About This Column
This monthly column is intended to inspire action. You know digital transformation is critical to growing your business, but there are so many moving parts and so much to learn! It’s easier to navigate if someone points you in the right direction so you can take the first steps. You don’t have to master anything right now, you only need to move forward and learn as you go.
If one growth tip doesn’t work for your business, pick another one and try that. If you do that over a course of a year, you may be surprised at how much your business has grown and how clear your path is to further growth. A custom strategy will naturally emerge from your efforts, all from trying something new every month.
Content for this column will vary from month to month. We’ll cover what’s trending, motivation, tools, diversification, funding, actionable Canadian data, expert quotes, and how & where to grow your business online over the following month. New posts will be announced in our newsletter, so sign up to ensure you don’t miss a single month of growth.
Grow Your Canadian Small Business Online in November
TIP 1: Fast Growing Startups
If you’re just beginning your online entrepreneur journey, hedge your bets by choosing a business model with the best chance of growing quickly. If your ultimate goal is a profitable exit, it’s even more important to get there as fast as possible.
One of the benefits of working online for 25 years is the opportunity to see digital businesses grow and expand, while noting how they do so. Any business can have empire potential, but some online business models are consistent winners. When you combine proven business models with today’s demand, you have an unbeatable growth strategy to greatly improve your chances of success.
8 Online Businesses for Growth Potential and a Profitable Exit:
1. Digital Transformation Expert/Consultant/Agency
2. Freelancing Agency
3. Ecommerce with Dropshipping
4. AI App/Tool Development
5. Tech Support Services
6. Digital Information & Learning Products
7. Website Flipping
8. Transcription and Repurposed Media
Of course, there’s much more to it than choosing the right business model or niche. You’ll still have to put the work in, develop your skillset, and wear many hats to build a digital empire.
Learn more: Digital Empire – Top 8 Online Businesses for Growth Potential
TIP 2. Black Friday Growth in Canada
[DISCLOSURE: We may receive compensation for links to products on this website.]
An increasing percentage of Canadians shop online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Digital marketing drives sales growth for these adopted shopping events.
“With so many brands vying for consumers’ limited attention during this peak period, the most successful strategy to ensure that your brand is noticed is to start gradually building up that awareness and to form a relationship with the consumer over time,” suggests Elliott Clayton, Senior Vice President Media UK at Conversant.
Canadian consumers often object to anything resembling early holiday promotions, especially before Remembrance Day. The best way to avoid alienating them is to refrain from mentioning the holidays or using holiday images in your early Black Friday campaigns.
We’ve had much more success with a subtle approach:
- Feature gift items in Black Friday deals and focus on them when you advertise on social media.
- Begin your free or flat-rate shipping holiday campaigns.
- Tailor your blog content to gift shopping topics, such as product comparisons, reviews or guides.
- Build digital sales funnels around online gift shopping without mentioning the holidays specifically. Thrive Themes Funnels is a budget-friendly tool for building highly profitable digital sales funnels.
The Canada Black Friday Cyber Monday Report 2024 will provide some general direction for your Canadian Black Friday marketing strategy.
If you target an American audience, check out the Black Friday Consumer Report, with insights from over 1,000 consumers to reveal where, when, and how much people will shop during Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday 2024.
TIP 3: Growing With Top Growing Companies
Every year, multiple publications rank the fastest growing companies, usually in a specific location. You’ll find these rankings contained within geographic locations by city, province, or country.
There are two impactful ways to benefit from these rankings:
- Learn from their example.
- Finding B2B sales opportunities.
Growing companies need products and services to support that growth. Give some thought to how you can get their attention, beyond a cold call or email.
Get started with the following lists:
Canada’s Top Growing Companies by Three-Year Revenue Growth
Inc. 5000 2024 Meet the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America
TIP 4: Grow With Affordable Outsourcing
A common misconception is that Virtual Assistants (VAs) are like executive assistants who only help with admin tasks. But VAs offer a range of services, and there’s a good chance you can find help regardless of your task.
- Content creation and management
- Social media and community management
- PR, outreach, and partnership management
- Administrative and operational support
- Online business and project management
Learn how in Virtual Assistant 101: How to outsource tasks effectively and take your creator business to the next level
TIP 5: Opportunities, News & Resources
Opportunity: Federal government launches programs to help small and medium-sized enterprises adopt and adapt artificial intelligence (AI) solutions: They are currently accepting funding applications.
News: New Affiliate Tracking System Actually Tracks
“Despite concerted efforts to have all advertisers upgrade their tracking to the best possible standard, there are still some that lag behind. By doing so, a significant sum of affiliate sales are not being tracked. For affiliates, that means a sizable amount of commission and sales going unrecognised and unpaid. For advertisers, this means the impact of the channel is being significantly understated, with other channels and routes to purchase reaping the benefit. This threatens not only the individual affiliate businesses affected, but also the delicately balanced ecosystem of partnerships that is premised on the affiliate ad model…
Awin is launching the Conversion Protection Initiative to modernise tracking standards and reform them for a world in which relying solely on deterministic methods is insufficient.” ~ Awin Announces New Conversion Protection Initiative to Safeguard Affiliate Tracking: The affiliate industry is losing significant ad revenue every year due to poor tracking setups.
Opportunity: Online Business For Sale
Profitable Apparel, Home & Beauty Amazon FBA Business
Run this business in about 5 hours/week!
Avg. Monthly Revenue $14,550.00, Profit $3,418.00, Margins 23%
Assets Included: Amazon Seller Central account (with 8 SKUs), trademark, suppliers, employee contracts.
Resource: 17 Best Infographic Tools for 2024 (Full Comparison Guide)
TIP 6: Business Books Worth Reading
Here we share quick quotes from business books we’re reading to help your knowledge grow with your business.
“Customer Journey optimization is not a one-time project, but a continuous process of improvement. It requires a culture of customer-centricity and a commitment to using data and analytics to drive decision making…
According to a study by Mckinsey, companies that excel at customer journey management can see revenues increase by 10-15% while also lowering the cost to serve by 15-20%. Therefore, investing in customer journey optimization can yield significant returns.” ~ 25 Case Studies on Customer Journey Design by Flevy.com (Flevy Management Insights)
TIP 7: Holiday Growth
No matter where you are in your digital transformation, there are ways to use the internet to increase your sales. If you’re not familiar with any of these strategic moves, there’s still time to do more research and implement whatever you can before (or during) the holiday season. Once in place, you’ll enjoy more sales all year long.
Some of the most effective ways to increase holiday sales are:
Your Website – More than six in ten Canadians agree they are more likely to do business with a company that has a good website. You need a homebase to send consumers and customers to, be it for marketing, repeat sales, or customer support.
Content – Answer their questions, address their concerns, resolve their problems.
Social Media – Add your social media links to your web page in a place where visitors will see them immediately.
Email – Email marketing is alive & well and your email list should be grown at every opportunity.
Discounts – Be it on your website, social media, or in newsletters, you can soothe inflation pain points with a reward program, discount sales or coupons.
Go Global – The internet has cracked the world wide open for anyone who wants to sell online.
Learn more in 8 Things to do Online to Make Holiday Season Sales Soar
Incremental Change
Changes spread out over the year will combine into powerful results. When growth based on technology overwhelms us, we can make small changes to continue growing and develop further as we feel our way through it.
How will you grow your online business in November? Please share your ideas or questions in the comments below, or join us in the Online Business Canada Facebook group.
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7 Recession Proof Online Businesses To Start From Home
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Melody McKinnon is an internet entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in a wide range of online business models, backed by a formal business education and enhanced by training and mentorship. She has owned or managed both educational and ecommerce websites. Her book, 7 Recession Proof Online Businesses to Start From Home, is available from all major ebook retailers.
Melody has worked with many businesses & brands in a multitude of capacities. She can often be found on CanadianDigitalMedia.com, CanadiansInternet.com, CanadianFamily.net, and AllNaturalPetCare.com, as well as other quality digital publications. Her content has earned reference links from highly-respected websites, magazines and university textbooks.
I only got one done but I have to say this motivated me to get something new done towards growing my business. I hope this kind of inspiration will be a permanent feature of this site! We need online business and marketing guidance and especially ways to get more traffic that doesn’t need “search engines” or paying a fortune. Thank you!