It is incredible how the needs of the human being can be satisfied with endless new ideas, every day thousands of entrepreneurs seek to innovate in already known areas or they manage to bring totally new products that satisfy disagreements that we did not even know we had, becoming thus in the perfect opportunity to open your own business.
As we all know, the internet has made life so much easier for us that it has become one of the basic needs at the time of marketing, that is, do you know of any store that does not use at least one social network? From large companies to small artisans they turn to digital platforms to facilitate their contact with the client.
If we are willing to get the most out of the digital age , there are steps that we must take into account first, each business has characteristics that make it different from the rest, but its automated system is the most important, since it gives us the advantage of monitoring personally our platform 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The entrepreneur always seeks change, responds to it and uses it as an opportunity
However, before talking about our customer service system or store administration, there are questions that need answers, then we will do it with a small example, if we want to know how to start an online clothing business we have to define very well the following points:
Tips and advice to start your own online business
- What needs are going to be satisfied? If it is a clothing business, it satisfies basic needs such as dressing, shelter, protection.
- What type of audience is the product aimed at? Here we take into account sex, age, religion, demography, geography, among other aspects.
- How can the product be classified? In this case, the business will only be dedicated to the sale of flannels or will consider pants, dresses, shorts, shoes, accessories.
- Are they your own products? That is, we design them ourselves or we partner with other brands.
- Has a business strategy already been established? Customer service, sales methods, we must make the most of all the advantages and tools that the internet provides us.
- What is your identity? This is super important, since it is part of the image of our business, at present minimalism is considered as the best technique used to establish a name and a logo. The color palette that we will need to give life to our virtual business must also be taken into account.
These variables correspond to the basic structure of any business that is starting, so before opening a virtual store, we have to have each of them well structured, then we can proceed to build our website.
Steps to build different types of digital businesses.
An official page gives us professionalism, it is the best way to sell ourselves, although some prefer to start with personal blogs and then take the big leap. Different professionals and ecommerce specialists recommend different platforms such as: WooCommerce (courtesy of WordPress), PrestaShop, Magento, OpenCart, AbanteCart, osCommerce, CubeCart, Open Real Estate. These provide different advantages such as:
- Product category configuration. Let's go back to our example where we design clothes, this option is perfect when selling more than one type of item, since we need to keep the page organized.
- Customization options for products. They allow you to create unique profiles so that each product has details and description.
- Promotions and discounts functionality. It is an excellent strategy to attract customers, so they cannot stop being available on our platforms.
- Multiple payment support. Offering multiple payment options is essential for virtual stores.
These pages and their advantages will help us a lot to provide a unique experience and specialized attention, however, every business requires an investment, normally the domains come in monthly and / or annual budgets, which must be included in our business plans , since no matter how small they are, they generate expenses to be covered. When naming our "store" we must remember that the links must always have the name of the company or brand, the posts and images must be designed to be friendly with customers and capture their attention without the need to harass them. Finally, being innovative always attracts more customers, but we have to remember that you cannot saturate your website, the simpler and easier it is, the more comfortable visitors navigate.
2) Content Planning
We know that this is talked about in all digital marketing strategies , because it is essential for any entrepreneur, brand or company, since we need to give information about the product we offer, so it must be well written, photos not only have to provide an overview, but allow you to zoom in on the most relevant details.
How can I describe my product?
Here are some tips:
- Let's avoid banners and animated introductions, they tend to annoy customers.
- We can begin to explain how the customer can benefit from our product.
- Let's avoid "copying and pasting", let's not repeat our content on all pages, there will always be something different to add.
- We can describe the problem our product solves and establish the credibility of it.
3) Use Search Engines
Search engines like Google can facilitate traffic to our store, there are two ways, free-organic and paid advertising with pay-per-click. We must remember that opening our own business, even if it is on a digital platform, we need capital to invest and acquire status.
Organic Traffic:
It is totally free and uses the basic search engines to direct customers to our store, we must remember that keywords contribute to making it easier to find us. The interaction is more real and that the people who enter our website are really interested in making a purchase.
Pay per Click:
Advertisers pay for each ad that is clicked, through advertising platforms, currently one of the most used is Google's, called AdWords, here in these methods, keywords are totally essential, advertisers hope that Your pages are the first to appear when customers search the internet.
Ads appear on search pages immediately, however, the more money is invested, your position and frequency will be favored. An advantage of pay per click is that it allows us to use different keywords, titles and sales approaches, and the platform also estimates which are the best associated with our site.
4) Tracking by Email
Every time we enter a virtual store, a small box of "Subscriptions" always jumps to our screen, once we enter our email, we begin to receive news about the store, products, discounts, among others. For those who are not familiar, this is called email marketing, its main objective is to convert visitors into potential customers.
This means that we are forming relationships with our audience, we offer them the opportunity to know all the updates made, it is also an economic means to promote ourselves and it is an activity whose results are easy to measure and analyze.
Subscriber tracking.
Many platforms offer the opportunity, not only to configure automatic emails, but also to provide predetermined answers to specific questions, sometimes we do not have time to answer all the doubts of our clients, so this tool will become a very precious ally. when dealing with our audience.
5) Incorporate other monetization methods
We must get the most out of our page, without filling it with unnecessary ads, so we can start by placing AdSense advertising, considered as Google's promotional network, which places different sponsored ads on web pages, the advantage of this platform is that it does not places ads randomly, but shows the most relevant and related to our site.
We can also benchmark and visit the best internet businesses within the category and the market niche in which we are going to participate, begin to evaluate their marketing techniques, how they treat their subscribers, the different types of offers they offer, among other things.
Posted by: Abdul Rimaaz
