Internet is playing a huge part in our lives for quite some time now. And the impact of online influence will surely increase day by day. The fact is most of us can’t even think of surviving without the internet a single day. From our professional life to our personal life, it consumes the whole thing with ease.
For a business person, who owns or wishes to open a new business according to his interest, the internet should be the thing they should use without thinking twice to grow any venture. We are all familiar with the fact that to survive in this brutally competitive market internet is one of the main tools many people use to compete. If you are not using it then alas my friend, you are missing one of the main opportunities to raise the bar.
So, the usage of online facilities must be explored to do something good about your business. But the question is how anyone can use it for the betterment of his/her venture.
Well, to give an affirmative idea of things which you can try by using the internet is our main motto going forward in this article.
Create your own website
If you have an existing business or wish to open a business then the first thing you should do is to create a website that represents the portfolio of your business. Without any website, your business would struggle to make the most out of the internet. If you want to compete with the big boys then a website is a good platform to showcase your services and expertise.
But, to maintain and create a website, there are some areas to look after because they can really elevate the quality of it by supporting it practically.
1. Suitable platform to run the Website
This is one of the most common mistakes any person can do is choosing the wrong platform for their business. If you choose the wrong tool to run it then it might end up costing you a lot of time and money. Which is not so helpful for any relatively new or small businesses as it can hamper the projected growth of such businesses. You need to find the right platform to avoid any inconveniences.
For building and running a website you start with a platform like WordPress because the popularity of this builder is quite astonishing. That is why the consumer number of this service is very high and demanding. It is not much complicated and you can build your site by yourself with nominal knowledge. But make sure you choose WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. They are not the same and the services they offer are different and the free version of the latter comes with many limitations.
Apart from that, you have to have a domain name and a hosting account or SSL provider to set up your whole website. Many hosting companies offer different plans for hosting from big to small websites. Choose the plan which suits you the most and access the services to run.
2. The website should be simple and functional
The first thing that would come to your mind after selecting the right platform to run the website is the website design. A design that suits and matters the most in terms of the business type is important. And to do so some might hire a professional to get the job done. But, it can be very expensive, and too professional a theme can convert your site into a confusing one to understand for the visitors.
Keep your website simple and no need for an expert to do it. You can make it very catchy and sounding with some WordPress themes it offers for free and if you want then you can go for the premium themes. Even you can simply drag and drop to create a custom design that will give it a unique look. That way the site will be more functional and attractive for the visitors.
3. Contact us section for visitors
After making your site live for the potential visitors to find you from Google search engine and visit it, your motto must be the business opportunity. If any visitor wants to contact you for some business interest then there should be a contact section to do communicate. Easy access to the contact section will be great for both parties. And to do this you need to add a simple contact form that the customers can fill up to notify you.
So, do not forget to add a simple working section for visitors to use that as a mode of communication. There are free contact form plugins available like WPForms lite which you can use to add.
4. Email marketing is the key
When people start to visit your website after it goes live, the chances of visiting the same person a second time are highly unlikely to happen. Thus, many sites lose maximum visitors after the first visit and are denied the chance to convert them into their customers to sell the products or services. It will not be a good thing for your business for a long time because might slower the chance of getting more customers.
For that very reason, you can bring your focus to the Email marketing strategy. And how is it possible? By building a list of mail addresses of your visitors. Building an email list is one of the most effective ways of presenting your products to customers via email marketing. You can send emails to your visitors for communication and to pitch products of yours.
5. Good SEO is important for organic traffic
There are a huge number of websites and content available on the internet in different genres which offer multiple services, products, or information. Finding your site from the net will be hard if you do not use it the right way or learn the basics of how to make your page more visible among internet users. Sure you need as much as traffic you can get from it to highlight your services and knowledge.
Google search engine is the main platform that offers us the chance to get a huge amount of traffic if we use it properly. With proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you can gain traffic for your site by ranking high on the Google page. Optimize your website with good SEO and you can learn the techniques to implement. It is not very hard to learn and anyone can do it with some knowledge of SEO.
6. Content to interested users for marketing
To score well in SEO you need content for your website and adding a content marketing strategy is one of the best ways to build a huge amount of visitors regularly. Try to produce quality content that suits your business type very well to attract visitors who are interested in that particular genre. This gives you the chance to showcase your products for potential sales. IT is a very cost-effective way to promote your business and beneficial for new start-ups.
Blog posting is one of the easiest ways to add content to your web page which can be informative and useful for the audience. And you can gain many loyal visitors if you give them such content regularly and increase the chance of doing business.
Content is the king and uses it wisely to enhance the quality of your website.
7. Google Analytics is there to assist
You cannot do well in business if you do not analyze the data you collect from various resources and plan a strategy for the upcoming future by picking the most likable steps. The right planning and implementation of that planning are expected from a good business person. You should know the next step for you to grow in business. Or else you would get nothing in return.
This is why Google Analytics is a major player in this sector of online strategy. You can collect data from your site like the number of visitors coming to your site each day, what are they doing or from where they are coming, and other important stats. It is very useful in terms of data collecting for your site for future decisions. Use the most out of it to gain data.
8. Activity to convert visitors into a customer
We all know the internet is a huge world filled with content, website, and users competing with each other all the time for some sort of profit to their best interests. There is a huge chance that any user who visits your website from a search result is most likely would never find your site in the future. The chances are very much low. And it is the main obstacle to grow your business online.
To tie them up with your website to convert them into a customer is a profitable practice for you. Take your possible chances to make them one of your customers by adding some special offers, interesting pop-ups and most importantly collecting mail addresses as we discussed before. Act smartly to attract them to opt-out of any of the activities to get them on your customer list.
9. Affiliate marketing program to earn money
Regardless of the product or services you are offering to your customers, affiliate marketing opens up the opportunity to earn a good amount of money if you use it properly. It is basically referring products to the customers for some commission via a referral link from the actual seller.
You can obtain affiliation programs to sell the products via links that you think apply to your site. Or if you are selling your own products then you can give an affiliate marketer the access to sell your product on his platform by offering some commission.
Both ways you can increase your chances to earn some extra cash for a good profit. And it also promotes your products if you sell them via affiliation. To boost sales and achieve your target it is very useful.
10. PPC advertising to get the audience
Organic traffic is the best way to gain visitors to your business. But this is not the only way to get visitors. You can use the service called the Pay-per-click advertising tool even with a little amount of money to drive traffic to your site or to drive them to another site.
There are programs like Google Ads or Facebook Ads available to you can set up your PPC advertising to get an audience or to drive them on another platform. Even you can get the offer of free advertising credits as a new advertiser in the beginning. Do not miss this tool to get some taste of PPC advertising to grow as an organization.
There is a term called ‘Social Proof’ which is a way of convincing people by showing them proof that they are true to their nature and trustworthy. It is basically a psychological phenomenon from which you can approve the actions of others as they are true in nature.
Your marketing strategy must include this option to hold more attention from the visitors. You can showcase the good reviews of your product or services from other customers. Or you can share stats of various things like subscribers, page view counts, high profile customer lists, etc. It is like promoting your quality by sharing proof in simple words.
12. FOMO could be a great tool of attraction
Attraction is an important aspect to drive visitors to your site regularly and it can improve the chances of converting them into a customer. If you can attract your customers or visitors in a logical way then it might help you to gain business momentum. Here FOMO comes in very handy to attract more customers towards you by using the ‘fear of missing out (FOMO)’ contents in them to grab them.
It is human behavior that is very much present especially missing out on things on the internet. It is a kind of anxiety people have in the modern world. Use this to attract them by offering things that they might miss if they do not react now. Like the limited offer, a limited number of product availability, or any special offer with a countdown, etc.
13. Performance and speed of the website
After building your website and adding all the necessary things that you would need to run it you can operate it with efficiency and effectiveness. But for the visitors, if it is not user-friendly or quick enough to open any page then there are high chances that you can lose visitors very often. Practically you do not get much time to attract anyone to your site.
The performance and speed should be up to the mark to avoid the loss of visitors and a bad impact on them from your end. Optimize your site to make it very good for every visitor. A fast and well-performed website is acceptable among the people rather than struggling from the start to open the site. There are many alternatives available to get contents and products as you offer. You do not want to help your rivals with a slow site for sure.
14. Make your site mobile friendly
The days of surfing the internet only with a PC or laptop are gone. The majority of the crowd today use their smartphones to surf things on the internet and even work from the phone if they have to. A website you build should be compatible with mobile phones. OR, you cannot be able to reach the majority of the people who use mobile for such things.
Optimize your site with the mobile-friendly option to get the maximum result. A good responsive site is very much expected to view and operate from mobile. The navigation must be accurate and the functionality of the site should be user-friendly on mobile phones.
It does not require a huge investment and if you use WordPress for hosting your site then it is already mobile compatible on a large scale. So, you do not need to adjust it massively.
15. You must have your business listed in Google
What is the point of having a business if you do not have it in Google My Business? That does not make any sense. It is the first thing you should do without any delay. It will help you to get located in the local searches by which local people can see your business listed over there. It is best for informing the people of your presence in the market as an option to avail.
So, make the most of it and list your business in it. As the tool is free to avoid any burden of expenses with rich data to assist you with your own interests, it is unavoidable to ignore. Let the local people know about your place to visit and do business.
Other key points to look
Seek other online communities
Do not just stick with your website. To explore the net and make it a weapon for you to grind, you need to visit other platforms like online communities. They are nothing but a forum like Quora or Reddit to discuss various topics and people usually ask something there to know about it properly. Communities like this, are very good for quality content and potential customers.
You can learn the things that might be important for your business as there are many experts share their knowledge for the mass. You will find your interested topics there as well.
And more importantly, it is a good place to scale your business. You just need to find the communities related to your business or any section where your knowledge of your business is relevant. After that, you can join the conversation which is free to join, to sort out the queries posted over there.
If you can build your authority over there or can influence some people then you might get some good customers from those sites. But make sure you do not start spamming all over the place. Give them some authentic answers or solutions and participate in such discussions to grow your base over there. Then you can share your business link with the interested people over there.
Use free marketing tools for business
The online world offers a lot of things to us to use for our own entertainment or benefit. Similarly in online business, it offers a lot of opportunities and marketing tools to run a business properly to succeed. Along with many paid tools, you can have a long list of free marketing tools which are very helpful to grow your business especially when you are starting with little budget.
Do not go for too many paid or high-paid services or tools in the beginning. Yes, it is true that finding an appropriate tool for you is not so easy and can be confusing sometimes. But, with some research and recommendations, you will get to know about them.
For WordPress users, the list of free plug-ins or tools is very big that you would get a lot of options while searching for your business.
- You can find Hubspot’s free WordPress plug-in with tools like email marketing, forms, etc.
- For contact forms, you can go for WPForms Lite which is free and tested.
- In email marketing, a tool like Constant Contact is there to have
- Monsterinsights is one of the best plug-ins as Google analytics plug-in.
- You should add social media plug-ins to your site to add social media buttons. Without it, the content on your site cannot be shared on your social media platforms.
- You have Google My Business to list your business over there.
- If you want to share one post simultaneously on FB, Twitter, etc then you can use the Buffer tool to save time for posting on each site.
- Google Adsense is another service that can be useful for revenues in your site. Especially if you are running a blog site then it is a must to have on your website.
There are a lot more free or cheap plug-ins or tools available for use. Select the perfect one according to your business demands and run your site smoothly.
Apart from this, Social media is another thing with lots of opportunities to grow your business and establish the foundation of it. To know about it click the link.
Creating a site can be much easier with TemplateMonster.com.