6 Things You Must Do to Successfully Start Your Online Business
Saturday, March 25, 2017, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
It goes without saying that in 2017 even the most traditional businesses need a strong online presence.
On the other hand, when all (or most of) your operations take place online, this becomes even greater imperative.
Unfortunately, a lot of people believe this to be a simple matter, which is why laymen often decide to take the matter into their own hands. This leads to errors that are hard to mend later on.
With this in mind, here are six things you need to know in order to avoid at least some of them.
-
A Memorable Domain Name
For the online business, a domain name is everything. It is not only the name and the face of the company, but also its actual location on the World Wide Web.
In order to get the most out of it, you need to make sure that it is a) available and b) easy enough to remember.
Overlooking the first issue may cause a lengthy lawsuit or an expensive settlement, while making a mistake when it comes to the latter can result in a lot of confusion. Usually, these mistakes entail the use of unnecessary numbers and hyphens.
-
Find the Right Host
Next thing you need to do is find the right host. Slow loading time can lead to the loss of 25% of your audience, if your website is not responsive for only 4 seconds.
Furthermore, you need to find someone who can offer as little downtime as possible.
Finally, you should look at the customer service, since you need to know your host will always address your problems in real time.
-
Optimal Design
In business (online or offline), you need to take any help you can get. Speaking of which, you should never underestimate the influence of visual stimuli on your websites visitors.
Colors, layout and mobile friendliness all affect your engagement efficiency, which is why you may need some professional aid.
According to small business web design experts, your audience can always tell the difference between the generic and handcrafted visuals. This may just be the competitive edge you so desperately need.
-
Make a Blog
One of the best ways to engage your customers and help them develop brand loyalty is by making an admirable blog.
Here, you are supposed to deal with topics that they find interesting, as well as offer quality content over the longer period of time and there you have it.
Sure, this requires a lot of work and dedication, but there is no reason whatsoever why you should deal with this on your own.
Reach out to ghost writers, contributors and guest writers and let them assume at least one part of this massive undertaking.
-
Email Marketing is Not Dead
Although some may claim otherwise, email marketing is still alive and kicking.
Sure, people have grown suspicious towards Nigerian princes offering them millions in exchange for an insignificant one-time fee, but this doesn’t mean that emails are completely ineffective marketing tool.
All you need to do is come up with a great subject headline and make the content look as organic as possible.
-
Reach out to Influencers
Finally, not everyone online is anonymous. Celebrities (even local ones) usually maintain their status even on social networks.
This is why, having one of them publicly endorse your business, may do wonders for your brand.
Sure, in an ideal world, they would do is out of shear altruism or belief in your vision, but in reality they will probably expect some form of compensation.
Just keep in mind that this kind of transaction is usually more than worth it.
Conclusion
In the end, while all of these give you a great head start, on their own, they are not enough for success.
Improving your visibility, design and functionality is great, but even this won’t help you if your business plan is not good enough.
Despite the word order in the phrase,an online business is ‘business’ first and ‘online’ second. Your prices, service and dedication to what you do are what matters the most.
Six above mentioned are only there to set you apart from those with similar or slightly better offer. Sometimes, this is all it takes.
Throw us a like at Facebook.com/doable.financeAuthor bio
Steven Clarke is a business consultant. In his spare time, he likes to write about his ideas and share them with the world. Steven is a regular contributor to several websites.
