This week’s BMGChat was focused on the benefits of having your business online, instead of occupying a physical store-space. I found an article where Mashable spoke to business people about why they chose to nix the storefront and exist entirely online. Here’s the real-world advice and words of wisdom of these successful web entrepreneurs had to say to you fellow business owners, including the tools that made their businesses flourish.
- Promote the business through word of mouth, blogger outreach, daily deals and PR. It’s all free, and when combined, can be a powerful force for your business!
- “Instead of gaining 1,000 new one-time customers, track the new customers through your sales funnel and inject targeted emails when possible. When approaching a daily deal, many companies ask the question, ‘How do we get people to purchase this offer?’ What you should ask is, ‘How do we get people in the door with this offer, then promptly turn them into repeat customers?’”
- “An online business has to be compelling. If no one knows about you, no one cares. Share the story. Make the impact. Start now. When paperfeet.com launched, we had people share “their favorite adventures” and explain “why paperfeet?” when pre-ordering. This really helped us get to know our customers and turned out to be a lot of fun, too.”
- The internet takes away physical limitations of a storefront. You can display your products in a clean, organized space, as well as utilize tools like online marking and e-mail.
- The quick answer is convenience. Being online, we are able to answer product questions immediately, via phone or email response. The communication window is what builds trust, which is required before online buyers will spend money.
- If you’re trying to drive traffic to your site and you haven’t had any major press, link up with other online marketing and special-interest venues similar to your own; they will help take the burden off marketing it all on your own.
- “One of the smartest things we did early on was start a blog before we launched the business — we maintained it while we were busy sourcing products and building the site. It helped us to figure out our voice and determine what we wanted our brand to be (and not to be).“
- People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Focus your homepage on the deeper elements of why you’re in business in the first place. This is what creates cult-like brands.
- Choose your webstore platform wisely. A lot of third-party webstores have terrible user interfaces, poor or overly complex navigation and lousy customer service. Something as simple as great navigation and beautiful UI can draw customers and keep them coming back.