Your company is up and running, but just not getting the business you want – or worse, you’re spending too much money on marketing and getting too little return on your investment. It may not be the effort you’re putting in or the hours you’re working that will make a difference for your business; some factors that will impact your success are often overlooked by entrepreneurs.
The name you choose for your business and buying a domain, your understanding of your customers and even the effort you bring to the table when it comes to website marketing to existing buyers will have a huge impact on your success. Each of these topics is critical for a small business, but they are often overlooked in the excitement of the startup
Choose Your Name Wisely
Whether you started your business on a whim or as a hobby and then just launched a website to sell from, you may not have considered all the ramifications of your name choice and domain name. Naming your business is tough work, and even if you have a name you love, you still need to come up with that all important domain name.
Your business name may already be awesome, but someone else could have already snagged it as a domain name; you’ll need to carefully consider not only your name but the extension (.com, .co, .net or other) to make sure your site really showcases what you do.
Choosing a name and domain name registration:
- What do you do? Your name should clearly relay what you do so visitors can tell right away
- Keep it short, but memorable: A domain name needs to be easy to spell, easy to type and easy to remember so people can actually use it
- Skip the special characters: Unless you actually must have a number to convey what you do, skip numbers and punctuation, it can be confusing and some numbers, including 1 and 0 can easily be mistaken for letters
- Think long term: If you offer dog walking now, but may want to expand into grooming, pet toys or sitting later, then restricting your name so that it only includes information about walking dogs could impact your business later.
Carefully reconsider your business name when you are ready to scale up and start a website; you’ll be able to make the most of your domain name investment and ensure the right customers are finding you.
Consider consolidating your domain name registration with your hosting provider by seeing if they offer domain name registration as well. Companies like GoDaddy offer domains and are a major hosting provider as well. And if you have an Ecommerce site with Shopify you can also register your domain through them. This makes integration and billing much easier
Who is My Customer?
Big businesses use buyer personas to hone down their market so they can correctly target their marketing efforts. If you have no idea who buys from you or why they do so, you will have a hard time coming up with promotions and content that really resonates with your prospects. You’ll also waste money by advertising in the wrong places or creating content that does not speak to your true customer’s needs.
Think about who buys from you – and look at your current customer list to get a real idea of who they are. You will likely spot some clear trends. Are all your buyers female? DO they all have kids? Do they all buy items for a specific hobby or pastime? Where do they hang out online and where do they get the information they need to make decisions? The answers to these questions allow you to gain a clear understanding of your buyer; once you understand them, you’ll be better equipped to target your marketing messages.
Acquisition vs. Retention
In the beginning, most of us are delighted to see those customer numbers grow, and acquiring new customers will help you expand your business. You should make sure that you are not ignoring your current customers, though. Overlooking the people who have purchased from you already is leaving money on the table.
People who bought from you once (and were satisfied with the experience) are far more likely to buy again and require far less of a marketing investment, too. If you need to make the most of your marketing money or want to boost revenues, make sure your plans include rewarding existing customers and targeting them with some of your marketing efforts.
There’s a lot to handle at once when you are starting a business, and your site name and how you purchase a domain name, existing customers and buyer personas may have been overlooked in the excitement of getting started. Each of these aspects of business will play a key role in your success and ensure you can continue growing the business you love.
I hope you enjoyed this article about important things to consider when starting your business.
Interested in more articles about starting a business?
Read My Posts:
- 6 Tips For Strong Business Partnerships
- Essentials of Business Management
Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of Bootstrap Business
Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
Mike Schiemer Builds Better Business
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