It's my parents' 42nd anniversary today!
That's literally a lifetime! And it's the type of longevity that's incredibly rare in business! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It got me thinking about what it takes to achieve this type of longevity in ecommerce and I came up with five things. Based on my research and experience, this is what I’m shooting for:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1. Care
Build an authentic connection with your customers and do what you can to solve their problems. Create how-to's, checklists, helpful content, and answer all their questions in any exchanges with them, and make the shift to providing any value because tbh, just selling doesn’t get you very far anymore.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2. Community
Create a space where your customers are seen, heard and valued. A space where they can come together and where you can meet them halfway if needed. But don't seek to control it, rather, let them dictate what it is based on their needs and be attentive enough to do what you can to curate their desires for them.
3. Commitment
Be committed to developing your online presence. Develop a strategy with goals that stretch you and allow you to move with purpose, rather than dabbling in a little bit of everything and then just reacting when the unexpected happens.
Refine your plan every quarter based on your results. And invest in tools and services that help you make more efficient use of your time and energy because grinding ain’t it!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
4. Consistency
Implement consistently in order to learn what works for you, and then integrate your learnings and adjust accordingly.
I've watched well-performing brands fall off because they stopped being consistent. If you stop showing up, so will your customers — unless you have solid evergreen content with strong CTAs that drop them into your fully-optimized funnels.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
5. Compliance
Follow best practices that keep your site compliant when it comes to SEO, accessibility, privacy, security etc., or partner with experts who can keep you on game.
Search engines reward us for being compliant and trustworthy by prioritizing our content when people are searching.
And once you have them on your site, you just have to convert them! Also, get good at that part!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
6. Change
Be open to adapting as things change because you'll get left behind if you don't. And on the real, that gap gets big quick, so you may never recover.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That’s my take on it. What do you think? Am I missing anything? What would you add to this list?⠀⠀
Also, if you’ve made it this far, here’s my wish for you: Longevity in your business that spans generations and continues to improve the lives of families long into the distant future! Cheers!⠀
By the way, the gorgeous portrait above is by the phenomenal Monica Ahanonu. She took my favorite photo of my parents and turned it into a piece of art! I love it! And I love her! Go check out her website, she just released a deck of Hip Hop Queens oracle cards too, they're dope!
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