Top business generating online ideas to kick start 2010

As an unpredictable 2009 comes to an end, businesses all around the world are now preparing themselves for 2010 and there is plenty that could be done to ensure they are fighting fit for the challenging year ahead.

Although the recession has turned markets upside down and resulted in many companies downsizing, it is still important to spot the trends your company will expect to see from January onwards. Looking not only at revenue or orders but assessing the average order value or the CPA (cost per acquisition) of your channels will help you understand what your focus should be at different times of the year and what results to really push for. Use the past to guide your future but you should always keep an eye on external factors so that you don’t miss out any new trends. For example, subscribe to Google Alerts on any keywords that may appear in the news and allocate time every week to review competitors.

The latest stats and figures released suggest that Mondays are the busiest days of the week for searches, which would suggest that conversion rates are also at their highest on this day. Understanding this trend going forward into 2010 will allow you to plan and implement your customer communications in order to get the best ROI. From sales calls, regular promotional e-mails to customers and even updating your PPC campaigns and ad copy, Mondays are the purchasing day of choice for most consumers, so ensure to make the most of this and sell, sell, sell!

2010 is the year to be social and with 10% of all business traffic already coming through social channels, this is ready to explode into next year. Companies that have avoided social media over recent years will find that they will be faced with it eventually and it is better to get a social media strategy developed in advance rather than have to crisis manage when their customers come knocking on their online door. It can be as easy as inserting bookmark links on your product pages to try to create a buzz about your products or encouraging feedback on products, such as sending out an e-mail every week. Whether you are selling clothing rails or TVs, there is room for every type of company to go social next year.

Blogging is a fantastic tool that can not only be SEO friendly if used correctly, but is also available free, such as through Blogger and WordPress, but there are countless others. Whether you are talking about the progress of your company, or writing to inform the world on changes in the coming months, ensure to include plenty of keyword rich linked content to make the most out of your posting. The more you can engage an audience in your posts, the better and these blogging tools enable people to post up comments and feedback. Blogging is a great starting point to any social media campaign and you can easily see the results of your labour within a few weeks.