Any business owner, whether their venture is online or offline, needs to chew over the value that they’re offering their customers. While the appetite for high profits is more or less a given, you’re not going to secure this if you’re not giving customers what they want. Online selling is very accessible these days, and if you’re about to set your business up on the web, there are some essential questions you need to chew over…
What Technology Will You Use?
As a general rule of thumb, you should aim to spend as little on technology as possible, and leave yourself some decent financial fuel for marketing. Obviously, a website needs to look professional and aesthetically pleasing, but it’s certainly possible to spend too much money on design. Whether you go with a completely bespoke web design job or an ecommerce platform like the one here, it’s essential that you don’t put too much emphasis on design alone when you’re planning to launch a business online. Having a website that’s fast, reliable, and always accessible to your customers is much more important. The only real scenario where you should be going the bespoke route is if you’re attempting to launch a business niche no one has touched before, which requires greater than average website capabilities. Otherwise, you’re just going to be tying yourself to an inflexible, and much more expensive plan, which will weaken your business model from the outset.
How Are You Going to Let the World Know?
Image from Max Pixel
No business is going to make it far without a good marketing strategy behind it, especially with the online business arena being so saturated. The most effective method for handling your marketing, as you probably already know, is Search Engine Optimisation, more commonly referred to as SEO. This enables you to tap into those segments of the market that are already searching for the products you’re offering. This article can give you some great tips on getting started with SEO if you’re feeling completely lost. With the social media explosion that’s happened in the past decade or so, there’s an effective and relatively young frontier to explore in terms of marketing. However, as a multi-faceted social media strategy has become more and more of a given in modern business, you’re going to need to invest a lot of time and dedication if you want to get ahead of the game.
Where’s your Niche?
Obviously, a business doesn’t have to be 100% unique to be successful. However, it’s still extremely important to start with a fairly narrow niche when you’re setting up online. With online businesses being so accessible, if you don’t have something tangible to distinguish your brand from its competitors, you’re going to spread yourself too thin, and have a hard time keeping the business afloat. In the beginning, focus all your resources on a single, clearly defined product niche, and focus on being the best at it. You can gradually expand into other areas as you drive your business into the future.