What online things do I need to have in place for my business?
Are you thinking about starting your own business? Or perhaps you already have your own business, but you’re not sure whether you’ve got all your digital ducks in a row. I have worked with thousands of businesses, and I am often asked, “What online things do I need to have in place for my business?”.
So here’s a list of things that you really need to have in place in order to start, run and grow your business online.
Your business checklist for establishing your digital presence
- Buy a domain name – In order to have a professional presence online, you will need a domain name (yourname.co.uk). This is going to be one of the first things your customers will see as a part of your brand, so let’s make sure we get this first, and that we get it right. Remember that your domain name should be memorable (fredsmithswindowcleanersinmiddlesbrough.co.uk is not memorable).
- Set up your email – Now we’ve got your domain name sorted, we can use it for your email address. Please, ditch your yahoo.com email address and start telling me that you’re a serious, professional business.
- Launch a website – It’s one thing to own a domain name but you need a website on the other end to justify owning the website. You can use this website to advertise your business, letting visitors know about your services and what’s new about your business on your blog. There are several ways you can make your website, you can use; WordPress(it’s what we recommend), Squarespace and Weebly. There are lot’s more out there, use one you are comfortable using. Another thing you need to take into account is website hosting. Finding the right web host is very important for your website, it allows your website to take high volumes of website traffic without crashing and allows you to store your website. Some good web hosting sites are 123Reg, GoDaddy or WPEngine.
- Identify which social media platform(s) are best for your business – you might be quick to snap up every handle on social media in your businesses name. For example, we have @EntMdeSmpl on both Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. But is it pertinent for your business to be all social media channels? In other words, do you think a law firm would get much return on investment on TikTok? Think wisely about the relevancy to your business and whether you can produce engaging content on that social network.
- Lead generation – now you have done all the previous steps, how are you going to generate and capture leads? A great way is posting engaging content on your social media networks and website that relevant to your audience. This has generated the lead but how do I get in touch with them? A great service you can use is Mailchimp. Mailchimp is the All-In-One integrated marketing platform for small businesses, to grow your business on your terms. You can embed contact forms onto your website that collects you visitors information for you to market to via email and/or by capturing their phone numbers.
That our 5 step checklist guide to things that you really need to have in place in order to start, run and grow your business online. If you want to learn more feel free check out courses we run on growing a business.
