A fortunate stroke of serendipity and avoiding zemblanity; that is what Shakespeare would have advised us for a successful startup! Well that was back then when the world was spread across 7 different continents. But today, thanks to the internet, it is one giant piece of land where an individual can expect to meet a new nationality every other day! With social media taking over our lives, an average human spends countless hours in a day staring at his/her phone, scouting for things that are not even remotely related to them. And this has led to the brainy and inventive businessmen among us to trade our commodities on the internet. Don’t they say, ‘catch the fish where it’s in the abundance?’ But hold on! There is one surprising thing to all of this, even though the world is glued to their smartphones and tablets, an average human spends only about 15 seconds on a website! That’s it. But should this stat shatter your dreams of a successful online startup and stop you from designing the website you had always wished for? Absolutely not! Here, we list down some of the essential points to consider before you take the first step in digital marketing:
1. Spend time in learning.
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then, you have to play it better than everyone else. Spend time in visiting websites that attract millions of viewers on a daily basis. Notice the small fragments of design that attract its visitors and most importantly, makes them stay on it. ‘You can do it much better than them!’ Write this down on a large sheet of paper and paste it on the wall of your bedroom. Confidence in yourself is the first secret of success.
2. It’s your own shopping mall.
Your website is your digital personality. It’s like an industrialist giving you the contract of your life to construct a shopping mall in practically every city of the world. How would you build it? But natural, you will carefully place every piece of steel and every inch of concrete in the right areas. Same applies to your website, you want the visitors to gaze through your website with interest and not with a yawn. Create only the necessary tabs so that your customers are not lost and have forgotten why they had come here in the first place. Too many drop-downs will even make your website load slow. You can also advertise and sell your products on your website; you can choose from the available and convenient different online payment services for your business.
3. The social media link.
This idea can guarantee a 100% success rate and has technically no loss associated with it. The world loves Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and their likes. And your presence on social media would mean more visitors and hence, more traffic. Your job is half done. Social media website has the ability of these platforms to spread news like wild fire; hence building online presence is very important.
4. Show that you exist.
We have all wasted time in writing those jumbled terms to prove that we are not robots after all. That is the point of it all, you are not a robot! If you are a team of people running a startup, then make sure you post a picture of your team, an elegant one, somewhere on your website captioned with the names and the role each member plays. Remember Steve Job’s famous picture where he poses with one hand under his chin? You could do something similar if you are the ‘Solo King’ of your website.This creates a healthy business environment between the buyer and the seller. And believe it or not, your customers will go curious and stalk you at every possible place. A lift in curiosity simply means that your customers are going to remember you for a long time.
5. A mobile version.
Most e-business websites come to a crawl when opened on a mobile phone. Customers dread this slowness and ultimately lose interest and look for alternatives. We strongly suggest the new startups to spend some extra time in designing a website which has a mobile friendly version. Trust us, it will work wonders for you. And once your startup begins to reap the reward it deserves, you could even save a bit and invest in app development. An online shopping app is the most user-friendly way of online shopping.
We understand that an idea of a startup begins very well in a creative head but when it comes to the implementation part, where the costs have to be penned down on a sheet of paper, small businesses suffer the most. It is important that every small bit and piece of risk has been evaluated and the risks have been calculated before the launch date. We hope that the above mentioned tips lift your business to unprecedented heights where someday you might have your name inked in ‘the most successful startups of the year’ club!
Lena Burkut