The Beginner’s Guide for Starting a Small Business Online

Whether you have perfected that statement pair of earrings or finally worked out the perfect recipe for your famous chocolate chip muffins, you might now be ready to start selling your items and become the owner of a small business. Sometimes, small business owners do not have all the skills and resources required to do everything themselves. From marketing help to content creation, there are experts out there who can help you, so don’t panic! Around 97% of people learn about local businesses online, so perfecting a marketing strategy is a fantastic way to begin your small business career. Here are some tips for starting a small business, with close reference to marketing.

Creating Your Online Shop

If you’re not ready to open a physical store in your local town or on the high street, the first port of call should be creating an online shop. There are many online services available to help guide when choosing an online store supplier but sometimes the vast number of suppliers available can be overwhelming. To aid your decision process, have a think about what your aims are. Will you plan to expand in the future? Will you attempt to open a physical store for your products eventually?

Etsy is a great platform for selling products and personalizing the process for your customers and audience. However, one issue with this is that if you decide to branch out in the future and open up a physical store, you cannot simply pick Etsy up and transfer it to use as a till and payment system. This is one of the few downfalls about Etsy. You could start by using other methods such as PayPal, then when you’re ready to branch out physically you can invest in another form of service development.

Unlike Etsy, Shopify is an excellent service which can act as an online store and also be transferred to use a till system in a physical shop. Shopify is costlier than other suppliers, but it has received the highest satisfaction rate among users – and 93% of users would recommend to a friend. The reviews for Shopify are in abundance, with most agreeing that the around the clock support and advice is a top feature. These high-quality features may even balance out the costlier nature of Shopify. Using Shopify is especially great as customers can leave you notes if they have a query or demand about their order. This also extends if you open up a physical store as staff can place a digital note with every order, and even send receipts to customers. Everything can be kept in the one place and you can have peace of mind knowing your business is in trusted hands. Hey, you even get a 14-day free trial!

Invest in Email Marketing

Email marketing is a fantastic way to expand your outreach to customers and learn more about your audience. This strand of marketing is a useful tool in driving customers to your website. Email marketing is essentially all the emails that are sent to customers outside direct communication such as order confirmations and direct responses. Not all customers have social media accounts, so most of the time they will be unaware of potential offers, ‘giveaways’ and discounts.

An example of email marketing is essentially creating a 20% discount for previous customers for the whole month of December, sending this information out through email with a direct link to your site and a code they can use for the discount. Email marketing can therefore be used to analyze your traffic and navigate how many people are opening your email, clicking to your website and making use of that 20% discount. If you’re attracted to Shopify specifically, there are many email marketing services to use. Shopify email marketing is a sure and realistic way to increase your audience and your profit.

Invest in Copy

The content on your website and social media channels could be the difference between getting a sale and otherwise. Sometimes, content creation can often go overlooked but it appears to one of the most important marketing tools, especially with the rise of social media use. If you have the opportunity to invest in some marketing strategies, make an effort to consider reaching out to copywriters. Copywriters create great content and tailor it to your business in order to drive traffic to your website and optimize search engine results, so people find your website when they naturally search for your product. Attempting to create a ‘blogger’ image for yourself is exactly the way online business is going. Great copy sells.

It’s now time to take the plunge and start up your small business. Market your business the right way by investing in marketing services and tools.