Tips for Starting a New Online Business

One of the biggest mistakes that many businesses online and offline make is that they do not have a plan for success.  Even though it is an online business, you should still have a business plan and you should have a search marketing strategy and know that you are targeting a large enough market.  You should do searches online on Google, and Yahoo, and MSN, and see which of your competitors come up for that search term.

You should also do some market research analysis so that you know which search terms people are searching for the most.  Some search terms might only produce a couple, 10 or 20 searches a day, and other search terms might have several thousand a day.  You will need a big enough market to target because you will be sharing that market with your competitors. 

What it all comes down to in the end is that you have about 10 or 20 competitors on the front page of Google, Yahoo and MSN.  You need to do the following well, to compete with these competitors. 

1. Your website needs to have a better presentation than your competitors.  This means a more engaging demonstration of the products and services you sell.

2. You need to come up as high as possible in the search engines either through search engine marketing or paid sponsored ads also known as pay-per-click. 

3. Optimize your website so that search engines can find you organically.  This is also known as search engine optimization.

Common Mistakes Beginners Make

1. They start targeting and promoting keywords before they know the value of the keywords they are promoting. 

2. When using pay-per-click advertising, they direct everyone to the front page of their website.  As much as possible, direct your ads to a detailed web page which matches up to your prospective customers search term. 

Tips for a Successful Online Advertising Campaign

1. Have a customized landing page, which takes the prospective customer to the exact product, or service page for which they are searching.  

2. To have a cost effective online marketing strategy there needs to be enough people searching for your product or service. 

For example, if someone is searching for a particular type of guitar, your ad should feature that particular type of guitar.  The more specific you are and the less searching the perspective customer has to do once they get to your web page, the more likely they are to contact you, buy your product, or take the action you want them to take. 

You will need to research which search terms or keywords are searched on more frequently than other search terms so that you can make sure that you have the largest audience possible. You can do this using Google's keyword tool.  Doing just this small amount of market research can make the difference between success or failure of your online business venture. 

For example, if you're selling Widget A and there's only ten people a day in your area searching for Widget A, you are not going to be very successful.  If however, there are 100,000 people a day searching for a Widget A and you only have two competitors who also sell Widget A, then there is room for you in that market.

Google's Keyword Tool and How to Use it

The first place to start with researching your keywords is the Google keyword tool, found here:  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.  Below are some useful features of Google's keyword tool:

1. You can enter various phrases describing your businesses products or services into the search box.  The tool will give you results on different phrases and synonyms matching your description.  It will also tell you which search terms produce the largest amount of traffic on a monthly basis.

2. If you are targeting the entire United States then the monthly traffic column per keyword is very accurate.  If you are targeting a particular state within the United States then you would need to divide that number by the percentage of population in that state.

3. Google's keyword tool also has a column that indicates the average cost per click for each search term.  This can be helpful for forecasting how much to price your product or service.  For example, if you are selling something for .00 and it costs you .00 to get enough people to your website before anyone buys your product then you need to rethink your pricing model.  If however, your product sells for .00 and it only costs you .00 in advertising before someone buys your product, then you have a cost effective marketing campaign. 

Other Search Engine Marketing Strategies

In addition to pay-per-click, you can pursue search engine marketing techniques such as: 

1. Article Marketing

2. Directory Marketing

3. Community Forum Marketing

4. Channel Partner Marketing

The goal of all of these marketing techniques is to get a higher search engine ranking for the search terms you are targeting.  All of the methods above include backlinks to your website.  Backlinks to your website is the number one criteria used by search engines to rank your website.

Online Market Penetration

After you have done your market research, the next thing you will want to do is to determine if it is a growing market.

One of the ways you can discover if you are in a growing market is by using Google Trends.  When using Google Trends, enter a search term which describes your business or industry into the search box and view the trend line in the results.  If the trend line is moving up then you are in a growing market.  If the trend line is moving down, then you are in a declining market.  This will give you a good indication if it would be worthwhile for you to launch your business.

Another way to tell if there is room for you in a particular market is to look at your online competitors.  Often times if their websites have not been updated in a while, it can indicate they are doing a good business.  Also, if you have to scroll down to the second or third page of the search results before you find a decent looking web page, that can indicate a large market. 

If you want a successful online business, follow these steps:  Do the market research, do a competitive analysis and research the market trends for your industry, then you will be successful in your new online business.

They say, 'Necessity is the mother of all inventions'. If we go back in time, we could say that brochures and pamphlets were the then successful marketing strategies. You can recall the colored advertising papers often lying in your balustrade, and you reading about the newly established restaurant, discount coupons, special offers and service offerings. The success and popularity of brochures based advertising was due to the absence of any other prevalent marketing service that delivers fast result. Gradually however, in the wake of other marketing strategies, the pamphlet-based marketing lost its charm. Internet based marketing overtook the very purpose of reaching out to the masses, and flyers were replaced by websites.

Talking about today's restaurant owners, most of them strive to make a brand image by getting a website of their own. The I-age has shown its impact so much that today people like to use Internet for purchasing products, availing services and even ordering food. So having a website becomes as customary for a restaurant owner, as it is to cook good food and provide warm services.

This brings the question of making and maintaining a website and the cost involved in it. The five main areas that decide the website-making budget are: Domain Name, Hosting, Designing, Developing and Maintenance. The first four areas are a one-time investment, whereas website maintenance is a continuous operation. Apart from that, a separate IT department is needed that takes care of all the technical issues, and a customer support that is available 24*7 to answer the customer's queries.

An alternative to building and maintaining a restaurant website is the Online Food Ordering Systems. The Online Food Ordering Service providers develop website for the restaurant, and the restaurateur just enjoys the sales! They can upload the menus, check the stock and manage the regular customer database. Besides, they can promote the site just as their own product and let the customers order from their restaurant online. This spares you from the cumbersome activity of answering the phone calls and noting down the error-prone order.

So if you want to omit the stress related to website development and maintenance, and yet get yourself a restaurant website, avail the Online Food Ordering System.

Companies today are run more on personal experiences than expertise in particular areas. Hence, marketers today take the word of mouth marketing strategy much more seriously than they did decades ago.

Although there are no hard and fast rules to word of mouth marketing strategy there are a few strategies which have proved to be winners for many of what we now know to be the giant companies of today. It is important to understand why word of mouth marketing has become so widespread recently. To begin with, it is the cheapest form of advertising a company can afford especially when using the internet as a tool for spreading the word. If using credible sources it can build on strong sales base, especially for smaller companies. However, smaller companies should be careful on using this strategy as it could also result in negative word of mouth marketing if not applied correctly.

The following are some important factors one should take into account when devising a word of mouth marketing strategy

Source credibility - can be simply understood as perceptions of expertise and trustworthiness. It gives consumers the belief that the relevant communicator is competent and willing to provide necessary information to evaluate competing products adequately. Hence, the first step marketers of small companies need to do is build on the source credibility. Building on ones credibility can be enhanced if the sources qualifications are perceived as relevant to the product being endorsed. For example, attaching your product as a sample with another company's product which has relevance will not only give the consumer an opportunity to experience the product but its attachment to another well known brand will increase its credibility.

Capitalizing on relative advantage is another important factor to take into account when building a strategy for word of mouth marketing. Consumers often look for particular attributes in a product when making purchasing decisions. These attributes could be as simple as the fragrance of a deodorant or the quality of paper used for business cards. Unfortunately, in reality marketers do not always know which attributes are most important ones for their consumers when making a purchasing decision. It is however possible to learn of which attribute is the most striking for consumers in your own brand. It is then up to the marketer to use that particular attribute to convince the consumer this attribute is the most important attribute. It is the importance of narrowing on these attributes and influencing consumers that wins them over to spread the word of your brand.

Targeting the right consumers - opinion leaders - Everyday we find ourselves giving and receiving opinions on many different occasions. However, as the number of opinions keeps increasing we tend to flush away the irrelevant ones and retain ones which are more credible and applicable. It is sometimes difficult to understand why we retain some opinions of some people and why not of others. In marketing terms it is fairly easy to comprehend this behavior and as most people will understand it is called seeking opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are seen as knowledgeable about a given product and whose opinions are highly regarded; therefore, tend to influence the choices of others. As marketers it is generally difficult to identify specific opinion leaders; however marketers do know of their general characteristics and should target them in media promotional strategies. Influential opinion leaders work a long way in a brands development and growth.

The giants of the industries focus on creating what we know as a marketing buzz. It is the smaller companies that need to focus on an effective buzz which leads to business growth.

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