Some of the most successful business ventures we see in this day and age have started off on the online realm. You take a look at the successful businesses like the Dollar Shave Club and you can only gawk in wonder and awe of how such a brilliant business might have started off and become such a huge success story. If you are wondering how to start your online business, have the motivation to do so, yet you are unsure of how to go about it, you are at the right place.
While every online business is unique in its own way, there are a number of steps that you should take in order to make sure that you start your online business and grow it to become successful in today’s world. It does not matter if you are a highly experienced entrepreneur or a highly motivated new kid on the block, if you follow these steps and persevere, you are going to start your online business and make it a success. Here are the steps:
- Look For Demand & Fill it
- Write Content for Your Copy That Sells
- Setup an Easy-to-Use Website
- Leverage the Power of SEO
- Make A Reputation For Yourself As An Expert
- Leverage the Power of Email Marketing
- Make Repeat Clients
They seem simple enough, don’t they? Let’s get started.
1. Look For Demand & Fill It
Everybody recognizes that having an online business today can be a lucrative opportunity. That is why quite a lot of people get into it head first without much regard to what they should be going for when they start. Plenty of entrepreneurs make a simple mistake – they think of the product they want to sell before they look for the market that they will be catering to.
The first step to start your online business is that instead of looking for a product to sell first, you need to do a sort of market evaluation. The key is to find something that people need a solution for but they are not getting what they have been looking for. Use the internet to your advantage. There are plenty of websites you can visit to see what people are looking for but are not able to find. You can check out what’s being searched by conducting keyword research.
Once you have a bit of an idea about what it is that people want, you should scope out your competition, if there is any. Look at what the potential competitors are doing or have been doing in order to address the people with the problems. Use what you have learned from your potential competitors to make a proper market for a need which is already there. All you have to do is cater to the market better than your competitors.
2. Write Content For Your Copy That Sells
The second step when you are starting your online business is purely the sales aspect of your business. From the moment your potential customers arrive to the point where you make a sale and close the deal, there is a bit of a formula you can make use of:
- Reel potential customers in with an enticing headline
- Clarify which problem your customers have that your product is a solution to
- Let them know you are the brand that will solve that particular problem of theirs
- Show them proof of your good word with testimonials from your customers who’ve used your wares before them
- Let your potential customers know how the product that you’re selling is perfect for them
- Make an offer to them that they cannot refuse
- Create an urgency for the product
- Give them a guarantee about the quality
- The. Sale.
What is really important when you’re drafting your copy is to look at it from the point of view of your potential customer. Think about it. If you are one of them, would you not want to know what’s in it for you? Focus on how your product is the best solution to solve your potential customers’ problems.
3. Setup and Easy-to-Use Website
Once you’ve recognized your market, you move on to the third step of starting your online business. You have your product and you know how you’re going to pitch it to your customers. Now, you have to start thinking about the online presence your business will have. At the core of the online presence of a company is of course, their website. Even if you are starting off as a small business, you do need a good web design. It does not have to be anything too fancy. What is really important is that your business has a website that is going to grab the attention of visitors and beyond that it should be easy for them to use.
- Do NOT go crazy with fonts. Two good fonts reflecting your business should be more than enough.
- Navigating your company’s website should be easy.
- Don’t chuck it full of graphics and videos. Only use what will look good with your company’s message. Sometimes less can be more, you should remember that.
- Use opt-in offers so that you can build up an email list.
- Purchasing process should be as simple as humanly possible.
- Your website’s the first impression to your customers. Make it look the part.
4. Leverage The Power of SEO
Most of the online traffic that websites get is through search engines. People look to search engines like the internet giant Google when they are searching for solutions to their problems.
The fourth step of starting your online business is to make it a point to invest in Search Engine Optimization so that the website of your business ranks high in searches. This will get you a massive increase in traffic to your website that will in turn mean more leads which means more sales which means more business. The internet is a beautiful thing, search engines are the rainbows and SEO can get you to the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
5. Make A Reputation Of Yourself As An Expert
Search engines are used by people to find information of all kinds. We’ve already established that. You have a solution which people want, right? The fifth step of starting your online business is to provide information about the solution that you have to other websites for free. You’ll start to see better results in terms of rankings in SEO and you will start building a reputation for yourself as an expert in the field. The content that you will create is going to reach out to many more people and of course, since you will be including links to your own website, all that traffic is going to also become your own.
6. Leverage The Power Of Email Marketing
Remember the opt-in offers you setup in your online business’ website? Yeah, the email list that you have collected through that will become a valuable asset for the continued success of your online business. This is the sixth step for starting your online business. When your customers opted-in, they essentially gave you permission to send them emails. Use the power of email marketing to reach out to your customers and establish a healthy working relationship with them. Follow up on leads.
7. Make Repeat Clients
The last step when you are starting your online business is to make more sales. While it is important for your business that you constantly look to drive more traffic to your website and make new customers, it is equally important to cash in on the customers you have already made. Build a strong business-customer relationship and turn those one-time buyers in to life-time clients by using backend selling and upselling.
Update them on new offers, show them new products that are relevant to those they have already purchased from you, and give regular discount coupons. Incentivize your customers so that they become loyal to you to the point ‘till death do us part.”
In Conclusion
The outlined steps have been described in the simplest manner possible. Remember, you are starting off a small business in a vast online world. Follow the steps to the best of your ability and bring in to your business everything that can makes your business stand out from the rest. Most importantly, you need to remember that you need to be patient and cautious. Get the basics right and everything else will fall into place. Best of Luck!
