Internet Selling Guidelines for Start-Ups
by Christine Jaros | December 4, 2024
Too often start-up clients invest their diminishing bank account into digital ads and online marketing with minimal to zero results. This includes the not-so-cheap e-commerce development of their own website, as well as subsequent brand and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) paid marketing. Then a month, two months, three months or more later still little to no sales. “What am I doing wrong?” is the common question. Is it the keywords, or the messaging? Or maybe the sales funnel needs to be more aligned with the posts? Well, it can be all of these things, or none. If only it were so simple, to have one template that can be filled with the appropriate info, posted to create a selling website, and boom, sales! But alas, no such luck.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. There is a way to begin selling on the internet. First, you’ll need to sit in your customer’s chair and conduct a little bit of critical analysis on your business and its products/services. Let’s start with the critical analysis portion:
Critical Analysis:
Answer these questions with a yes, no, or minimal word response.
- What are you selling? A product? Or a service?
- Do you have a brick-and-mortar retail store, a service office or facility?
- Is your product/service unique, rare, one of a kind, a representation amongst healthy competition in a market area, or one of millions?
- Is your brand name a household name (meaning extremely well known like Coke)? Or do you have a modest brand awareness-more than friends and family, but less than a local icon? Maybe you have some industry recognition from trade associations and former colleagues, but they are not necessarily your target buyer/decision maker? Or are you (at this moment) unknown but aspiring to be a market leader?
- What is your single sale profit?
- What is the internet selling standards/activities in your market segment?
- For this product/service, does it matter to the customer that my brand name is known? Or do they care more about obtaining quality at a fair price?
Take your answers, read them over again, and hold them aside as we will return to this list.
Website Selling
Possessing your own branded website feels like the ultimate achievement of staking out your business and planting its existence on the web with a resounding “I am Here.” It can be an important branding element containing and dispersing your company’s identity, credentials, competitive advantages, as well as your story. It can also serve as your selling platform.
Company Website Must Haves
A company website comes with some heavy lifts, and you may not have the technological knowledge to create it, therefore spending the purse to get it done is required at times. Then, there is also the website maintenance, which includes more spending on:
- Hosting fees
- Updates
- Plug-ins for business pivot’s you may make
It is true that a company website gives you more control over selling algorithms than other selling sites. However, your build-out (coding) must be on point, meaning inclusion of:
- Great keywords/phrases
- Correct use of descriptors
- Backlinks
- Testimonials
- Blogs
- Lead magnets
- Call To Actions
- Nuanced customer service and more
- Professional photos
- Logos
- Videos
Does your website look polished? It’s not as simple as loading iPhone images of inventory, filling in a generic template and hitting publish.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing
Without the back-end essentials, your website will never achieve exposure, let alone traffic. Did I mention you need to load faster than Superman on all devices, especially mobile? Building your brand name means search engine optimization – more technology speak. In a competitive space, it takes longer for most to attain that first page return to a search query than anticipated. Staying there requires a tremendous amount of work, but converting traffic to sales is an entirely different set of activities.
I am not saying a start up should not create their own website, but I am saying that in creating a website, you need to be brutally honest about the purpose and timing of its creation, especially at the start up phase. Why are you creating it? List three end results benefiting your customer, and three end results benefiting your company. Consider only your first year in business as your time-bound period. Can you achieve these results initially using social media and other selling platforms? What are competitor/industry best practices?
How, When, And Where Your Customer Shops
It’s time now to put yourself in your customer’s seat. Are they at the office at a desk? Waiting to board a plane? Running errands, mall hopping, meeting folks for brunch? Chances are your customers are multi-tasking – surfing with a purpose while doing other daily tasks which means convenience, quality, and expediency are important. To sell successfully, you must know your customer’s shopping habits and be present where they are.
Who is your Customer?
Is your customer a local, state or federal organization? A non-profit company? A business? Or a consumer? You can have all of these categories (channels) as customers, but each requires a different approach and set of activities. Trying to sell all using one approach is like riding multiple horses with one saddle. Often this is where content and messaging miss the target customer mark. Your critical analysis list answered the question of ‘what’ your customers are shopping for, so now let’s marry it all together and look at reaching and selling your customers.
In the vast world of digital marketing, there are many sources for connecting with and conveying your message about your product/service, below are just a few that you must try using when reaching your customer base:
- Display: Sources that show or tell about your product/service using targeting message vehicles like blogs, websites, banner ads, YouTube videos, and other selling platforms.
- Social media: Sources which focus on social interaction and conversation. Your message is seen and discussed. Its personal and communal. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Word of mouth referrals all apply.
- Search Sources: Targeting the right person and right time and providing utility based on customer web queries with platforms such as Google SEO and Google Ads.
- One-on-One: Sources include direct to customer outreach via emails and SMS messages.
- Other traditional (non-digital) media and sources: like radio ads, post cards, cold calls, and live presentations may re-route you away from the digital world into other channels for selling performance.
In the next online selling article, read up on some suggestions that can help you sell better online depending on your target customer groups.
Christine Jaros
Consultants, Jaros, TampaSpecialties: E-commerce, Marketing & Sales, Startup Assistance, Organizational Development Christine Jaros provides business consulting in the areas of startup, business plan development, marketing and sales, e-commerce, finance, wholesaling and retailing, and business management. Before joining the Florida SBDC at USF, Jaros owned her own apparel wholesale sales and consulting business in New York City for 14 years. She has more than 35 years of experience as a professional businesswoman. Jaros built a global-focused career specializing in manufacturing, marketing and sales with organizations including Bidermann Industries, Liz Claiborne Inc, and Hartmarx Corp. Working with iconic brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, Polo-Ralph Lauren and Austin Reed, Jaros grew her portfolio of skills to include international sourcing and distribution. She is a certified TTI DISC Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst and TTI DISC Certified Professional Driving Forces Analyst and a certified Associate Business Continuity Professional (ABCP). Jaros obtained her bachelor’s in business management and marketing from Ohio University. She went on to study fashion and apparel in Paris, France, and later received a finance-focused Executive MBA from Pace University in Manhattan.