How to Successfully Start an Online Business

There is a sequence of steps to follow that guarantee the success of your online business. Thousands of people have already managed to successfully start and develop their online projects by following the following steps:

1. Find a market need and satisfy it.
2. Create creative and appealing content.
3. Design and build a simple, easy-to-use website.
4. Use search engines to drive more traffic to your website.
5. Show that you are an expert in the field.
6. Track your customers and subscribers through emails.
7. Increase your profit through pre- and post-sales strategies.

Anyone, from beginners to more experienced entrepreneurs in the online world, can benefit from this process of learning how to start an online business.

Step 1: Find a market need and satisfy it.

Most people who are starting their project make the mistake of looking first for the product and only then for the market.

To increase your chances of success, start with the market. The trick is to find a group of people who are looking for a solution to a specific problem, but are not finding results. The emergence of the internet has facilitated this process of market analysis:

• Visit online forums and see what people are looking for and what problems they are trying to solve.
• Find the keywords that most people are searching for, but focus on those that have little competition.
• Visit your potential competitors' websites and take note of what they do to satisfy their customers' needs. After this process, you will be able to put everything you learned into practice and create a product for the existing market – and do it better than your competition.

Step 2: Create creative and appealing content.

There's a proven content creation formula that takes your visitors through the sales process, from the moment they arrive to the moment they make a purchase:

1. Arouse customer interest through a captivating title.
2. Describe the problem your product solves.
3. Establish your credibility as the solution to this problem.
4. Add testimonials from people who have already used your product.
5. Talk about your product and the benefits it brings to those who use it.
6. Make an offer.
7. Offer a strong guarantee.
8. Create urgency
9. Propose the purchase.

During this process, it is essential to focus on the benefits of your product or service and that its purchase can improve the lives of your consumers. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask “What will I benefit from this?”

Step 3: Design and build a simple, easy-to-use website.

Now that you have your market and product defined and have mastered the sales process, you are ready to develop the design of your business. Remember to keep things simple because you have less than five seconds to capture people's attention—otherwise you could lose potential customers. There are some tips to keep in mind:

• Choose one or two simple fonts on a white background.
• Make your website navigation simple and clear.
• Only use graphics, audio or video if they enhance your message.
• Include a data entry field so you can collect email addresses.
• Make the purchasing process easy—a maximum of two clicks between the potential customer and checkout.
• Your website will be your online store, so make its navigation user-friendly.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive more traffic to your website.

Pay per click ads are the easiest way to generate traffic on a new website. There are two big advantages compared to getting traffic in an organic way. First, pay-per-click ads appear immediately on the results page and allow you to test different keywords, titles, prices and selling techniques. Not only can you generate immediate traffic, but you can also use these ads to discover your best and most converting keywords so you can distribute those same keywords across your website, which will consequently help your ranking in organic search results.

Step 5: Show that you are an expert in the field.

People use the internet to look for information, so you have to provide that same information for free to other websites and you will see more traffic to your website and better search engine rankings. The secret is to always include your website link for every bit of information you provide.

• Offer professional content for free. Create articles, videos or any other type of content that people will find useful. Distribute this content through online article directories or through social media
• Include “send to a friend” links in the most valuable content on your website.
• Become an active expert on the social networking forums and websites your target audience frequents.

With this, you will also be able to obtain new readers, but better than that, all websites that publish your content will redirect back to yours. Search engines value links from relevant websites and this is reflected in their rankings.

Step 6: Use the power of email marketing to transform simple visitors into customers.

By creating a data entry field, you are creating one of the most valuable assets of your online business. If your customers and subscribers choose to fill it out, they are giving you permission to send them emails. This means that:

• Give your customers and subscribers something they asked for.
• Develop a lasting relationship with them.
• The answer is 100% measurable.
• Email marketing has a much lower cost and is much more effective than print, TV or radio as it is highly segmented.

Step 7: Increase your profit through pre- and post-sales strategies.

One of the most important strategies in digital marketing is to obtain the lasting commitment of your customers and subscribers. At least 36% of people who have already purchased a product or service from you will do so again if you follow them.

The hardest part will undoubtedly be closing your first sale, and it will also be the most expensive. Use pre-sales and post-sales techniques to get your customers to buy your product or service again.

Some of these techniques are, for example:

• Offer products that complement your initial purchase.
• Send digital coupons that can be used on subsequent purchases.
• Offer related products on your “Thank you” page, after you have made the purchase.

You should reward your customers for their loyalty and you will see that they will come back even more loyal.

The internet is constantly changing, to the point that one year online is equivalent to five years in the real world. But the principles of how to start and develop an online business successfully remain unchanged.

If you want to launch your project online or improve your current strategies, these steps will help you successfully reach your goal.

If you are looking for a professional team to help you develop strategies for your online business, contact Mixlife .