Online business has become a growing trend nowadays, it offers opportunities to make money for everyone from office workers to housewives.
This way to increase the income through is not new; however, how to start a business to bring the expected efficiency has never been the simple answer to most people.
You might read the following 9 useful steps of successful online entrepreneurs that give you the best overview of setting up your own business.
That guides you step by step firmly to the opportunity to make money from the internet beneficially and surely.
Step 1: Finding customer needs and wants
Many beginners often ignore understanding customer requirements. They do not have any plan to find the needs of the potential guests. This thing leads them to a difficult way when organizing a new business.
It is because when identifying customer needs, this thing can help beginners choose a good product or service that the marketplace wants. They can have customers who want to buy the products, that support a lot of difficult finance for the startups.
Secondly, knowing the needs of guests support the firms is a good way to spend time and money on special ideas that do not need in society.
So, to start a business online, you need to research what people want and nail with that thing. Here are the tips to find customer needs:
- See what the people ask more about forums, Facebook groups,…
- Which products the people leave comments, reviews on Alibaba.com, Amazon.com, ebay.com …
- Using the Google keyword planner to search any words of services or products to find the estimated number of users who want to know about the products.
Step 2: Find a source of goods or services for sale
Completing the first step, you find the products and services that suit you. You are ready to invest and start an online business. You are so excited. But the new questions come up, “Where can I find products or services?” “How can I get the best price?” “What is the quality of the goods?”
Except for a few cases that the owners can produce their own products or have a supply of goods in advance, for most of us, when starting a new business, finding the source of goods has never been simple. Sourcing for successful online business requires cheap, quality, and beautiful designs.
In particular, when we first started our online business, the capital was not much or not ready to make a bigger investment for this difficult start. Therefore, the step of finding a good supply requires more and more time for new businessmen.
There are two basic addresses for business people to find products: online and offline.
+ Searching offline: Firstly, you come to wholesale markets because it is almost concentrated on all kinds of items. However, prices always have a huge difference between buying retail and purchasing in bulk. There are many prices offered as well as completely different product quality. You need to be very careful to realize the quality of the product. This depends on the knowledge you have prepared. Agreement on price is also very important.
Besides, the manufacturers around you are also the place to provide ideal products. They need you just like you need them. Therefore, the exchange of cooperation is always a lot easier. For example, you want to sell fresh food. It is not difficult for you to find a farm. But you are a beginner, choose from the list you have and start with smaller farms that do not have many sales to the supermarket, then it is easy to connect with them and cooperate together. The remaining is in your ability to negotiate to have a good price.
+ Search online: There are many online wholesale addresses. However, the best address is Alibaba.com. It has all the items needed for the online business. An item may have multiple vendors, many of the similar brands. Please check the price and quality of each provider carefully. The reviews and comments below products are always relevant suggestions for you. Do not skip this step.
For finding the suppliers for services is nearly the same way you search the source of goods. So, you can do many things and have the most value if you start it now.
Already have good providers, how do we sell it effectively? Take the next step.
Step 3: Write a demo of your products
When searching for products online, what customers see is not just an image of the product, it includes all the information on the item you want to refer to them.
The better the introduction is, the more detailed it will be to convince buyers to trust and choose your products.
Remember, online shoppers cannot touch or look at your product directly, so they believe what you write on the introduction boards.
Of course, you need to write correctly, not to write too much or exaggerate the quality of the product. Consumers are always afraid of the perfect image, but it comes in real with “distorted” quality. That is the shortest way to kill your online business.
In order to have good writing to attract readers, you should note:
- Write an attractive title to arouse curiosity and interest of viewers.
- Tell the detailed description of the functions and properties of products and services to answer the question: What can the products solve for customers?
- The introduction should be a very friendly tone, easy to understand, and simple. Avoid fussy, florid. It must perform the intermediary task between the seller and the buyer, creating friendly exchanges, shortening the invisible gap between you and the customer.
- Do not ignore the comments, reviews of the guests, which are the vital factors in the development of selling products online. A good review will help you build trust with your next customers. Please include it here as an affirmation of the quality of your product.
- Explain most clearly about the benefits that customers will receive when using your products or services.
- For promotions, please include them in full detail. Avoid making customers misunderstand business that is “hanging goat’s head, selling dog meat”.
- Strictly make implement your commitment to the quality of products and services you sell to clients.
- Create urgency for customer actions, for example, buy now to receive promotions; 1 day of last promotion, 4 hours left of purchase to get free ship…
- Insert suggestions that you want readers to make, such as: buy it immediately, register now, add to cart, receive notifications of promotions, …
An effective product introduction can create a bridge with customers and increase confidence for readers. At the same time, it helps viewers see all the benefits that your product or service will give them. Write it in the mind of the customer, you will win their trust.
A successful online businessman is a person who knows how to invest their time and soul into very important advertising articles. Customers press the purchase button if and only if they have enough confidence in you.
After writing the introduction, how will you use this article, where to put it?
Step 4: Design an effective shopping website
Many people think that they have succeeded even if they only sell on social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. So what is the need for a website to increase costs? That is true, but not enough.
It’s because it is only true for small business individuals and instant sales. If you want to take your business seriously, towards sustainable, long-term development, you have to have a shopping website for yourself.
The first reason lies in the uncertainty and lack of reliability of an address on social networking space. Without enough trust, you will be hard to sell a valuable product to any buyer.
Have you ever spent an amount equal to one-third of the monthly salary or more on any product sold from Facebook without knowing whose it is and where?
Trust is the link between sellers and buyers, it is not in social networks. Consumers today are very smart, they only buy products from social networks when they have a low price and simple uses such as “instant noodles”.
Secondly, the majority of rich customers don’t look at social networks to shop. When they decide to spend a significant amount of money, they will leave social networks. Google becomes a reliable search engine. So, an optimized website, which is ranked high on the powerful search engine of Google, always gives its owners the dreamy income. That is also the reason why most famous brands must have a website to show their products.
Of course, using social networks to find more traffics and attract customers has never been an unintelligent way. But you want to get ahead, stand up and move on, you definitely have a website.
Owning an ecommerce website is not as costly or difficult as many people imagine. For example, I, Thom Website, has web design packages that cost only 100USD for one shopping website, making your online shop beautiful, professional, and optimal as desired.
If you can build your own website, you may check wix.com or WordPress to start a site. But, remember to optimize it with these rules:
- Nice but must be simple to be effective, especially for quick web page loading.
- Choose the right font for all the information you write on it. Arial and Time New Roman are the appropriate choice.
- The main color for the website should not over 3.
- Do not abuse slide banners, images, audio, and video.
- There should be a small section (newsletter) to collect emails of website visitors.
- Design simple steps to purchase as much as possible.
- Make the sales website more viewer-friendly.
- Do not present too many things on the first page to create an SEO friendly homepage.
Step 5: Use search engines to increase traffic to the website
With new sites, not much traffic, you can buy ads on search engines, especially Google, to increase the initial customer base. This is also a method of promoting the website and the brand you want to develop quickly and most effectively.
So, to increase traffic to your website by buying ads on the search engines, typically Google is a need for most of new business to get more customers.
Also, testing advertising on Google or Bing ads will allow you to know which products and services on your website are most interested in. From there, give you the direction to focus on optimizing website content to increase visibility on Google. And, that is the vital step to set up a clear plan for a long-term development strategy.
In online business, a high ranking on Google has never ceased to be the desire of stores and businesses. However, the Google environment is not as smooth as many people think. Ranking competition on Google is now really fierce.
Don’t ever assume that designing a beautiful, colorful website with impressive flashing banners plus videos will have a lot of traffics or automatically reach the top of Google search.
For example, go to Google search engine and type any keyword like: “cute newborn baby clothes”. Google produces 27.7 million results within 0.49 seconds. Of those 27.7 million results, who gets to the top? The person who just entered the game or who put a lot of effort and dedication into his site?
You are a newcomer in this race in the large ocean, so swim cautiously step by step, swim firmly and hard with all your effort. Success will come to you. Sweet fruits never come after a few days of care.
Remember, if you’re new, you’re not in the top one, don’t worry. There are also many people in the back, they also have the same desire as you. How far you go depends entirely on your efforts.
Of course, if you accept to pay for advertising, not much discussion, Google will take you to the top and charge for each click. Naturally, when the fee for advertising is no longer available, your site will return to its original position.
What’s irrefutable is that: when your site has an admirable position on Google, the benefits you earn are extremely worthy. Your online sales career is likely to reach the first threshold of success.
Step 6: Use the power of social networking as a marketing channel
No one can deny the power of social networking. They have remarkable coverage and spread, even exceeding our imagination and expectations.
Therefore, you can not ignore this potential marketing channel to enhance the brand awareness of your online business store.
However, each social networking site has its strengths to survive. Therefore, you must understand who your customers are for an effective online marketing strategy.
For example: With Facebook: customers are extremely diverse: from popular customers to office workers, moms or teenagers, etc. At that time, determine which group your product is for. Choose the right groups of potential customers, then participate with those associations, or offer the correct way of advertising to these members.
Twitter is usually for businesses to business.
Instagram is mostly young users, most of them are from 18 – 29 years old with 67 percent of Instagram users, studying by Pew Rereach Center.
Although the networks have power, most successful online businessmen admit that: good customers who can spend more do not choose to buy via social networks.
Therefore, social media should only be considered as a means to bring more traffic to your shopping website. Then, this thing will contribute to improving its ranking on the search engines.
High rankings on Google will open you up a bright road to success.
Step 7: Take advantage of the power of email marketing
Having an email list of readers who have visited your website is very important. It’s because once they read your posts, it also means that they pay certain attention to your services.
It’s great when these visitors are willing to sign up receiving newsletters you send them. So, why do not you suggest customers remember your business?
The ability to convert these potential customers to real customers is very high.
At the same time, using the email marketing service is one of the cheapest marketing methods, which works quite well. Therefore, do not forget:
- Make a schedule to send customers useful information about services and products that you have.
- Keep in touch regularly whether they are only readers, not customers.
- Using a correct bulk email software that allows you to track readers’ actions, such as MailChimp. This tool helps you know who has ever opened the mail, click on the link …
Step 8: Make you more professional in your field of business
Customers will trust you, and even Google will do as well if you are professional in your business.
How to become a professional? The most effective way is to provide customers with the best information you have about the product you are trading and the solutions to help the guests solve their problems. The more and the clearer you give, the better results you can get.
At the same time, please show everyone your professional understanding through answering questions sincerely that each member asks on forums, social networks, groups related to the products that you are selling.
For an opposite view, joining in non-selective or ineffective groups or forums only makes you waste time in vain. Similarly, the spammy answers lacking information and sincerity also become wasteful, even bring the negative effects when readers evaluate you low knowledge and unreliable person.
The result is to help readers understand that your products are reliable and quality as what you write for them to read.
Step 9: Care current customers for future success
Many people think that when a customer buys a product, he or she will buy it again. Therefore, many companies forget to take care of existing customers but rush into the race to find new guests.
Your existing buyers will also be potential customers. They will buy your products or services again when they are taken care of carefully with the same firm belief.
If that is not possible, they will find a new supplier. Remember, currently on the market, a certain service always has many similar brands and providers. It is not difficult for customers to find new quality suppliers at reasonable prices.
Therefore, customer care is extremely important. The rate of second and third purchase in the current clients is very high, over 30%.
And, taking care of existing customers is much cheaper than finding new guests.
You should put your old customers in the care plan on the priority list. And, you should notice the followings:
- Introduce, provide the complimentary items for products that customers purchased.
- Offer discount coupons, membership cards, priority customer cards, … so that buyers will be given priority to serve the next purchase or use the next service.
- Give promotion policies, reasonable discounts for the old buyers when they purchase goods or services again.
- Schedule to send messages, phone calls to ask this group of customers, that is also necessary work that you should not be missed.
Conclusion:
The rapid development of the Internet becoming a part of our lives has opened up opportunities and challenges for everyone.
Taking advantage of online business opportunities will contribute to bringing significant changes to life. The success of business in the digital age is always the “sweet fruit” that many people dream of. So, if you’re ready, start your online business today.
And, these 9 effective online businesses from the experience of successful online entrepreneurs will help you have a solid start. That is the premise for your business career on the internet to go smoothly and successfully.
This is also a reference for those who have been doing business online. It helps you reshape your path towards a brighter new destination.
Success is always waiting for you in the front if you do your best today, working hard to move forward steadily.
These online business steps will guide you to go on the right path to success in your work.
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