How to translate your offline business online

The Internet has given an opportunity to start a business with minimum cost. For example, to make your online clothing store, you do not need to spend money on rent, pay consultants, expensive display and purchase of goods. You can purchase things on the fact of the order, to engage in the processing of applications on their own and only invest in advertising on the web.

In addition, there are no restrictions in terms of audience reach: it is possible to tell about myself everywhere. Sounds pretty promising, and eventually online sites have become attractive not only for start-ups, but also for successful offline media players.

However, with all its pros, online does not fit all: hardly a convenience store in a residential area, you must have a website.

But the workshop for making keys can move and on the Internet, but it should not only exist there: a significant portion of customers come for such a service in place residence. So first of all you must decide if you need to go online. To do this, answer the three basic questions of the checklist:

1. As the target audience comes for your service or product? For example, if you do cakes to order, then the potential buyer contacts you on the advice of friends or through an advertising sign. So, you can promote your site on the Internet on the most relevant search queries ( "Buy a cake in Moscow"), to develop the group and pages in social networks, as well as to invest in the content - more about each method, we'll below. If you sell coffee to go, the customers choose your point of convenience of location (close to home or office) or impulsive (attracted flavor of your window, caught a colorful sign). In this case, go to the Internet there is no point.
2. Whether justified your cost of doing business offline? Calculate how much you need to spend on the selected method of promotion, and compare with the cost of the tools that you have used previously.
3. Does the presence of the internet can provide you with a sufficient amount of new customers? Perhaps you do not need to go completely online, and it is reasonable to combine with offline business. For example, customers who live in your city, consistently come in your boutique brand clothes and make a good revenue. Some of them are not willing to shop online as usual ritual values ​​- such buyers do not lose. In this online store, delivery to Russia will significantly expand the geography of your presence. It is logical not to close the showroom, and supplement it with the online version.

If the business translation online wins in all respects, the answer is obvious. But the approach to the issue should be consciously: to choose the right strategy and draw up a suitable plan. We have prepared a step by step guide that will help all who are faced with this topic for the first time.

Step 1. Identify your target audience

Portrait of the target audience (CA) affects the channel selection and the method of on-line sales of goods and services, determines the content strategy and style communication with the customer. CA detected by several criteria: geographic, socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral. Make a checklist on these grounds.

1. The geographical criterion

Locating the target audience based on your suggestions. If you implement the goods, it determines the geography of deliveries, eg all Russia, its part of the CIS or just your area. If you provide a service and it can not be done remotely, the CA will be concentrated in your area.

Example: Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

2. Socio-demographic criteria

This group includes gender, age, education, income and the scope of activity of representatives of Central Asia. You can explore this topic by analyzing the customer base that has developed over the lifetime of a business offline. If no such information, then conduct a survey among current customers.

Example: men from 25 to 40 years with higher education, average income and work in the IT-sphere.

3. Psychographic and behavioral criteria

Here's a little more complicated, and require direct interaction with current customers. Moreover, in order to explore these options, you can create a poll. Make it small, about five points, and invite all who will take it, some kind of benefit (a gift or a discount on your next purchase). So it will take part in as many people as possible. In addition, each survey should begin with questions about the sex and age of the respondent - for clarity of the picture.

For example, you have a sports nutrition store. To determine the psychographic portrait of your customers, ask them the following questions with answer options:

• How often do you buy sports nutrition?

1) I do it for the first time. 2) Stable once a month. 3) In mood — when I start to train.

• Are you satisfied with the price of products?

1) Yes. 2) No. 3) In general, yes, but it would be cheaper.

• Sport — is your occupation or hobby?

1) I am a professional athlete. 2) I've been doing amateur sport. 3) I am now a beginner athlete, but plan to tie his career with the sport.

• How often do you make spontaneous purchases?

1) Often. 2) Occasionally. 3) Never.

Offer to go through this quick survey to each client in exchange for a discount of 3% for the current purchase.

Example: men 20-35 years old who buy sports nutrition steadily every month, satisfied with the price of products involved in amateur sport, is not prone to spontaneous purchases.

This information will help you to create a portrait of the CA by the formula 5W. Mark Sherrington it has developed - the founder of one of the world's brand-consulting company Added Value. 5W according to the procedure you must answer the following questions:

1. What. What do you offer your audience (product or service).
2. Who. Who is your customer by socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral criteria.
3. Why. what motivates the client for the purchase of your product or service.
4. When. When growing consumer demand (seasonality depends on your type of product or service). For example, if you sell inflatable pools, the demand is growing in the spring and summer.
5. Where. Where a customer buys your product or uses your services. For example, you can deliver the orders in their region or provide remote English lessons around the world.

In the future you will be able to find your CA or rather, to use the service to analyze website visitors and social networks: Google Analytics, «Yandex. Metric », FB internal tools, VK and others. It may be necessary to correct or complete change of the advertising campaign.

Step 2. Select a channel and method of promotion

You can select one channel and method, or several, such as Landing Page website, social network or email. Depending on your choice, you start to deal with SMM, Landing, email-sending, contextual advertising or SEO.

1. SMM

SMM - a set of measures to promote business on social networks and other Internet platforms (forums, blogs, and so on).

Will approach you if:

• Sell ​​clothes, shoes, household goods, copyrights, handmade jewelry, cosmetics and so on.
• Your target audience is spending time on social networks.
• There is enough information about the goods and services for the publication of information posts.
• When choosing your products / services to a potential client calls attention to the brand.
• Not willing to wait up to six months to reach the first results of the promotion.
• You do not have a big budget for promotion.

In fact, the page on social networks will not be superfluous for any online project. If this is not the key channel you progress, you can put on your site links to Facebook, «VKontakte" Instagram"Classmates" and measured publish infrequent posts about the life of the company or industry news.

This variant is suitable for big business with premium products, the target audience which is not exactly to make spontaneous purchases through social networks.

Another thing - cosmetics, clothes, toys, textile goods medium price range. Also through social network services are sold perfect beauty-makers, painters, craftsmen and photographers. In such cases, you should choose the SMM.

Description of the method

Select one or more channels - Facebook"VKontakte", Instagram, "Classmates" — depending on the target audience. Next, the operation will be carried out by the same scheme:

1. Development of the content of the plan. Prepare themes and distribute publications on the date of a month in advance. Content may be duplicated. To do this, put your weight on the social network competitors, but do not copy them completely.
2. Content creation. SMM The advantage is that this method gives room for very different content: video, text, photographs, pictures, podcasts. The main thing is to fill corresponded topic. You can hire SMM-specialist, copywriter, designer and videographer, or do everything yourself. Texts in social networks should be small and understandable to your audience. Take care to storytelling format was designed in the same tone. The same applies to the graphic style and videonapolneniya.
3. Attracting Subscribers. Your content It should be of interest to the target audience. For example, if you sell tools for hairdressers, the page should be placed tips for choosing such products, industry news and useful life hacking. It is also necessary to put related hashtags and geolocation.

In the initial stages, you can use the services of generation of fake followers - it will help motivate people to subscribe. In future get involved in this is not necessary, since bots do not become your customers.

Landing

Landing — It is a single-site, which is used for the sale of goods and services.

Will approach you if:

• You have a small range (1-2 positions).
• To buy your product / service to the customer does not need to closely get acquainted with your company.
• Your target audience is prone to impulse purchases in a single click.
• You implement a seasonal product / service.
• You do not have time, money and desire to work with a long multi-page website and groups social networks.

According toWhat is a Landing Page: A Comprehensive Guide + 12 examples the founder of the agency IN-SCALE Nikita Zhestkova, single-site is ideal for the sale of goods or services. Moreover, it is effective to implement both simple and low-priced products as well as for the complex, the premium segment. For example, you sell only certain models of portable speakers, or an expensive jacket heated by a rechargeable battery.

The advantage of this tool is that it does not require complex technical development and promotion of the right to quickly lead customers.

Landing Page is not suitable for online retailers with a large assortment and companies with an abundance of different services. Also, this tool is useless if you need to purchase to stimulate the audience to inspire confidence to the brand. For example, a firm that sells computer tomography need a website that will be more information about the company, services and certificates.

Description of the method

Landing Page can be done at any constructor (uKit, uLanding, Wix and others). Effective Landing meets the following options:

• one selling proposition is formed on the page.
• Text and graphic content intended for one target audience. If your project more than one, it will take a number of different pages.
• At the bottom is bound to have a call to action — proposal to buy a product or service.
• The text is divided into logically related, small and visual blocks.
• After reading a potential buyer does not remain questions and concerns.

The purpose of the page — in the most accessible form and sold quickly to tell the customer about why he should buy the goods presented or order service.

Email-Marketing

Email-Newsletter — It is a marketing tool for selling goods or services and attract attention brand through contact with the target audience.

Will approach you if:

• Important for you to establish a direct communication with the audience, increase brand loyalty.
• Are you interested in doprodazhah (prompting the customer to buy more of at least one product / service with the first purchase of or immediately after it).
• You have a limited budget for promotion.
• your brand strategy requires a large number of discounts and promotions.
• Do you regularly or occasionally hosts themed events.

Often the email-marketing is selected as an additional method of attracting customers. Will work with almost any online business.

email-marketing advantage in that it does not require large financial investments and they can do on their own.

But sending out can not be the only tool promotion on the Net. This is a great additional tool to stimulate sales, raises awareness and promotes brand loyalty.

Description of the method

Mailing lists of companies, products and services, as well as promotions and news of your business sphere can solve different tasks:

• Stimulation of sales, including through promotions and special offers.
• Increasing loyalty to the company.
• Increase in brand awareness.

Letters mail are:

• Welcoming. Only sent to new subscribers or customers. Here, as a rule, thank the recipient for the fact that he became a friend of your brand, and briefly tell about offers and special opportunities for the company.
• Trigger. This letter-response to current subscribers of your social networks. In the text you thank the recipient for your interest in the company.
• Transactional. Reaction to the purchase of goods or services, where you thank the customer for the purchase of committed and make the announcement of the company's proposals.
• Promotional. Bright and succinct announcements of special offers, discounts and sales.
• Information. Current news and interesting facts about your subject matter. For example, you sell bicycles. Your subscribers might be interested in the topic proper selection of the bike, information about new models, or the curious collection of these vehicles of different times.
• Announce systems. Invitations to events.

In order to organize an effective email-newsletter, proceed step by step:

1. Determine the target audience. On the basis of this information, choose the style of presentation and themes.
2. Develop a content strategy. What will happen in your ezine? You're going to spend a large amount of promotions and special offers to do a lot of commercial or task emails to immerse the reader in the company's activity and make another brand? Depending on your goals defined by the type of the planned letters.
3. Create a content plan. Plan a newsletter for the next month. Invent a theme and letters the date of withdrawal.

The advantage of the approach is that it can be used with zero financial costs.

contextual advertising

Contextual advertising allows you to display the site in the top search queries without using SEO-promotion.

Will approach you if:

• It is necessary to bring traffic to the site as part of our SEO-promotion.
• You have a new website, which has a default can not climb to the top of search results through SEO-promotion.
• You urgently need the first customers for rapid payback.
• You implement seasonal goods or services.
• The target audience is looking for your product or service in search engines, rather than on the social networks.
• You do not have strict limitations on budget, and you are ready to make significant investments.

Contextual advertising goes well with SEO, doing work to promote the site in search of more effective.

Description of the method

Thanks to a customized advertising campaign your website appears in the first issue on the positions marked "Advertisement". The advantage of this method is that it gives results after only a few hours after setting.

You do not need to wait a few months to the first customers came to the site.

There are two popular service for setting up contextual advertising in the major search engines. It "Google Advertising", Or Google Ads (previously — Google AdWords), and "Yandex. Direct». There you will find a step by step guide to setting up and management of advertising campaigns, practical advice on how not to drain the budget for the promotion of waste and use the tool most effectively.

SEO

SEO-optimization — a set of internal and external works to promote the site in search engines.

Will approach you if:

• You are willing to wait up to six months to get the first results.
• The target audience for your product comes through search.
• For the potential buyer is important to the credibility of the brand.
• Do you have a big budget for promotion.
• You are ready to combine SEO with PPC advertising or other promotion methods to accelerate the decommissioning site to the top.

SEO takes time. The first results you will not immediately, but after 3-6 months of continuous work with the site. So if your original task — rapid customer acquisition, it is better to spend money on contextual advertising. In addition, lead the audience to the site is extremely difficult without the other marketing channels.

search engine promotion — this is a great option for long-term business development, as some sales channels on the Internet you have already mastered.

Or, you can optimize your site in parallel with the work on contextual advertising, SMM or mailing.

Description of the method

First you need to create a website. You can consult a professional designer or do it yourself with the help of the designer. Development from scratch will take away a lot of time, money and effort. An alternative method would make it for one night. According to the latest dataThe Best Website Builder 2019 Russia, One of the best free services includes WIX, SITE123 and WordPress.

So, the site is created, and you have chosen SEO-optimization. Promotion in search engines consists of several steps:

1. Verification of technical errors on the website.
2. Formation of semantic core - a set of words and phrases that characterize the activity of the site.
3. Improve Usability - user-friendliness.
4. Link building - the number of active inbound links to a site hosted on third-party sites.
5. project analysis and development of content strategy.

Subject SEO is quite deep, and in theory it can be mastered without special knowledge and experience. In practice, to realize this is not exactly easy. Ranking rules are constantly changing, and the process has many pitfalls, which are only known on the matter. Also work with the new site is much more time consuming than with age. This is due to the fact that search engines do not have a sufficient amount of data to be trusted resource, and they are reluctant to let him upstairs.

Therefore it is better to entrust the professional optimization. Jobs freelancer will be cheaper than the agency's services. In addition, having at least a minimal knowledge on the topic, you can control the actions of the Executive. Search professional possible on the respective stock exchanges.

Step 3. Keep track of intermediate results

So, you have chosen the channels and methods, self-promotion started, launched the campaign started to social networks and send letters or gave all the objectives for outsourcing. In this work has not ended. Monitor the interim results, draw conclusions and react quickly to them.

If something goes wrong, just does not work, then you need to make adjustments to the strategy.

In this case, the universal testing of all methods of promotion does not exist. For example, SEO gives the first results only after 3-6 months, and quality settings content can be seen immediately. To attract customers in real social network, too, will take time, and the efficiency of email-distribution depends largely on your contacts database volumes.

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Regardless of what marketing tools you use, based on the promotion is always the right choice of the target audience. Also do not forget that you should always keep your finger on the pulse. Keep an eye on the marketing news, apply new promotional tools and pay attention to audience reaction.