3 Essential Online Business Systems To Start An Online Business For Newbies
Regardless if you have just one product / service to start with, or 20 products or more..
These 3 key online business systems are essentials - vital for not just starting up, but also building a business that will last for a long-time (unless you are just doing it as a hobby and not for regular income generation).
1. A system to promote your offers and values (to attract attention).
2. A system to capture leads and nurture their interests (to build long-term relationships).
3. A system to process your sales orders automatically (to convert).
Almost anyone can just “start a business” by having a product / service that is in demand, sell and get an income out of it...BUT the challenge is more of sustaining the business.
Starting out, you need to test out if your business idea will be profitable. Treat your new online business as a project, but take it seriously. Everything, no matter how simple or small the business idea is, needs effort and dedication to make it work.
In fact, here are expenses that you can safely avoid in your first few months:
- A branding specialist
- A full fledge branding merchandise
- Expensive web design services
- A fancy business bank account
- Registering as a corporation
or many other investments that may cause more financial investments and stress than motivated to turn-your-dreams-into-reality.
Especially for newbies with a shoestring budget, you don’t really need them yet in early stages. In fact, you can actually start an online business with less than USD 100 (read till the end to find out).
The 3 Essential Online Business Systems To Start With For Newbies
Start with these few important basics and invest in essential systems that will help you build up your business online (with long-term sustainability in mind).
#1. A system to promote your offers and values (to attract attention)
The objective : To highlight your key USPs (unique selling points) and offer values compared to your competitors.
To sell your product or service online with competitive advantage, it’s important to have an online site - a place to market / promote such as a website, landing page, blog.. It’s where you can display and explain all the critical information:
- About your origin, mission, purpose
- Who is the product / service for
- How does your product / service help to solve a certain problem
- Why should people buy from you
- What’s the costs, your special offer packages
- List of customer testimonials
- Ordering and delivery process
- Where and how can they contact you?
- and more… any important details that differentiate you from your competitors
> Support lead generation : Although social media platforms are popular for organic traffic and highly used for leads generation, it is still a stepping stone / front end of the entire effort to attract and keep their attention.
For freebies or giveaways (non-paying offers), perhaps it is easily acceptable even at first promotional encounters; but more often than not, people need more information to be fully convinced, and trust that what they are purchasing and who they purchase from online is legit, especially for offers with monetary transactions.
> Improve quality of potential leads : Potential leads that take the next step of visiting your online sites are normally better quality leads - they have higher intention to convert in the end. If they are willing to take the time to consume more information in detail about you and your offers, it shows they are actually interested to know more and even make comparisons before deciding.
> Starting up is easy : Setting up an online site on your own is now made easy and affordable with drag-and-drop builder systems. You can do it yourself in a short time with ready made templates even, without the need for outsource to expensive website developers.
2. A system to build your subscriber list and manage relationships (to nurture and retain).
The objective : To engage and nurture a lead’s interest, and sustain long-term customer relationships.
Ask any profitable businesses and marketing experts who have a strong customer base and generated recurring sales almost effortlessly.. They will tell you this: “the money is in the list”
Sales rarely happen immediately after seeing your ads or posts. It takes time (at least 5 - 7 touchpoints) to build up interest and consideration before a buying decision takes place. This involves continuous engagement efforts and email communication has proven to be one of the most cost effective ways to do so.
> Use an email autoresponder system : With an email autoresponder tool, you can systematically capture and store subscribers’ data safely for future communication purposes. Setup subscription / optin forms in your website / landing pages to build up your database consistently. Encourage subscriptions by offering a freebie / valuable materials / benefits that only insiders would receive, in exchange for their emails and other contact details.
> Optimize email marketing strategies to nurture leads : Email marketing is a consistent, staying-in-touch and non-pushy approach that helps build up trust and interest levels of new leads towards your offer (and helps with retention among existing customers). A carefully planned email messaging is critical to help your target audience move from one stage to another in their customer journey.
Focus on value-based messaging as they are often more effective than sales-based ones, for example related blog posts or industry news, notification of latest developments, case studies of current users, or invitations to webinars - those that help enhance positive influence towards buying decisions.
Send reminders for deadlines or special promotions only after a couple of value-based messages have been received. Ideally, it takes 5 - 7 emails that leads to a sales page.. which comes to our 3rd system..
3. A system to process your sales orders automatically (to convert).
Once you have the first 2 steps above (attraction building and interest nurturing) done right, the sales step at the back will follow suit. Now it’s time to ensure that the entire sales funnel flow is not disrupted until conversion is completed.
> Enable direct order making or buy now links in your sales pages : Connect your sales pages to automated checkout systems that can instantly collect buyer information for order delivery and payment processing. The simpler the checkout process, the better for successful conversions.
Allow flexibility of multiple types of payment modes from Paypal to credit/debit cards acceptance. Checkout our all-in-one website and funnel builder that is integrated with more than 8 payment gateways for an easy checkout process no matter where you are in the world.
> Include testimonials and social proofs in your sales pages : User generated content like testimonials, ratings, reviews are best promoters of trust towards your brand, so be sure to include them in your sales pages to encourage conversions.
Conclusion
Online business is one of the best opportunities for new aspiring entrepreneurs to start with, even with low budgets. Avoid unnecessary startup expenses that most traditional businesses would do, but do invest in critical online tools that can help you build up your assets and a good foundation for continuous growth from the very beginning - it can really make a significant difference as you grow over time.
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