With the incredible growth of the internet and social media, everyone can take advantage of the wonderful chance to run a business worldwide with only a computer and internet connection. The best thing about it is that you don’t need a lot of startup capital. Moreover, you can run plenty of internet businesses with no money at all.
You should start with a market to boost your success. Do a research to find a profitable niche market. Research keywords related to your niche and check your potential competitors to get a better idea what they do to fill the demand. Visit their websites and analyze what products they offer. Use what you have learned to develop a marketing strategy to reach your target market with the right message and offer them the right products and services and do it better than your competitors.
Have a plan
It’s actually pretty amazing how many people I see trying to start a business after buying a book, giving it a quick read, or getting themselves involved in a training program that promises them overnight riches.
If you don’t think about what you’re going to be doing, set clear goals for the business, and take time to understand exactly what it takes to become successful online, you are setting yourself up for a major disaster. It sounds harsh to say it like that, but that is the honest truth. I believe many more people would be successful if they went into their business with a clear plan, and then stuck to the plan that they set for themselves.
Focus on figuring out your budget, how you’re going to spend that budget, and which tasks need to be done on a daily basis, and then do them. Planning is critical to your success as an online business owner.
Wondering how you can find the best manufacturer or supplier for your product idea? Entrepreneur suggests that you need to know all of the obvious things like what product you’re looking for, what materials you require. But, there’s more. You need to look at domestic vs overseas suppliers; do you want to focus on quality or cost? There should be a balance.
Once you have a list of the manufacturers or suppliers you would consider ordering from, request a quote, and try to speak with someone over the phone. You need to test out the customer service as well as the product quality before you start selling products in mass quantity. In addition, you’ll need to know how to negotiate things like cost for bulk orders and MOQ (especially important for a drop shipping business).
Make sure to invest in your business. Many people simply refuse to invest in themselves, and will not take risks that could cause their business to grow exponentially. Take a step back and ask yourself where you see yourself in 3 months, 6 months, a year, or even 5 to 10 years. How big is your business going to be and how are you going to invest to make sure you hit those goals?
If you’re simply looking to build a part-time income stream, then fortune.com points out that you’re not going to need some of the expensive tools and services that are designed to help you get to that point. However, if you are planning on your business being able to support you in the future, you are going to need to make sure you’re prepared to take risks and invest in the business to get it to the point where your goals have been met.
Design and build your website
Write a sales copy for your product and focus on what problem your product actually solves and how unique it is. Emphasize how your product makes the lives of people better.
Make your website customer-friendly. Keep the design of your website simple but make it attractive to grab the visitors’ attention. Choose plain fonts and make the navigation simple and the same on all pages. Consider the option to collect email addresses.
Drive targeted traffic to your site
PPC advertising is the easiest way to get traffic to your site. You can’t afford to wait for organic traffic for a long time. PPC will appear on search pages immediately and you will be able to test different keywords to discover which of them convert better. You will be able to use these keywords on your site to improve your rankings in the organic search results. PPC ads can also help you test your prices and selling approaches.
While PPC advertising may be necessary to jump-start your online business, you should concurrently be applying SEO techniques to your website. SEO results take time, more so now than in the past. You won’t see immediate results, so get to work right away. The sooner you start, the sooner you can see results. There are, and always have been, many misconceptions about search engine optimization. You’ll want to study up on the topic, or you’ll want to pay a professional SEO firm to handle the task. Shop around and you can find an affordable SEO service, such as MadBeeTech SEO, to improve your keyword rankings in Google search results.
Build an audience
Build your presence on social media to generate interest in your products and services. Develop effective social media marketing strategy to find new prospects, increase engagement, and boost traffic to your e-commerce website. Start following people, respond to comments.
Establish yourself as an expert by providing information for free to other sites. Create expert content that is useful for people and gives them the information they are looking for (articles, how-to guides, videos). Become active on social media networks where your target audience is present. You will reach your readers and get backlinks from relevant sites that can improve your search engine rankings. You’ll in effect be performing SEO without even being aware of it.
A business is constantly in flux, always evolving, growing, and changing. This is especially true online where the landscape can change so quickly you don’t even realize it has happened. Once your business is established, running well and generating revenue, most entrepreneurs will want to sit back and relax, kick their feet up and bask in their glory. This can be a critical mistake, though. In addition to working to improve your business, you’ll want to keep an eye open on your business reputation. If a Google search of your business name displays negative results or reviews, you’re online reputation is suffering. And that’s not someplace you want to be at. You’ll want to repair your online reputation, and you’ll most likely need the help of an online reputation repair service.
You should always make sure you are looking for new products to promote, new services to offer, and new ways you can get your business in front of your target prospects. It’s easy to be guilty of wanting to relax, especially after working hard enough that your business is finally established in the marketplace. However, make sure that you are staying focused on your goals and, when you hit them, always set new goals to continue striving to reach.
Use email marketing to boost sales
Your email list is one of the most valuable assets of your e-commerce business. You can reach your customers and subscribers and develop long-term relationships with them. Email marketing is highly targeted and very effective tool for increasing sales. It allows you to develop a lifetime value for your customers.
About 36% of your customers will purchase from you again if you send them follow up emails. You should use upselling and back-end selling to make them buy again. You can offer your buyers related product on the Thank You page or products that complement their purchases. You can also send them coupons they can use during their next purchase. You can develop loyalty and referral programs and offer your customers different discounts.
Analyze
You should constantly monitor how your online business is doing — analyze your traffic, identify the best-selling products, determine the social network that gives you the most referrals, find out what posts were the most popular and how you can create more similar posts etc. The key to success is to focus on growing and work hard to develop effective marketing and sales strategies.
Creating a successful online business is not easy. It requires a lot of hard work and perseverance and the right amount of luck. You can stick to this sequence of steps because you can never go wrong with the basics.