Traditional to digital: Moving your business online!

When you consider the abundant opportunities that exist online, from extensive international audiences to round-the-clock opening hours, it makes sense for any bricks and mortar business to establish a digital presence.

However, several entrepreneurs and enterprises will consider the move daunting and difficult, even though it doesn’t need to be. In fact, many aspects of business can stay the same, such as payroll and accounts payable.

With this in mind, here’s a brief step-by-step guide on transitioning to digital.

Register a domain and build a website

First of all, you’ll need a place for your business to reside online. Thankfully, registering a domain and building a website is easier, quicker, and more affordable than ever before. So much so that you can even do it yourself.

Website builders feature simple-to-edit templates that not only look great but also ensure your most important information, such as product and contact details, can be easily accessed by online audiences.

Set-up an ecommerce strategy

The selling of products and services online is known as e-commerce. The internet’s most popular website builders usually have this functionality built-in, allowing your customers to make purchases just as easily as they would do in-store.

Your input will be required for product or service descriptions, which require the kind of keywords online users search for as well as compelling copy to convince your customers to buy. You’ll also need to take professional quality photos to accompany your inventory.

Come up with a marketing plan

One of the best aspects of doing business online is that a vast array of marketing techniques and tactics are at your disposal. Many of which are either free of charge or inexpensive to implement.

Take social media for example. Even though you should strongly consider paid-for promotion due to the accurate targeting options on offer, simply interacting with customers on sites like Facebook and Twitter will give your brand a stronger, more personable identity.

Make allowances for growth

It’s extremely difficult to predict whether any business will find success online. But seeing as this is where the majority of consumer activity now takes place, you should start as you mean to go on and make allowances for growth.

Finding flexible solutions for your virtual storage requirements is a lot easier than the physical world. Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses operate online, featuring the ability to scale up or scale down as required and in a much simpler way than would happen with a physical premises, say.

Prioritize the customer’s experience

For all the advantages that online business affords, it also presents a number of challenges. The biggest one is arguably how much competition you’ll come up against, as tens or even thousands of other enterprises are fighting for the same space as you.

It might sound like a cliché, but the best way to overcome this obstacle is to prioritize the customer’s experience. Social media users respond well to brands that build and nurture meaningful relationships, while Google is constantly updating its algorithm to favor those who give greater precedence to the customer experience.