How to Achieve E-commerce Success
By: Heidi Richards | Posted: 09th February 2005
Before becoming a netpreneaur, I was an entrepreneur. First, I
owned a successful child care center which grew to capacity in
less than two years. When I sold that, I bought a little flower
shop that had less than 300 customers and grew it to what it is
today, one of the most successful, award winning companies in
South Florida with more than 7,000 customers who purchase from
us on a regular business. To better serve our customers, we took
our business to the Internet. We still have a brick and mortar
storefront, yet everyday we receive more and more customers via
the Internet.
How about you? Do you or did you have a traditional business or
professional practice? Is it successful? Unless you were born
under the star called "LUCKY," you probably did lots of
planning. A business plan, a marketing plan, maybe even a
succession plan for what to do with your business when you were
through.
You may have heard the statistics that half of all small
businesses fail in their first year and of those, only 25% make
it through to five years. According to youngbiz.com it can be
even less for e-businesses.
Build it and they will come! Not! You can have a terrific site,
with lots of bells and whistles and if people don't know you
exist, you never get any visitors, let alone customers.
Planning is the key to success in business. Amazon.com had a
plan, Bill Gates had a plan, eDiets had a plan, and I'll bet
they still do. Once a business launches on the net, you will
need a marketing plan to be successful. Your biggest challenge
will be to find time to plan. However, if you don't find time
now, you will find yourself with plenty of it (time, that is)
later on, and no business to speak of.
Unlike a business, generally created to get financial backing
from investors, Netpreneurs create marketing plans for
themselves. Where do you start? First you have to ask yourself
these questions. Where do you want to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10
years? How many customers do you want or better yet, how much
money do you want to make? Who are your customers? Do you know
what they want, need and expect? Can you give it to them? What
are your competitors doing? What are you doing that is
different? How will you promote your business?
Now Create your Website marketing plan.
Put it in writing! Not only do you have to plan, you have to
write it down! Take a notebook or idea book and write the
following: your vision, mission strategies, goals and the time
frame you wish to accomplish these goals. Keep this notebook
next to your computer to refer to. It will help you stay
focused.
What is your vision for your business? Your vision is what you
want your web site to accomplish. Write your vision statement in
your notebook. The vision statement for my flower shop is to
"Make a reasonable profit via the Internet by providing a
quality product, delivering exceptional service, at a price my
customers will pay." What are your goals? What do you believe
you can accomplish that may be a bit of a stretch but doable? If
the goals are too easy, you are not getting the most out of your
planning process. And you could be losing money. Can make a
profit of 20% in 3 months? Can double your customer base in 6
months? If so, write it in your notebook. What steps do you need
to take to achieve your goals? How much do you have to sell to
achieve your goals? You must first know your profit margin to
determine this figure. Then you have to figure out how you are
going to find the customers to make your goals come true. What
are your marketing strategies? Start with those goals you know
you can attain. How will you reach your market? Are you going to
use search engine optimization, email, newsletters, networking,
advertising on related sites, advertising in trade magazines, or
write an article to submit to online publications? Participate
in online forums, message boards and newsgroups. Include your
URL (Internet address) in your signature file. What is the
time-frame for accomplishing your goals? Create a time-line for
every goal in your notebook. Next to each goal, write down the
starting and ending dates of when you plan to accomplish that
goal as well as what type of marketing strategies you are using.
Are you keeping track of your marketing results? If you are
doing any advertising whether it is online or offline, track the
results. You can track online advertising using ad tracking
software such as adtrackz.com, to track all the links you place
online. Analyze web site statistics to find out how visits found
you. For offline advertising, place codes or words in your
advertising to keep track. Your online order forms should have a
place to enter the code. To learn how customers found us, we use
a numeric code on all advertising/marketing materials. What is
your return on investment? How much money did the marketing
strategy cost? How much money did you take in? Subtract the
second figure from the first and that is your profit (or loss).
Keep track of those marketing campaigns that worked and those
that didn't. Do more of the first. Reevaluate the second. Can
you change one thing in the strategy and achieve different
results? Try it! Add new strategies to the mix. Stay focused on
your goals. Nothing feels better than accomplishing a goal.
Except maybe, all the money you are going to make when you do!
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Tags: statistics, small businesses, marketing plan, amazon, entrepreneur, business plan, marketing plans, storefront, brick and mortar, investors, bill gates, bells and whistles, traditional business, flower shop, professional practice, south florida