The Internet came into our daily lives approximately 20 years ago and without a doubt, it is here to stay. He first exercised novelty and luxury; after an inexhaustible source of information and right now it is a virtual reality parallel to the one we live in our day to day when we are not in front of a screen.
Access to the Internet has become widespread and the development and degree of specialization of people is such that the Internet has long become the source of income for many professionals throughout the world.
With this article we want you to see what the people who decided to jump into the pool did well at the time, and what you should not ignore if you have made the decision to launch an Internet business .
1 Rethink your decision
You are going to get on a boat that is going to be constantly getting water . You are going to have to put all the meat on the grill, put hours into it and suffer many headaches. An Internet business has nothing to do with a traditional physical one. Your midgets are going to grow and you’re going to have a hard time at the least expected moment.
If you take all this into account and still remain determined, the rest of the points await you. We had to make sure you knew what you were getting into.
2 Find a viable business model
How are you going to make money? With advertising? Selling items produced by you? Selling third party products? Offering digital services?
The business model is the vital base . It has to be aligned with several things:
- Your initial investment capacity
- Your availability in time
- The viability of the project
- The ability to provide differential value
- Future
In short: it is the cornerstone on which much of your success as an online entrepreneur will be based. Do you know what a scalable business is ? We tell you at the end.
3 Choose a name and a domain
How do you want your online business to appear to the public? What name do you want it to have? Something new? A more traditional cut? And what is more important, does the chosen name have its counterpart domain available?
Keep in mind that the name of the business will be the first thing that your users find when they find you. You have to think about what you want it to evoke when it is seen.
If you call yourself “Perico Online Auctions” you could convey little reliability even though your business model is clean and perfectly assembled. If, on the other hand, you decide to call yourself “Online Art Auctions” you will be being clear, you will not add ingredients that will put potential clients off and beware, it is most likely that your web positioning will benefit from choosing non-branded terms . This is what is known as EDM.
If your name is “Online Art Auctions” , the optimal thing would be for your domain to be auctionsdearteonline.com , or . is or . mx , depending on the country where you want to carry out your activity. The . com is a TLD that works well around the world, so if you want to attract customers from all over the planet, we recommend that you go this route.
Given which, for this particular case it would be necessary to see if auctionsdearteonline.com is free. Being such a generic query we would bet on no. And this is where the creative part of step 3 comes in. Do not take it as a trivial question, because it is extremely important that you get it right . This does not admit corrections in the future.
4 Carry out a strategic business plan
You have the nature of your online business and now it’s your turn to translate those ideas into numbers . Our entire environment is reduced to triangles. The numbers are there, they are everything and you have to stick to them to get ahead. Within the strategic business plan you will have to consider the following points:
1. Definition of the target audienc
Who do you hope will buy your product? What profile do you have ? Men between 50 and 55 years old? Young people of both sexes between 25 and 35? Users with an average purchasing power? Define this parameter well, because it will be based on some decisions that you will have to make when we get to the marketing part.
2. Establish the potential market
What is my cap? Knowing that would be a good thing. It will help you to know your performance, final objective in terms of numbers and range in which you can move to consider that you are succeeding. It will be directly related to the target audience, obviously.
3. Define an advertising plan
And here comes the quest for visibility ! How are you going to make yourself known? Today , content marketing is what works the most, but you are going to include that in the next point, the one that has to do with strategy. In this you must specify the channels through which you are going to advertise.
AdWords with PPC, display, Facebook Ads , guest blogging, ads on other social networks, email marketing, etc. Choose the routes that you are going to use at one time or another. Estimate its feasibility and plan well when to use what . To generate a brand!
4. Online marketing strategy
The jewel in the crown . Online marketing cannot be missing from your strategic business plan. It’s good, pretty, cheap, and exceptionally effective when the routes are well chosen.
This is where inbound marketing comes into the picture . We are not going to dwell on how to make a content marketing strategy ; we will simply tell you what works best in most online businesses. It ensures absolute success and you should not hesitate to adopt such a modus operandi
Within the marketing strategy you will have to define the tone , the language −hiring a copywriter will make things much easier for you−, the image to be transmitted, the web design , its architecture , SEO positioning , social networks and a very long etc. of factors that will define your essence and, surely, your success.
Spare no expense with this part. A good SEO with a bad design does not guarantee the user’s response. A great use of social networks and poor communication within your website, more of the same. All elements must be perfectly aligned , follow a consistent path at all points and firmly represent the personality of your online business.
5. Technological requirements
To support everything you have defined in point 4 of the plan, what do you need technologically speaking? What capacity should your hosting have ? Are you interested in a CMS or a website created from scratch? A dedicated space or a shared one ? Do you value personalized support when you have a problem? Are you going to need to use online payment tools ?