While we would all like to believe that we have our fingers on the pulse of the moment, this simply isn’t possible. Life is busy, and staying abreast of recent developments is difficult to master. As an entrepreneur, you must know where the gaps are in your business. Only then can you remedy the problems. Focused and consistent updates can help you stay on top of changes in your industry. It will also help to keep your business relevant to your audience.
Where is relevancy most necessary?
There are some areas of business operations where you can afford to be less up-to-date than may be ideal. This would include areas with a slow rate of change, and the occasional update to new techniques and ideas. Customer service is a great example of this. While you will occasionally see new ideas become the norm, such as active listening, for the most part, serving your customers well is fairly constant in how techniques should be applied.
In contrast, there are some areas of business where falling behind-the-times can be particularly damaging. Below, we have put together a guide to these areas. They are particularly deserving of attention when it comes to maintaining relevance.
SEO
It is hard to believe that SEO is still such a young industry. There are thousands of SEO specialists in the world. And every business owner has read at least one guide on the importance of the practice for their website. However, what many entrepreneurs fail to realize is that SEO is in a state of constant evolution. The techniques you relied on just a year ago may no longer be suitable.
The reason for this is simple: Google’s ever-changing algorithms. Google continually tweak their algorithm as part of their effort to produce the best possible user experience. While some of the updates are small, others are huge and potentially game-changing. Either way, SEO strategy has to constantly evolve to reflect Google’s latest changes. The rapid pace of developments means that your business’ SEO also needs to adapt.
As a result, investing in a specialist SEO professional is a good decision. As Google’s changes are so frequent, trying to manage this area of your business yourself is almost impossible.
Marketing
The reason that marketing changes so frequently is due to customer habits. For the most part, people dislike being marketed to. Few of us willingly engage with a company’s marketing, and some people actively resent the feeling of being “sold to” or feeling like a brand is deliberately seeking their attention. This problem is further complicated by the fact that many marketing techniques are overt and excessive, which can – counterintuitively – make customers actively dislike a brand.
As a result of this, marketing needs to change constantly. You have to remove outdated approaches that customers have grown tired of, and replace them with new techniques that are more subtle and less likely to draw irritation. Not only does continually updating your marketing techniques ensure customer goodwill, but it also guarantees that the money you do spend in this area is invested in techniques that will actually deliver results.
As with SEO, it is preferable to outsource marketing rather than attempting to manage it yourself (for example contact Explore Inbound). Marketing is a vital area of your business, and managing the entire process yourself is next-to-impossible. Therefore, opting for outsourcing is far more likely to deliver the best possible results.
Website design
Like anything in life, website design goes through trends. From rigid frames and flashing icons to the smooth, sleek website designs we see today, tastes – and customer expectations – are ever-evolving. The way that your website looks is vital to how your customers will perceive your business. If your website is outdated, this reflects incredibly poorly on your business. It creates a feeling that your business doesn’t take its presentation seriously. Customers may even get the impression that you don’t think your site matters. Worse yet, if your website design is particularly out of date, there is every chance a prospective customer may assume that your business is no longer in operation.
Website design is something that you can manage for yourself if necessary. There are plenty of “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) website tools online, which utilize templates to produce a finished site. While these sites are not particularly individual, the templates they use are modern and frequently updated. A customized website designed by a professional is always going to be preferable. However, if cost is an issue, website design is simpler to manage yourself than SEO or marketing.
In conclusion
As an entrepreneur, it is vital to understand the need to constantly update the techniques you use. It can be jarring to realize that your thoughts on what constitutes good practice may now be considered outdated. However, when you have identified the problem, you can seek to rectify it. By ensuring you keep pace with these three areas, in particular, you can be sure that your business will always achieve the relevancy that you require.
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