Creating an online business can be difficult when there is so much to compete with online. There’s a saturated market of online business owners and competition can be fierce. There’s a specific way to sell online and plenty of courses that will show you what you need to do, but few will actually show you HOW you need to do it.
The online space is massive and to get found within that space takes a strategy.
For professional service-based business owners and coaches who are entering into this environment, it can be frustrating and challenging to create this business presence online without any real and valuable assistance.
Your business plan needs to be filled with a marketing strategy that will make you stand out from the other online businesses. You need to have a niche because the trusty rule of internet marketing is “if you’re speaking to everyone, then you are speaking to no one.”
Having a niche means you a serving a specific clientele. For example, if you are an accountant who is bringing their services online, you can’t offer accounting services to everyone. You need to niche down. Are you helping a specific industry such as retail shops or start-up businesses? Where are they located? You need to speak specifically to the client that you are serving.
Your sales strategy needs to have a sales funnel that brings in clients and converts them regularly. Having a system in place online is challenging to set up as in you need to test it and see what’s working and what doesn’t. That might mean you need guidance from experts who know what they’re doing.
You need to measure your results, which means you need to know your marketing numbers. Getting sales is very numbers-based and means having good conversion rates. These are measured by tracking your numbers. Numbers are the feedback and they don’t lie.
Speaking of numbers, you will also need to track your financials. You need to know if your business is profitable, and how much of a profit you want to make. Tracking your business numbers will get you there.
The importance of knowing these numbers is that it allows you to make educated and informed decisions in your business. You need to take the emotion out of business and base any decision on what is best for your business. Emotional decisions are not profitable ones.
How to start a business online
Most business owners start their business at home to keep the costs down, but for those who are starting a brick-and-mortar business, you will need to find a place of business.
Since the pandemic, every business that hadn’t had an online presence moved their business online, whether that be a website or full-blown sales. It is a necessity now. You need to start with a website and work your way from there. In 2021 and beyond having an online presence is non-negotiable.
If you are selling a product or service online, you will need a sales funnel. That will require you to automate a lot of your processes.
Having a lead magnet that people can opt-in to and get on your email list is important so that you can keep in contact and nurture a potential customer.
Taking them through the funnel and closing a sale needs to be the goal. There are ways to attract leads and provide valuable content for your list to consume.
Valuable content is social media posts, blog posts, videos, webinars, or any means where you are educating your audience on the value of the services that you offer and why you are the expert in your field. You need to teach people to know, like and trust you so that they will purchase from you.
You need to make an offer to them, whether it’s to sign up for your program or course or to offer your professional services. Closing the sale and keeping your client is essential.
Business ideas
The Business Society serves online coaching and professional service-based businesses, and there are many business ideas that we have seen.
For professional lawyers and accountants, the pandemic has allowed new technologies that allow them to manage their business online and within the rules of the profession. It has allowed them to expand their area to serve where they are no longer serving just local areas.
Steps to starting a business
Now that you have an idea of what to expect when selling online, you need to follow certain steps to starting a business.
1. Know what you’re selling, the niche, and your competition
This may seem obvious but it is the most important first step that requires a lot of attention. In the online world, if there isn’t a lot of competition with what you sell it could be a signal that it is not a successful or profitable niche. When there is plenty of competition that means that there is a demand. It is your job from that point to ensure that what you offer has a differentiating factor to what is already in the market and that makes you stand out.
2. Create your website strategically
When I created my first website, I had no idea how SEO was going to play with the way my website was structured. In this competitive environment, I highly suggest that you optimize SEO as much as possible and that means starting from the ground up. I recommend either researching how to optimize your website for SEO or to hire someone who offers this service. Even if you don’t think it is important now, you may regret not taking this step down the road.
3. Create yours sales funnel
Join a program that will help you build your funnel and show how to test your funnel. It takes 6-12 months to perfect a funnel, but believe me, once you do it will bring in a lot of clients to your business.
4. Create valuable content for your clients
Part of attraction marketing is creating valuable content that gets people interested in what you are offering. The content helps them understand what you offer and why it’s important to implement the service that you are selling. It helps build the know, like and trust factor that you need to build with your clients to have them purchase from you.
5. Social media presence
You need to build a social media presence through platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever platform you feel your ideal client is in. When people hear of you one of the first things they do is go check you out on social media, so if you don’t have a presence there, they may lose interest.
6. Build your audience
You need to build followers through email and social media followings. This is where you serve your people and offer valuable content that will guide them through the sales journey. Every piece of content needs to lead them to somewhere such as signing up for your lead magnet, signing up for a webinar or course. You need to engage your client.
7. Convert clients
Your sales funnel needs to be structured so that at the end of the funnel you have clients signing up for your offer. The conversion rates along the way is what you need to monitor to ensure your sales funnel is working effectively. Not everyone who engages with your content will turn into a paying customer but you need to monitor the conversion rates of those who do
8. Offer your stellar service
Congratulations! People are paying you for your services. Your job now is to keep them as happy paying clients. Engage with your clients, serve them, get feedback on your offers. Tweak your offers and make adjustments to ensure you are offering what they need.
Your marketing strategy will be a rinse and repeat for the life of your business. As old clients leave happy, you will need to replace them with new ones.
If this process seems overwhelming to you to do it on your own, find a trusted coach who will partner with you and show you HOW to effectively sell your services and make money.
