Have a start-up website idea?
Congratulations! You’re at the beginning of an exciting adventure as an entrepreneur. If this is your first venture as a business owner we can help you with some beginner tips. Forewarned is forearmed – learn from those who have experience. Beginning your start-up with the right infrastructure and strategies in place will avoid costly corrections down the track.
The right legal framework and a business plan
Start your business by registering your business name, deciding on a legal business structure and applying for an ABN for your new venture. If you are having a logo designed or have a new product or invention investigate trademarks and patents also. Protect your intellectual property by having safeguards in place.
There are some great on-line resources for creating a business plan. They will help you think your way through your business goals and step you through the best avenues for market research. This will help inform your marketing strategy.
Who is your customer?
You will benefit enormously from the outset by having a very clear profile of your target customer. It will keep you on-track with all subsequent business decisions: choice of logo, branding, website design, etc. Without a clear vision to keep you heading in your chosen direction you may end up straying from your path, wasting precious time and energy. Remember in business – and in life – you can’t be all things to all people. Be clear about who your ideal and most likely customer is and stick with it.
There has never been a better time to start a business. But do you have all the necessary skills and know-how?
Some expert advice and experience now can save you lots of headaches, time and money later.
The digital landscape has created a whole new world of marketing savvy and technically-proficient experts. If you’re not one of them seriously consider employing one to help you.
The advent of cloud-computing and the array of sophisticated software that integrates and unites websites with all of your business activities has created amazing opportunities for start-ups.
You can start your business from your home – you don’t need to buy or lease expensive bricks and mortar stores and sit around waiting for people to walk past. With a computer and the internet the world really is your oyster.
Getting your product in front of people’s eyes has never been easier. And we’re talking a lot of eyes. If your start-up involves selling a product you are on the cusp of a very exciting time but we recommend getting the right advice and help before you start so that you can get a competitive advantage with the right technology.
Getting your product to your customer has never been easier
The cost of international and domestic shipping/freighting is getting more affordable and more accessible to small businesses. The imminent arrival of on-line retail behemoth Amazon will shake up the Australian e-commerce landscape also.
Carefully investigate how you will get your product from the manufacturer to your customer. Don’t let it be an expensive surprise after you’ve received your first order.
The importance of a beautiful and functional website for your business
The truism about globalisation prompting the search for more and more unique products is evident everywhere on social media platforms.
After developing and perfecting your product, marketing is the next most important action you can take to ensure the success of your start-up. It’s a very crowded market out there but your website can help – the best marketing starts with a beautiful, user-friendly website.
Just as all proverbial roads lead to Rome, so too do all marketing platforms lead to your website
This is where you show customers how professional and trustworthy your business is. Google search results, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – they all exist, from your businesses’ perspective – to drive potential customers to your website where they can buy your product.
Your website is the engine room of your start-up. It is where all information passes through. Integrating specially designed modules from popularly-used software programs with your website will allow you to filter and analyse that information to inform and enhance your business practices.
Your website can help you in many ways:
- act as a collection point for all kinds of data and insights about your current and potential customers. You can use Google analytics to understand their behaviour, how they found you, what pages and products they like or don’t like, what they are saying about your start-up on social media platforms, etc.
- integrate all your backhouse business operations – inventory, shipping, sales, accounting, supplier information, etc – and allow you to draw all the data you require from those various databases to one simple dashboard. This will save you a lot of headache and time searching for information. Particularly when your accountant is pressuring you to meet reporting compliance deadlines or when you are making re-ordering decisions.
- integrate your e-commerce activities with your customer relationship management system. You can automate your email campaigns using the insights from your customer data. This could include offering discounts to customers who’ve left items in their shopping cart but didn’t proceed to check-out. Or you can build positive customer relations by giving special Happy Birthday discounts for example.
Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media marketing to help your potential customers find you
As you’ve seen web design isn’t just about having a pretty site. Your website is a tool that works behind the scenes providing your business with practical benefits.
Another key benefit is that your website can appear on google search results pages and in front of potential customers.
Google is the preferred search engine for most Australians so you need to ensure that your start up is visible here. There are lots of back-end design tweaks that help Google recognise your website as one to show to Googlers who maybe searching for your type of product.
This leads in to social media marketing. Apart from the scarily sophisticated and broad access to customer demographics that Facebook and Instagram have (you should probably have a presence on both of these platforms), digital marketing analysts suspect that Google recognises and rewards websites that are active on these platforms.
Call for a Customised Consultation
Thoughtful website design and marketing will give your start-up a high impact and credible presence. Are you ready to begin? We Are Web can manage this side of your business for you leaving you free to pursue your entrepreneurial vision. Call us today on (03) 86091078.
