How to get your business online

Covid has shown us that no form of business, club or service can continue effectively unless you can interact with your customers online. Also, over 80% of consumers across the globe shop online. Therefore, if you want to stay ahead in business you need to get your business online.

Getting a website and maybe a Facebook page is ok but unless it is done right, you will never be found! At Interweb Digital, we will show you:

• How to get your business online.
• How to make sure your online business is found.
• How to use all the many tools that are on the web to help you grow.

get your business online

Get Online

If you are running a club, sports group, shop or service, you need to get yourself noticed online. To do this you will need a website, social media, plus a way to market yourself online and keep in touch with your clients or members.

This article will give you a few pointers to get you going and in the coming articles, we will expand up this and take you through each step to help you grow. If you have any questions or want us to do an article on a special topic, please leave your comments below.

Get Organised

If you have not already done so, you have to get your business ideas organised.

Here is a checklist of things you should do before anything else (write down your answers):

• What do you call yourself? Do you have a brand, business or club name?
• What is your purpose? Are you an online retailer? Do you have a hobby you want to turn into a club or business?
• Do you have a service you want to promote or a product to sell?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• What is your main priority or goal? Make more sales; get noticed; start an email mailing list; get more people to open your emails?

The main points that you need to know:

1. Who or what you are (Your brand, business or service)
2. What do you have and how is it different from others.
3. What your main objectives are.

Get Noticed

Once you know what your business is and what it is you do, you are ready to get online.

You will need a platform somewhere online that represents you. This can be a website, social media page or both. You can do all this for free and leave the costs for when you want to get more professional or expand.

Get a Free Website

Ok, do you want a basic, free or low-cost website? I recommend the following:

• Open a free account on Mailchimp.
• Set yourself up on Google MyBusiness. You will need a free Gmail account for this one.
• Set up a blog on Blogger.

MailChimp

Mailchimp will allow you to set up a website, a mailing list sign-up page and a landing page for promotions and you can start collecting a mailing list so you can advertise products or services or raise awareness of a meeting you have coming up and collect registrations.

Google My Business

With Google MyBusiness you will create a free online presence with a free website, store, map, contact details and much more that will get you noticed in Google searches!

Blogger

This is also free and it will give you a place to start talking about your business and adding bonus material to your customers. It is always a great idea to give free tips on subjects related to what you do and sell and then link back to your website and/or social media pages.

Other places to get a free website are Wix and Ecwid.

Go Professional:

When you are ready to get a professional website you can buy a low priced domain at NameCheap for just a few dollars! You can also get a great deal on hosting your site at HostPapa. Also, if you are looking for an alternative service to develop lead pages, take full advantage of email marketing, build another website or even create your own affiliate marketing system to grow your business, we recommend taking a look at Systeme.

Get on Social Media

The next thing you want to do is get yourself on social media!

• Set up a Facebook Page for your business (do this from your regular Facebook account or go to business.facebook.com/overview).
• Set yourself up an Instagram account (preferably of the same name as your goal is to create a brand).

Facebook Business Suite

From your Facebook page, you will be able to access your business suite and connect your Facebook Page to your Instagram account.

This will allow you to post on Facebook and Instagram at the same time!

Not only this but if you have set up your free Mailchimp account, you are nearly ready to Instagram the whole thing and get your business or club organised!

Start Promoting

Once you are satisfied with what you’ve got, it is time to look at your next stage.

Do you know your target market or audience - persona - demographics of the type of person you are trying to sell to? Unsure - look at competitors social media - what type of people are following and clicking on their content? Who would benefit from your offering?

You need to make sure you know this first or you will never reach your full sales potential!

Do you have something that can be given away for free (downloaded) to subscribers to your mailing list and social media account? Just a simple document with a few daily tips can be fine.

Here are a few ideas on what you need to set up next:

1. A landing page with a "call to action" to subscribe to your mailing list.
2. In exchange for their email address, a free download or discount.
3. Set an automated "Thank You" email that is sent to your subscribers with an additional offer if they follow your social media page: Further discount/free delivery or promo code to use on their first purchase.
4. An automated follow up to this email in 7 days to re-engage and drive them back to your digital store. The third email could target contacts who haven’t purchased anything or used their discount code. For example, the email could be triggered automatically if a contact does not make a purchase within 7 days of subscribing.
5. An automated message is sent to someone if they abandon their shopping cart with a promo code discount to order now or advertise a similar product they may like.

In the coming articles, we will be describing how to do all of these steps in detail.

Be sure to bookmark this page!

Added bonus:

Here are a few more free tools you can explore to help you:

• Monday - a great online tool to get yourself organised with a detailed to-do list
• Canva -  for creating a free logo or social media post and much more
• Google Drive – under your free Gmail account there is a host of free online tools to use.
• Trello – they have a free account you can use to keep all your team organising in one place.
• Mockup – get a free account and make mind maps, charts, and much more to organise yourself
• Business Plan – Get tips and a free template to make yours

I hope this gives you a few ideas on how to get going.