5 Reasons People Still Aren't Taking Your Small Business Seriously

Photo Credit: Career Employer

Your startup is up and running. You’ve cultivated a reasonable and growing base of customers who are happy with the products and services you’re offering. Things are going well… but they could be going better. After all, you have overhead to pay for and the debts incurred to get your business off the ground to pay off.

And that’s going to be harder if your small business remains as small as it is. Repeat customers are coming back, and that’s great. Still, it seems as though your competitors are still gaining ground. Could it be that people just aren’t taking your business seriously enough? That you could be doing more to inspire their trust and establish the value in your nascent brand? 

Here we’ll look at some reasons why people still aren’t taking your business seriously, despite your commitment to operational excellence, and what you can do about it.

Your website was made using a Wordpress theme

Whether you sell products via ecommerce, your website is an integral part of how you and your business are perceived online. When you’re first starting out, it’s understandable that your lack of HTML knowledge might lead you to create a website using a Wordpress theme. However, this can mark you as an amateur in the eyes of some. Even if you’ve given a lot of thought to how your website looks, you may not have considered the User Experience (UX) quite as carefully. A web design agency can help match you to a talented web designer who can create a new website that looks great and handles beautifully, giving your brand a boost.

Your contact details 

If your contact email is a Gmail address and your only contact number is your cellphone, this can scream “amateur” to some and potentially diminish their trust in your brand. While you might, understandably, be shy of overhead costs, a virtual receptionist and physical address may be cost-effective and worthy investments to lend your business a sense of size and scope. 

You’re marketing to the wrong crowd

Digital marketing allows you to deliver laser-focused campaigns designed to engage your target audience. This can be far more efficient than the old fashioned “spray and pray” approach to marketing. If you’re failing to gain traction with your target audience, it’s worth asking if you could be doing more to make your marketing more effective. 

You’ve not yet built a solid base of social proof

No matter how persuasive and eloquent your marketing copy, however, consumers will believe the word of other consumers before they trust anything you say about yourself, which is why social proof is such a valuable and important aspect of marketing. Make sure you incentivize customer reviews and encourage people to refer others in their friendship groups.

You’ve yet to start posting thought leadership content

You’re clever. You’re passionate. You’re the kind of person to whom people naturally gravitate. It’s time that you let that amazing personality and wonderful experience shine in your content marketing. Blogs, white papers, ebooks, and tutorials can all be great platforms for thought leadership, building trust and value in your brand by building trust and value in yourself.

Photo credit: Career Employer