There are a lot of reasons why a business may or may not be succeeding. The truth is that the modern business world is both more competitive and more complicated than it has ever been before. Not only that but there have never been more ways to set up and run a business which means that there is no longer just one single “best” way of doing it. Of course, when it comes to your business’s success, there are some issues that are easier to solve than others. For example, f you’re wasting money in your business then there are often some pretty simple solutions to that problem. However, other issues are often going to be a lot more complicated to deal with. Perhaps the most common thing standing between many businesses and true success is this: customers don’t know about your business, or if they do, they don’t care about it. This can be an issue that is almost impossible for some businesses to get past. Luckily, that’s not the way things have to be. The key is to figure out why customers are ignoring your business in the first place, only then can you actually start working towards solving that problem. With that in mind, here are some of the most common reasons why customers might not be giving your business a fair shake, and how you can go about avoiding them.

Your website is awful

The first contact that most customers will have with your business is likely to be your website. Even if you’re committed to keeping up a brick and mortar store, the fact that so many people use the internet to find the businesses that they need means that, if your website isn’t up to scratch, that’s going to have a seriously negative effect on the impression of your business as a whole. If a customer clicks onto your website and it’s ugly, difficult to navigate, or they’re confronted by huge walls of text, then they’re not going to put in the hard work required to find what they need. They’re just going to click off and look for a better site for a different business. It might not always be accurate or fair, but if a customer sees an amateurish looking website, they’re going to end up assuming that your business is amateurish as well.

You’re right at the bottom of the search results

Of course, for a customer to judge the quality of your website in the first place, they need to be able to find it. This is something that far too many business owners end up taking for granted. They act as though, just because customers are going to be searching for the kind of service or products that their business provides, that they will always show up at the top of any search results on sites like Google. However, that’s simply not true. You need to make sure that your business’s SEO, or search engine optimization, is as high quality as possible. Otherwise, your business is just going to end up getting utterly buried by all of the other, similar, websites online. There was a time when all you really needed in terms of SEO was keywords throughout your site. However, things are a lot more complicated now. For one thing, a lot of search engines like Google actively penalize and blacklist sites that just load their pages up with keywords at random. You need to make sure that you’re integrating your SEO carefully into your content. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. One of the best things that you can do is to look for things like SEO services from Searchable. That way, not only are going to be able to make sure that your SEO is in the hands of the professionals, but you’re going to be able to focus your energy elsewhere as well.

You’re not offering anything different

Then again, no matter how easy your business is to find, and how appealing your website looks, it’s not going to matter if your business looks exactly the same as all of the others out there. After all, businesses exist as a response to demand and if there’s no demand for what your business is offering then you’re going to be in trouble. If you look at another business and decide “Hey, I could do that!” then you’re going to end up falling flat on your face. You need to be able to look at your competition and your potential customer base, and really figure out what it is that they’re missing. That could be any number of things and will often depend on the industry and demographic, but if you’re able to offer something to your customers that no other business is, then you’re on to a winner. Otherwise, customers are just going to stick with businesses they already know who are offering all of the same things that you are.

You’re not connecting with the right demographic

Of course, you’re only going to be able to figure out what it is that your customers really want if you know who your customers are. It’s a huge mistake to try and push forward with your business without thinking carefully about what your target demographic is and how to most effectively connect with them. After all, if the product or service offered by your business is one that is going to be the most popular with older people, then putting all of your efforts into modern, viral styles of marketing is going to be a waste of time and money. Older customers favor more traditional marketing and advertising methods. And, of course, the same applies the other way around. You need to have the clearest possible profile of your average customers before you start throwing money at big marketing pushes. Otherwise, you’re just going to end up shouting into nothing.

Your social media presence feels fake and insincere

Social media is becoming more and more important in the business world. Many customers in the modern age connect with businesses more through social media than anywhere else. It can be an amazing place to not only receive a lot of free exposure to a potentially international customer base, but it also lets you connect and communicate directly with that customer base in a way that few businesses have ever been able to achieve before. Of course, that can only happen if your social media presence feels sincere. If your customers feel like you’re constantly just trying to sell them something through your Twitter feed or your Facebook page, they’re going to switch off and refuse to engage with your social media presence in the first place.

You don’t connect with customers emotionally

The best way to achieve that kind of connection with your customers is to appeal to their emotions. If you look at the kinds of things that get shared around virally the most often, it’s usually things illicit some kind of intense emotional reaction from people, whether that’s joy, laughter, sadness, fear, or excitement. You need to be able to tap into those emotions to really connect with your customers. Things like, releasing content that offers a behind the scenes look at the human side of your business, or sharing inspirational or humorous videos on social media are fantastic ways to create that kind of connection with your customers.

Your branding is unappealing

Much like your website, if your business’s branding is ugly then customers are going to assume that you don’t know what you’re doing, that your business is amateurish, and that they’re not going to get what they want from you. Sure, that might sound pretty shallow, but when they’re surrounded by as many competing businesses as there are in the modern world, it’s pretty understandable for many customers to think this way. You need to make sure that your branding is as clear, eye-catching, and memorable as possible. Otherwise, you’re never going to be able to really stick in the minds of potential customers.

Of course, it’s important to remember that these aren’t necessarily going to be the reasons that your business isn’t succeeding. After all, most modern businesses have so many different aspects to them that it will often be impossible to point to any single one and then decide that that’s the source of all of your problems. You need to make sure that, even if it feels like you’ve found the source of your problems, you don’t end up assuming that everything’s going to be fine after that. The truth is that it could well end up being a mix of any and all of these different issues that are causing your business to fail. Keep a close eye on the way that all of the different elements of your business come together and whether or not they’re all pulling in the same direction. After all, the last thing you want is for a few small problems to end up dragging a potentially great business down.