Starting a business online has never been easier than now. The emergence of e-commerce platforms, like Shopify and Squarespace, and online marketplaces, like Etsy, makes it easy for anyone with an internet connection to start a business online.
If you have a skill people want to use or can make a product people like, more than likely you’ll have a market for your business. If you want to start making money from your skills and turning your passion into profits, this article is for you.
Here are 5 tips on how you can start a business online and find success in your market.
Solve A Problem
A good business should solve a common problem their target market finds troublesome or often complains about. Your business should help make your customers’ lives easier or make your customers feel good about themselves.
When deciding on what products or services to sell, consider these questions:
“How does my product help my customer? In what ways do I make my customer’s lives easier?”
If you’re selling a consumer product or novelty item, consider what values you bring to your customer. Maybe your business is creating miniature claymation keychains of popular video game characters–your business then offers value to your customers as a form of expression for them.
Determining these fundamental motives will be important in how you decide to market your product and where you’ll sell your product or service online.
Launch Your Online Store
You don’t need to dish out a ton of money to pay a developer to build an online store when you first start your business.
If you’re an artist or craftsperson, you can start by launching your work on a marketplace such as Etsy. If you’re reselling rare sneakers, you can start by selling on eBay or Depop.
There are also plenty of drag-and-drop website builders out there with incredible designs to get you started. Here are a few options for building a website online:
It’s important to start with a single landing page so you can gauge customer interest and receive feedback about your product as soon as possible. There’s no point in spending weeks on the perfect website when it turns out no one wants to buy what you’re selling.
When building your website or landing page, make sure it’s intuitive, easy to navigate, and that the color scheme and images reflect your brand.
You have about five seconds to capture your audience’s attention when they arrive at your website, so make sure they know exactly what the business is about through imagery and copy.
Include a call-to-action on your page so customers can easily purchase your product or service.
Understand Your Customer
Whether you’re dropshipping shoelaces or starting a revolutionary sneaker company, you need to know your customer.
Start with some basic market research by using Think With Google or Facebook Audience Insights to create a customer profile.
Answer the following questions:
- Who is my target market?
- What is their average age?
- What sort of income do they earn?
- What else do they buy?
- Where can I reach them (Facebook, Youtube, etc)?
Having a general idea of who your customer is and where they shop online will give you an idea of how to speak to them in your ads.
Create Compelling Branding
Once you’ve figured out what problem you’re solving and for who, you need to create the right branding to help make your business shine in the competitive e-commerce space.
Your brand is going to evolve as you grow and get feedback from your customers, but it’s important to start strong with solid messaging on a captivating website.
Take a look at Coca-Cola. You might expect Coca-Cola’s brand messaging to be all about how good it tastes, but the images and copy suggest it’s more than just a drink, it’s about sharing an experience with other people.
Like Coca-Cola’s “Together Tastes Better,” you want your brand messaging to be relatable to your target audience on an emotional level.
Write down a single sentence to use as your overarching brand message and use that to inspire the language you use to promote your product.
Promote Your Product
Once your website or store is set up, you need to start selling.
The first thing you need to do is to create a way to collect customer emails or phone numbers and make it easy for them to follow you on social media. Two popular tools for collecting an emailing list are Mailchimp and GetResponse.
Collecting emails from your customers will ensure that you’re getting the most out of your promotional efforts by giving you the power to reconnect or retarget customers and leads.
Next, consider what marketing channels give you the best chance of reaching your target market. Do you expect your customers to find you via a search engine or is it better to reach them through social media such as Facebook or Instagram?
Focus your marketing efforts on one or two channels at first. Then determine your budget. If you have time but no money, start by putting your efforts into avenues like search engine optimization (SEO) and influencer outreach (sending free products in exchange for promotional reviews).
Alternatively, if you have a budget to create ad campaigns use:
- Facebook Ad Manager for Facebook and Instagram Ads.
- Google Ads for Ads on Google and Youtube.
- Advertisements native to the marketplace you’re using such as Etsy Ads.
- Pinterest Ads to promote your website or Etsy page.
Make sure to get the most out of your paid advertising efforts by retargeting and upselling your products by sending email offers to your customers that complement their original purchase.
You can also send them coupons they can use on their next purchase or offer related products to them once they complete their purchase.
That’s it! If you can solve a problem, launch a website, understand your customer, create a brand and promote your product to them, you’ll be on your way towards creating a successful business.
