If you have made the decision to adopt the services of a Search Engine Optimization Company you have presumably done this with a view to increasing your internet business. So it would seem clear that you need to ready your workforce for an increase in this area and make sure that you can maintain the additional sales.

Ideally the SEO Company will have given you an estimate of the number of “visits” you are likely to get once the activity achieves it’s goal of getting you a good Search Engine Placement positioning, but clearly these will not all come straightaway. As the position steadily improves so do the visits to the website. So in fact you will be able to gradually increase the number of sales that you attain over a period of around two months. This should give you plenty of time to speed up production for example to meet the growing demands. It will also allow for any issues that arise to be ironed out whilst demand is growing rather than the difficult transformation from low level sales one day to a inundation the next.

That said this relatively gentle improvement can, over the two months, have a astounding affect on your business. While you have been intent on the immediate issue of ensuring product goes out of the door it is possible that other areas also needing attention will be forgotten. Your supply chain may be one of those areas. If you swiftly and without warning, double the amount of raw material you order from a supplier will they be able to meet that requirement? If they can, will the delivery times be affected? It may be a good idea to have dialogue with members of your supply chain to let them know your strategy and forecasts and ask them to point out any potential issues at the start of the process. Obviously there is no confirmed order and the discussion may allow latent problems to be overcome.

Finance and cashflow is another area that may well be affected by a quick increase in sales and therefore production. What are customer payment terms like, do they cover the problem of increased supplier bills or will the company suddenly see their cash flow situation tighten uncomfortably as suppliers insist on payment for the higher volumes of raw product before the sales invoices are settled? It may be that the cashflow situation will not arise due to the credit terms agreed with both supplier and customer but even so an increase in staff to cope with with the larger picture may be important.

Lots of other areas of the organisation may need new members of staff to cope with the increases in sales. From the obvious in the sales team and production, to the less obvious in Personnel, management and customer service the necessity for extra staff may be across the whole firm. Again knowing the forecast sales should let you to forecast these staffing levels and you should prepare for a recruitment campaign as soon as you know the increase is as predicted. It can often take a minimum of two months to bring new staff to the business and at least a further month for them to have anything but a taxing effect on the business.

So ensure good forecasting at the outset of your Online Marketing campaign and plan well for those nice to have hurdles.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This  |  Email It  |  |  Subscribe to It!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 5:14 am and is filed under Online Business, Promotion and Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.