By Latisha S. | latisha@pancakedigitalsolutions.com
We’ve created this list of 5 essentials that you need in order to launch your business online for those of you who haven’t made that jump to online marketing.
If you own a handmade or brick & mortar business, but haven’t brought your business online yet or if you’ve thought about starting a business and working from home, but aren’t sure what steps to take, then don’t worry! This list will you help you take the first steps in launching your business online!
A product or service
Obviously the first thing that you need in order to launch any business is to know what you are selling. Right?
You have to know what you are selling and what problem this product or service solves for your customers and clients.
If you are selling services you will need to know exactly what types of services you offer and what you don’t. Virtual assistant services can be broad and include everything from calendar management to creating and launching funnels & Facebook ad campaigns. So it is a good idea to at least have a general idea of your scope of work so you can effectively market your services.
If your business is product-based you will need to know if they will be ready-to-ship products or made-to-order products. This will help you to know what type of platforms you need to start with (social media platforms, shopify stores, etc).
A Name
Your business needs a name! Yes, this can be changed once you have things going and you get completely clear on your niche and target audience, but it is still a good idea to have some type of name when launching your business.
If you are offering online services as a freelancer or virtual assistant, you can always just use your name until you become 100% clear on what you want to call your new venture.
Branding
Now that you have the name, you want to look at your branding. This usually includes 2-3 variations of fonts, 3-6 specific complementary colors, and a logo.
Again, this can be changed later down the road, but you will still want to have something in place so that people can begin to recognize your brand. This builds the “know, like and trust factor” with your audience.
When thinking of your brand, you want to create it around what will attract your target market. For example, if you are marketing to women then you typically would want a more feminine brand (soft colors and script text).
Your Mission Statement
Why are you creating your business? Why do you want to offer these services? Who will they help? Why do you want to help your audience in this way?
These are some questions that you can ask yourself in order to create your mission statement. This will also help you with branding and being able to market to your target audience.
Communication
If you haven’t already, then you need to think about how you want your audience to communicate with you online. Will it be through e-mail? Or will it be through social media platforms private messaging?
Our advice? Setup an e-mail with G-Suite through your web hosting to give your audience a way to communicate with you privately. It looks professional and will opens the doors for future e-mail marketing.
With Facebook pushing for privacy between customers and businesses, you will also want to utilize your platform of choice (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc) private messaging.
The important thing is to have some type of preferred contact method for your audience.
On the Table…
Bringing your business online can seem overwhelming and stressful, but using these 5 essentials to launch your business online, you will be able to lay the foundation and set yourself up for a smooth and successful launch!
For more marketing and business tips, please join our free Facebook group Marketing 4 Makers.