What is online business?

Online Business, also known as e-business or electronic commerce , refers to conducting business transactions over the Internet, which includes exchange of information of value in the form of products and services as well as payments, using web-based technologies.

– Fraser, Fraser & Macdonald(2000)

Conducting a business online is no more different  from an ordinary business except that it’s being facilitated by a web based technology. In online businesses, transactions can be done 100% online such as for music videos, airline tickets, hotel booking, banking services etc. But in some other instances, transactions can be done in mixed modes whereas purchase and payment are done online and the delivery is done offline.

Why should you focus on online business?

The globalized and ever-changing, developing digital world has created a virtual and electronic marketplace which enables businesses to grow beyond geographical and time barriers. Once the business goes online, the reach it receives is tremendous.

Are you in need of a thriving online business? Read on!

Recognize the need and fill it! In order to boost your business or scale up, find the market first rather than brainstorming to come up with a product!! In order to find the market, you must find a group of individuals who seek for a solution for their matters. You can find the market by doing a research on online forums and analyzing the questions visitors ask or by doing a keyword research and recognizing your capacity to fulfill the requirement or mainly by visiting your competitors websites and taking note of what they are failing to meet.

‘What’s in it for me?’ Think like a customer; “what’s in it for me?” Before you start the business it’s utterly important that you have a rough sketch of your plan in order to arouse the necessity of the visitor and persuade them to buy the product. You can simply start with an interesting, compelling headline, establish the credibility that your product can solve the relevant problems, how the product benefits the customer, make an offer along with a guarantee and do the sale!

Design and build your website. Once you are contented with the market and the product it’s high time for a website!! REMEMBER that you need the best intelligible website for your business! You may have fewer than five seconds to impress and grab someone’s attention otherwise they are gone and YOU WILL LOSE A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER! ( Need a Website? Contact Us )

Search engine to drive buyers to your site. Pay-per-click advertising is a surprisingly good way to get traffic to a brand new website and a business. It has two advantages over waiting for the traffic to come to you organically. First, PPC ads show up on the search pages immediately, and second, PPC ads allow you to test different keywords, as well as headlines, prices and selling approaches. Not only do you get immediate traffic, but you can also use PPC ads to discover your best, highest-converting keywords. Then you can distribute the keywords throughout your site in your copy and code, which will help your rankings in the organic search results.

Establish your reputation. People use internet to find information. Give away free expert content, create articles or anything that people find useful, distribute them to social media. ALWAYS ADD A LINK TO YOUR SITE IN ANY PIECE OF INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE!! Be an active member in sites where your target market hangs out. You will reach new visitors which could turn into LOYAL CUSTOMERS!!

Use email marketing. Creating and opt-in-list will obviously help you to create more leads, whereas the subscribers give permission to email and connect with them. And email marketing is way cheaper than any of the other marketing as well!!Once the business has obtained a long list of potential customers, and they can start sending products information in the form of newsletter to their emails or just give a call!

If you are a fresher for business online, consider the above points and if are already in the business for a while a quick review may pinpoint what you have  been neglecting! Make sure you speak the visitor’s language!