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Running your own business can be very rewarding. But there are times it can also be discouraging if you let it. Having run my online business since 2005, I've learned quite a bit about what works and also what does not. Here are 8 ways YOU are blocking success in your online business.

1. Grammar And Spelling Mistakes

Whether in your blog posts, videos, or social media posts, making grammar and spelling mistakes can affect the way your business is viewed. Even if you're great at English spelling and grammar, it's always a good idea to check over everything before it gets posted. Having an experienced web content expert is ideal, where possible.

2. Not Giving Enough Information

Not giving enough info is a big block in business success. When people purchase a product or service online, there needs to be some trust involved, as there are plenty of scammers out there. Trust building is one of the most important aspect aspects of running your online business. Part of that is ensuring your potential clients and customers get detailed and accurate information about not only the item or service, but about your business as well.

If they can't find enough information, it can cause them to click away. Always include information that easily shows your business is legitimate. Products and services should require zero to little questions when the description is read. It should be very clear who you are and what they can expect. If you are not the best writer, you can always hire a professional product description writer to write or rewrite your product pages. 

3. No Logo Or Other Brand Identity Issues

Your business logo is a big part of how people will recognize your work online. In addition is your unique posting style, products, services, and business personality. If your business doesn't have enough of a brand identity, it can be hard to stand out in the sea of existing web content.

Your brand identity is how people find you and stay with you. If you need help with brand identity, don't hesitate to reach out for a custom plan catered just for you and your business, regardless of your budget size. We work with small and large budget and payment plans.

4. Social Media Post Mistakes

Always check and re-check everything before you hit that post button. Does all of your text make sense? Is the grammar and spelling correct? Does what you said fit correctly with your brand and with your audience? Are previews from any links loaded correctly? Are your posts going out at a good time for your audience? Is the information accurate?

Some social media sites have text limits. Ensure what you are posting does not get cut off by these limits. Making these and other social media mistakes could be blocking success in your online business. Clients and customers can easily get turned off by inaccuracies. For those not versed in grammar, hiring a social media expert is a good solution.

5. Not Connecting Enough With Your Audience

Audience engagement is huge in keeping people around for more. People want to interact with you and your brand. That's why they are there. But if you aren't doing that enough, they can easily wander to the next business who will give them the attention they crave. Create fun, engaging posts on social media.This could be memes, videos, stories, Q & A posts, and so on.

Get creative and make it related to what you do. Be sure to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to all contact form requests, email inquiries, social media messages and comments. Learn your audience and grow with them to help them see they are a part of your team.

Your audience is the key to your success. Appreciate and interact with them as much as possible. Your brand identity should be present in all of those interactions. They need that personality in order to have something to connect to. If you don't have the time for this, there are social media and branding experts who can learn your brand's personality and help or take over that area for you.


6. Not Keeping Your Mindset In Check

YOUR mindset is KEY to succeeding in online business. Regardless of how little or how much you make, you need to keep those thoughts in check. In order to manifest and maintain a successful business, your thoughts about the business should always be good ones. During slow times, look at other positive aspects unrelated to sales.

Think forward on the solution, not on the problem itself. It is okay to consider the issues and reevaluate based on them. But don't let slow or non-existing sales cause negative thinking in regards to your business. The main focus should be on goals and resolutions. Overthinking on problems can block success in your online business.

7. Location Of Your Products & Services

Where are you placing your products? If you are listing in them in marketplaces only and don't have your own website or domain, this could actually block a large number of sales. While you can certainly succeed in online marketplaces, having your own website will hugely add to that success. It builds trust and legitimacy that online shoppers often look for. It also looks more professional and gives you much more room to build that brand identity.

Hiring a professional website designer will ensure quality content, help you get found by search engines, and avoid common mistakes beginners make in building websites. However, if you prefer to build your own, there are plenty of business hosting companies that are easy for beginners. I personally recommend Weebly, due to the fact that they seem to offer the most options with the best prices. They are also very easy to use and automatically optimize your site for both web and mobile audiences.

8. Low Quality Images For Products & Services

Online shoppers are very visual. This is because they cannot physically touch and see your items in person. Therefore, product images need to be as clear as possible. The images need to feel as though your potential buyer is looking at the product in person. Include as much detail as possible. Also, try to highlight the items in a way that stands out when you look at the picture.

Try different angles to see what images catch your eye immediately. These are the images you need to use. You can also try accenting the images with text, your brand logo, and related props or image templates. When it comes to services, some may do better with mostly text and background graphics that accent what is being offered. You can also hire a professional image creator if you get stuck.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra

Oh, Yogi, of course, you can observe a lot just by watching!

The great Yogi Berra was an amazing baseball player and later a very good team manager and coach. He's also famous for saying a lot of things. Many of them, often known as "Yogi-isms" seem odd at face value, and many of which seem obvious. However, sometimes if you really think about these "Yogi-isms" you realize that there's more to it.


Observing Means Paying Attention to the Right Things

What Yogi Berra meant is that you can learn a lot from observations if you pay attention to the right things. In baseball, as well as football and other sports, there are little things to watch for to give you a competitive advantage. You may have heard of "stealing signs." Indeed, cracking the code to your opponent's coaching signals certainly helps. It's a big deal in American football, too.

Just by watching the social media pages, blogs, and other public channels of companies who are in a related field as you, or even your direct competition, you can learn a lot. Seeing how people engage with other brands can tell you what they might be doing right. In fact, you can also see what's not working, too, which is just as important. This is called competitor research. You can then adapt some of these things that are working for them to attract the same sort of brand engagement.

Beyond just taking cues from your competition, you can learn a lot by observing your own brand engagement, as well. You can glean valuable insights into what you may or may not be doing correctly just by how people interact with you (or don't). If people aren't interacting, you may want to consider how to increase brand engagement. The best question to ask yourself is "how can I offer more value?"


Watching Your Own Brand Engagement Closely Can Give You Clues About What to Do Next

Watching how people interact with your brand should give you an idea if something should work or not work. Obviously, if something you post on your blog or website is getting more views than usual or more likes on social media, then you're doing something right.

Also, it also doesn't hurt to hint at things that you're trying. It's a sort of passive market research. Social media, in particular, is a great place to test out ideas before you commit to them. But, what if your brand is consistently getting no real engagement? What is there to watch, then?

You just have to watch the right things. If your website and/or blog is getting page views, that's something. If people are liking your page, that's something. Engagement isn't always super obvious. But, it's watching the less obvious things that can give you the most important information.

For example, say you have a blog post that consistently gets views when you share it on social media. You may also have a post that gets a lot of search traffic on its own. Obviously, people are attracted to that post. Creating social media content around that post, taking quotes from it, and making attractive images out of them, is one strategy. Sometimes, you can just reshare popular content that doesn't compete with your brand, but complements your brand's values. Use a variety of strategies to attract engagement to your website and social media. Then, focus on the ones that bring the most engagement, and of course, any that bring you sales and new customers.

The knowledge and insights you need to take your brand in the right direction are likely there already for you to see. You just have to take a step back and observe. Sometimes, it's what's not being done by others, or done as well as you could do it, that you end up seeing.

The key to increase your brand engagement and jump-start your business may even already be right in front of you! Need help with creating engaging content or doing competitor research? Hire the social media, content marketing, and branding specialists at Brand Shamans and we’ll show you how!