INTRODUCTION
Are you looking for steps to grow your online business? Then stick with this post to discover them. Running an online business is an great way to be your own boss, it gives you the opportunity to work on your own terms and the result is making a lot of money. Just like any other business, running an online business can be quite challenging because of the terms involved which includes your time, money etc.
I’ve personally grown 5 separate online businesses over the last 6 years, and I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to earn more. In this post , I will be sharing with you everything I have learnt about growing an online business so that you too can replicate my steps . Before I continue, if this is your first time seeing this post or website, I encourage you to join my mailing list for more post updates I’ve distilled everything I’ve learned about growing an online business into the following seven steps
The steps involved in growing an online business includes the following below
-
FIND OUT WHERE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE ARE
This is very important because your online business focuses on a niche . You cannot be presenting your online business to people who are not interested in your business. Doing that is just a waste of time because they will never patronize you. You need to figure out where those interested in your online business niche are . These are your target audience. This is very important before you start investing in ads or spending countless hours trying to grow a social media account.
You should do some market research to find valuable information about your niche or market and audience. You can post all you want on social media platforms like Facebook but if your target audience do not use Facebook, that will be a wasted time and effort . To avoid this , here are 3 ways to figure out where your target audience are
- Make use of Forums or Groups
Forums like Reddit are source of information for consumer research. There’s a subreddit for nearly any topic imaginable, and people share all kinds of information there. There are also Facebook groups with different niches, you can join the ones that focuses on your business niche .
For example , let us say my online business focuses on weight loss tips , I will simple go to facebook and type weight loss tips to discover groups that focuses on weight loss. The people in such groups are my target audience so I will simply join as many as possible. Please remember to keep to the rules of each forum or group you join. This is very important
Image source : Facebook
2. Check out contents that do well on social media
Having joined as many groups as possible, you need to check out contents relating to your niche that do well on social media platforms . Weight loss tip is a very popular niche and many contents on tiktok, Facebook, instagram , YouTube will be created based on this niche . Since 85% of your target audience enjoy watching YouTube videos , then it is wise to start creating videos based on weight loss tips and ranking them , that way you will get more views and exposure . You can as well use those videos on YouTube and create content on tiktok as well
I highly recommend a tool known as Spark Toro because it gives you an insight on what social media account people follow, websites, podcasts, YouTube channels, and more based on a particular keyword or topic
3. Do some keyword Research
Every online business needs to be seen online by people who are your target audience. This results to massive inflow of targeted traffic to your online business on autopilot without the need to spend money on adverts. To achieve this , you need to do what is known as Search engine Optimization ( SEO ) .
Search Engine Optimization is the process used to optimize a website’s technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can become easily findable, more relevant and popular towards user search queries, and as a consequence, search engines rank them better. Simply put , it is the process used to make your website or online business to appear on google search results. For example , when you head over to google and type a keyword like “grow online business” , you will see results below
image source: Google
You will see that wpbeginner appears on google , followed by smallbusiness and so on, because these websites or business appear on google search results , people who are searching for the keyword (Grow online business) will visit these websites leading to increase in targeted traffic.
Due to the high level of competition among some niches, you need SEO for the long term but that may not be your best focus in the short term . The best way to figure that out is with some keyword research. Visit Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer and type in some keywords that relates to your chosen niche .You’ll get some information about a keyword, such as how many people search for it every month and how difficult that keyword may be to rank for . The best practice is to create a good content on a keyword that has a Keyword Difficulty (KD) less than 40 . With that , you stand a chance to rank on Google ‘s first page.
-
ENSURE YOUR WEBSITE IS EASILY ACCESSIBLE TO CREATE A STRONG USER EXPERIENCE
If you are going to create a strong user experience, then ensure that your website is easily accessible , loads fast and has an attractive appearance . This ensures that you never loss your traffic and sales . Bear in mind that If people spend too long waiting around for a page to load, they will leave and go somewhere else. To check how fast your website loads, you need a tool called Page speed Insight
You also need to look into the structure of your website because it is important for both your users and search engine crawlers. The best way to improve the structure of your website is by creating a visual map of all pages on your website and how they connect to one another. You can do this using a tool known as Xmind
-
ENSURE YOU USE HIGH QUALITY IMAGES ON YOUR WEBSITE
Images are usually what captures the interest of your website audience so you need to use a high quality images in your website , you can find such images on Shutter stock , canva pro, Unsplash. High quality images when used on a website makes the website look professional and your audience will be able to see a clear picture of what your content is all about. If you do not want to use images from these websites i mentioned , you can invest in a photographer or videographer or learn these skills yourself in other to improve your website
-
CHOOSE YOUR DESIRED MARKETING CHANNELS
You need to choose your desired marketing channels that is suitable for you in other to build and grow a successful business. Do not put pressure on yourself by choosing all the marketing channels . I highly recommend focusing on just two or three main marketing channels—at least at the start. You can expand as you earn enough . There are options available for you below
- SEO
- YouTube
- Paid ads
- Social media
- Podcasting
I recommend SEO and YouTube for you . You can use paid advertising but there is a risk of losing your money if do not have some experience on running paid adverts . I will only consider it if you have some experience with it.
-
CREATE REVELANT HIGH QUALITY CONTENT
No matter which marketing channel you choose , if you not create high quality revelant content , your website will not get enough traffic . Your content must be engaging , relevant , unique , provide value or informative enough to attract people to your website.
This means it’s something that your audience cares about and is put together in a way that’s interesting and captures their attention. The marketing platform you choose will determine the kind of content you can create. For example Tiktok is a social media platform with a lot of contents that makes people happy , this implies that contents you can create on tiktok are ones that makes people happy , smile .
There are other steps but these are the basic ones you should focus on
CONCLUSION
Growing an online business takes time but the results are endless. Your start might be discouraging but don’t be discouraged . These skills that you’re learning will continue to pay off for a lifetime to come. Don’t give up
Thanks for reading , please do share this post with friends
About Author
