How To Start An Online Business

The good news with becoming an Entrepreneur or small business owner is you don’t necessarily need a college degree, a bunch of cash in the bank or even business experience to start something that could become the next major success.

However, if you want to learn how to start an online business you do need a good plan and the drive to see it through. Getting started with your own online business is now easier than ever before.

Here are a few helpful steps to follow:

• Identify your target audience first and then find a product they need – most Entrepreneurs make the mistake of picking out a product (or service) to sell without determining who their target audience is & if there is a need for their product.  The key is to find potential customers with a need and fill it. Do the research and look at what competitors are offering and check the Google Keyword Planner tool to see the search volume, and Google Trends to ensure the demand is stable.

• Design and develop a website – once you have identified your target audience and chosen a product to offer them, you need to design and develop your website. Keep it simple, but remember that if you haven’t caught the visitor’s attention within the first 5 seconds that they see your site, you’ll most likely lose them. Have lots of call to actions, social proofing on your site and easy navigation.

• Drive your targeted buyers to your site by utilizing the power of the search engines – you can rely on organic searches or invest in a PPC (pay-per-click) advertising campaign. If you want immediate results, a PPC campaign is the better option for getting visitors to your website.  There are lots of other marketing techniques out there and which one to use will  come down to your target market and what you are selling.

• Write high-quality content & Ads that gets your visitors interested in what you have to offer – your content should provide them with key information about solving their problem and making their lives better in the process. Try to put yourself in their shoes and ask “What can this do for me?”.  Make emotional statements instead of factual statements when advertising your products.  An example of this would be, if you sell women’s running shoes, instead of saying “Nike Womens Running Shoes 5.0” say “stand out from the crowd with our popular Nike 5.0 running shoes” or “improve your performance in the latest Nike 5.0 running shoes”.

• Establish yourself as the expert in your field or industry – get active in forums and social networking websites. You’ll reach out to a much larger audience this way and entice more prospective buyers if they see you as the expert in your field or industry. Instagram is very popular and has proven to be very  successful for a lot of eCommerce business owners.  A well known athletic wear business earns $2million+ per month in sales, purely from Instagram so don’t underestimate the power of social proof, especially when selling products.

• Create an e-mail marketing campaign – this can be a very powerful tool for driving more traffic to your site. Plus it is considerably more cost-effective than print media and other advertising formats.  Ensure you have a data capture form on your website so you can collect and grow your database of potential customers and current customers. Using a mail system such as Mail Chimp allows you to send out emails and autoresponders so make sure you keep content relevant and inspiring and offer special deals to encourage your customers to make more purchases from your store.

• Upselling and back-end sales will help you generate additional revenues – you’ll generate repeat business this way. For instance, offer your audience products that compliment or relate to their other purchases. Plus, if you reward them for being loyal, they will continue to do so.

The tips listed above may not guarantee your success, but they will make it easier for you to realize your dreams of starting your own online business.

Click Start Digital sells ready to go businesses out of a box and we teach you how to start an online business – for more information visit our website businesses for sale page.