In case you haven’t noticed, there are tens of thousands of businesses online talking and marketing the same kind of products and services that your business offers.

You log onto social media and you’ll see no short of businesses that sell services, build funnels, run ads, can teach the use live video, teach how to create a profitable blog, and the list goes on.

Building a business isn’t easy, and there are some hard realities that you’ll need to realize. I know I’m not telling you anything new. Having said that, I love the freedom a the world of social media and the acquisition of consumers online a business can leverage.

There are seven strategies that lead to better results from building a business while leveraging the Internet. They increase your business’s presence online.

1. Don’t copy.

Customers buy from someone they know, like and trust. They don’t typical buy from a business that feels foreign to them. If you’re the clone of some other business, they’ll never get to know how you can add value to their life.

When they want to buy, they will buy from the business you are copying. Use frameworks that work, but don’t be a clone. Model success but don’t copy it. Let your voice and authenticity come through. Build a business that’s the best representation of your business’s values.

2. Have clarity about your ideal consumer.

If you try to reach the whole world, you’ll end up reaching no one because your efforts to reach consumers will be scattered. You won’t be able to help consumers where they are if you’re not targeting a specific target audience.

The more specific you can get with whom your ideal target consumers is, the smoother your client acquisition strategies will be. You’ll have targeted marketing, which is what ultimately grows your business.Your branding and messaging should be very clear.

3. Keep it simple.

Keep your website simple and clean. Even though WordPress has a variety of options for widgets and plugins, you don’t need all of them. When someone visits your website, it shouldn’t confuse them.

When it comes to your business, keep it simple, too. Build traffic to your website. Learn the biggest struggles that your target consumers is facing. Create products and services that help solve those problems. Rinse and repeat. Yes, it can be that simple.

4. Don’t rely solely on social media.

While you can’t ignore social media, don’t make it your number one strategy for traffic and lead generation.The bottom line is that you want to build your business on your platform — not someone else’s. You want people to sign up to your email list, not just connect with your brand on social media.

5. Focus.

There’s a wealth of information you can consume. Most of these things aren’t important to where you are in the process.

If you’re building, you probably shouldn’t be learning about SEO. If you guest post and build your audience in other ways, the SEO will naturally come, so your time is better spent on other growth strategies.

Sit down and evaluate where you’re at, and stick to what will help you where you are. Don’t fall victim to information overload because it can easily keep you from making progress. The speed of implementation is what makes a business successful.

6. Don’t be afraid to charge more.

It would be great to help as many people as possible, but business’s need to generate profit for growth. If you add value and help people, you should be paid more for it.Remember, you’re building a business — it can’t be a business if it doesn’t generate revenue. Focus on serving and adding value to your customer’s — your prices will be justified.

7. Pursue ambitious goals.

At the end of the day, if you want growth for your business, you have to determine right now that you’ll keep going no matter what. Perseverance is what makes your business grow.

Even if you haven’t made the process you’ve wanted to make at this point, you can’t give up. Build this business one relationship, and one sale at a time.Have patience. This takes time to build.

With focused effort, you can build a powerful business or grow your business’s presence online. Use these seven strategies to optimize growth. Have patience, and build something that helps your target audience. Focus and you will do this.