Every budding entrepreneur has various elements to get down before their startup goes “online.” 

Way before the “on” button is pushed, you have to make sure that your finances are in order, your logistics and value chain support is efficient (where it’s applicable), you have a solid sales process in order, and you also (perhaps obviously) have a substantial client base at the ready with a target market in line too.

Then you need to make sure that your marketing function is top class. Even as a small or medium-sized business, you’re not going to get your product or service to where it should be without some level of marketing. The sophistication of which will depend on your goals but at any level, you’ll need to understand how sales and marketing as a function will apply to your business.

…and speaking of marketing, if you’re planning on taking the promotion and data collection function of marketing and communications seriously, you’re going to need an online presence. But it’s just not good enough to have a website with a “contact us” button anymore. Those days are long gone.

But, you also don’t need to retain the services of a $10k a month agency to get your online function down; in fact, we’ve done the work for you and created this foundational guide to creating your very best possible online presence even, when you’re starting from scratch.

We’ve looked at various online sources and cross-referenced a few learning sites as well. It seems to be that when you’re building your online presence from scratch with limited or no prior experience, you can narrow down your most critical must-haves to these four elements:

1.    Platform

2.    Exposure

3.    Back end operations

4.    Contactability

Here’s a quick breakdown. We thoroughly recommend using an agency to help you get situated. Someone like Webx360 can help you navigate your way through territory you might not be used to or familiar with, so check them out.

PLATFORM

Platform means online services like your social media pages, the company that will design and host your website, and how the various online elements that relate to your business integrate and communicate with each other. (You’ll be surprised how technical this can get, even for small businesses).

EXPOSURE

All the “platform integration” and the fanciest of websites will mean nothing if you don’t have a mechanism in place to gain that critical exposure you need to drive traffic towards your website or social media. This also means that you have to have a clear plan for what you want your online engagements to look like. 

All the traffic in the world means nothing if you’re not getting something from it.

BACK END OPERATIONS

This means your business’s sales, logistics, and accounting functions are all working well with everything that has to happen outside of the public glare to complete a deal. When everything is working well, and all the elements of your business know what they’re doing, you will learn how to run your “back end.” in other words:

Customer clicks onto your website, then – they browse your service or products – they decide that they want to purchase something – they complete the purchase – your sales team is notified of the purchase – this is rerouted to your fulfillment center – the product is despatched – the product is delivered – after-sales service kicks in.

Depending on how big your business is at this stage, all of those functions may be, well – you, but it’s a good idea to start developing those processes now because with some hard work and good luck – you’re going to need some help eventually.

CONTACTABILITY

Finally, as cool or slick as it may be, your online presence is not worth anything if there is no means of contact. These days this could be in the form of automated bots or a contact center or email reply service, but in any event, you’ll want to make sure that this service operates seamlessly with your social media functions.

Technology is continually evolving and changing everything about the way we do…well, everything. But it doesn’t have to be intimidating. Take the time to learn as much as you can, get some expert advice, and understand where your weaknesses lay when building your online presence – we can’t all be superstars at everything.