a customer because you didn’t have their payment option of choice is just a disaster. It’s now cheaper and easier than ever to get setup with online payment systems and even mobile/tablet payment systems if you are making payment through retail locations.

By the time you finish reading this article there will definitely be some new improvements to some type of technology that could be putting your business ahead of the competition. Your customers aren’t going to wait for you and your business to adapt, especially when your competition already has!

Be sure to check out the infographic below to learn more about why holidays are such an amazing time of the year for small businesses.

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visithttps://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit https://visa.com/business.