5 Steps for Getting Your Business Online

It’s not enough to have knowledge of the internet — you need to know how to get your business online. If you’re still stuck at ‘getting your business online’, then this article is for you. We’ll cover what it takes, from choosing a domain name and hosting to creating a press release and social media strategy, as well as five steps in the process.

1. Choosing a domain name and hosting

When you want to start a blog, you need to choose a domain name and then sign up for a hosting account. A domain name is the name of your site which can be any word or phrase you want. I recommend using a keyword-rich domain name because it increases the chances of people finding your site. However, keyword-rich domain names can make your site appear more relevant. If I wanted to write about Instagram, for example, I would select the Instagram keyword “how to grow your content marketing on Instagram” as my domain name registration. This immediately gives me a list of related blog posts that I can choose to include when I create my blog. However, hosting your own website isn’t just about adding related content to your article. It has to contribute to the overall user experience. IWe use WordPress. It’s free, easy to use, and most of the features are built in. Most importantly, WordPress.com has a secure do-it-yourself blogging option called free web hosting. However, there are definitely pros and cons to using a free web hosting account. If you plan to use free web hosting for years, you can save money by not paying yearly fees for your hosting account. I would recommend you invest around $5–10 a year to make sure you don’t lose your hosting account with changes to your hosting plan. Additionally, if you used a website builder like Squarespace, you lose the various free web design options they provide. For example, you don’t get a free domain name. As a result, you can’t use the free design, CSS, or JS tools WordPress.com provides. Hosting your own website shouldn’t be difficult and you gain a lot of value by investing the time into creating a great website. However, if someone stole your profitable website, they would be able to create an identical website using free web hosting. Thus, if you decide to use a free web hosting account, make sure you create an amazing home for your blog that makes people come back for more. Some users prefer something a bit more robust. There are many options to assess. See our post where we help breakdown the HubSpot CSM compared to WordPress.

2. Creating a press release

Press releases can be used to inform the public about your business, your products or services. They should be short and to the point, and focus on the benefits of your product or service. They should be written in a way that will grab the attention of the journalist or blogger who will be covering your story. Read the fine print before you send your release out, though. Most will also include copyright information, which you should have noted in the release. Most press releases also include links to press releases from other press. Sites with large collections of press releases include PR Newswire, Dive Into Media, The Bosley Centre for Journalism, and PR Newswire. From time to time a press release can be submitted without links and the publication that accepts the release will put it into their archive. That is also okay — other outlets may choose to use it without links in the future, just to include it in their collection. The release post-submission should include a copy of your press release, a link back to your original press release, a brief biography of yourself, a brief summary of the press release, links to web sites with more information and to contact information for journalists interested in talking about your story. To publish a press release, you will most likely need to rent a press release distribution firm. Having your website set up slowly is much easier and helps you avoid hiccups at the start of your press release publishing process. There are many other marketing techniques that various businesses use to build their presence online and be heard. But these five are the most important and are critical to your success as a small business. Your success is going to depend heavily on the coverage of your community of supporters. For example, if you run a microbrewery and you release a delicious porter via your press release that goes viral, you most likely will see strong attention coming your way.

3. Social media strategy and content creation

3. Social media strategy and content creation Social media can provide you with an opportunity to interact with your audience in a more personal way than you would through other platforms. However, you need to be mindful of not only the content you share, but the frequency with which you share it. Today, marketers are more aware of social media and more focused on how to use it to their advantage. A big part of this is due to the attention economy. As more and more people spend more time online and more time communicating digitally, social media has become an integral part of modern life. Social media acts as the main medium through which one can exchange data with contemporary society. Beyond just participating in the conversation, brands now have an opportunity to expand their customer outreach through social media. Brands have also become more aware of their customer’s long-term intentions when it comes to who they choose to surround themselves with. According to a study conducted in 2019 by YouGov: 69% of British teenagers prefer to be Facebook friends with influencers, compared to a mere 33% of Gen Z. These findings put marketing executives’ minds at ease when it comes to reaching potential customers. With this in mind, you should consider creating engaging and topical social media content that is timely and relevant to your business. The world is now connected in so many ways — through social media, online shopping, working remotely, video calls, and online education — it’s important that you keep up with what’s new. If you intend to build your business on social media, here are three tips that will help you maximize the impact of your content.

4.content marketing tactics

We have 4 content marketing tactics listed below, which are: 1) Blogging 2) Podcasting 3) Video 4) Community building It’s essential to dig into your niche, personal brand, and audience whilst creating your content. When creating content about fewer up-and-coming topics (i.e. excluding the biggies and trends), you’ll always breach the 9–5 ‘busy-ness’ mindset, with less time taken from your day for productive work. We can’t blame corporations, as they’ll pay ridiculously high salaries for people to write blog content, tirelessly. However, one Jataka study showed that if you do ban the high-paying jobs on socials, then it will lead to high income for hobbyists. Blogging is dead! Long live podcasting. Here, we’ll talk about how you can make both blogging and podcasting work for you. There are a few simple reasons why blogging and podcasting won’t work for you. On one hand, blogging sucks. My favorite blog post was written on amazon where I found the expected title, subtitle, image, and author info. On the other hand, podcasting sucks. Not only does it take time, money and energy from your day-job, but it also impacts your personal brand. Writing a blog post about what you love and why it’s important to others is kind of genius. Writing a blog post about podcasting on a busy day is just plain old stupid. Vaynerchuk advises to self-publish your blog posts in WordPress, Slack, or Substack. However, you have to be extremely careful with content moderation. There’s a high chance you’ll lose followers if you put your very sensitive thoughts into the public domain. For example, if you post too much about religion in your blog, then people may label you as a heretic. Consequently, you may lose followers and look like a lost cause. We know you love Google, so you like being in SEO heaven.

5. Steps for getting your business online

There are five steps that you can follow to get your business online and start building your brand. These steps are: getting a website, setting up your social media accounts, finding a product to sell and/or hire a consultant to help you with product sourcing, and finally, building your email list. Creating a professional looking and sounding website is one of the most important steps you can take in order to establish yourself online. You do not need professional web designers to create professional looking websites. With the help of a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, you can build a website within a few hours. If you don’t want to design your own website, there are many WordPress themes and templates options to choose. You can strategically choose what sections, images, colors, font choices, buttons, and navigation tabs and features you would like on your website. Choose your words carefully for your website making the most out of your surroundings to make your audience feel comfortable at your place. While you can replace some of your graphics with online templates, don’t get confused and switch too much between different styles of your brand. Start with the things that are going to have a visible impact on your audience and use them consistently. A great logo will make up part of this branding and you need one that has your brand colors, font choice, and style. While these can be customized, stay consistent. A great example of this is the United Colors of Benetton. From the company’s 2000 launch, they only changed the colors of their apparel. When you go to their website, you will see a black and white logo with the colors of grey and white. Over time, they changed their colors to be more vibrant. This decision continued to build the brand identity. The same applies to your social media pages. You do not need a professional photographer or videographers to produce professional looking pictures and videos, but having some will increase your chances of getting people’s attention.