How to Succeed Online

If you’re a business owner, it can be tough to figure out what to do first and which things will help your business grow. There are many theories about how to get your business to succeed online, but it usually boils down to just three things:

1. Find customers.

To find customers, you need to think about who would actually need the product or service you’re offering.

Do you know what you’re really selling? You are selling answers to problems. So who needs the answers you’re offering? This is your ideal customer.

• Many people in the world don’t have your particular problem — or at least they don’t realize they do. You might have to help people understand that they have a need.
• Some people realize they have a problem, but they have no idea that an answer even exists. You might need to educate them.
• Some people realize there are solutions to their problem, but they don’t know aboutyour solution.

All of these people are potential customers. Identifying these groups of customers is half the battle!

2. Get customers to visit your website.

Once potential customers hear about your solution, you can invite them to visit you by providing them with content that actually helps them, rather than trying to just sell your business.

With so many websites competing for the same traffic as yours, set yourself apart as different by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and thinking about how you can provide useful solutions to their problems.

3. Get customers to take action.

In order to succeed online, you’ll need to be sure your website does an effective job of leading your customers to take action. Imagine that your website is a river, and your customers are floating through it on a canoe.

• Why should your customer continue to navigate your site, rather than hopping off the river at any point?
• At which spots along the river do most of your customers leave your website?
• Does each page on your site logically show your customers where to go next, or do they feel lost?

Think about it. If you offer solutions to problems that real customers face, if you present your solutions to them in a way they can understand, and if you clearly show them how to obtain your solutions, your website will certainly succeed!