Launch a website
If you want to go online, a website is a must-have for your business. This is the foundation for further online growth. First of all, you should register your domain name and choose web hosting. For example, you can do this with GoDaddy service. They offer a lot of pricing plans that can fit your price range. Make sure that the name of your domain matches your website purpose, is unique and human-readable. Secondly, try to make your website well-designed and user-friendly. No one will use it if it is inconvenient and not appealing. Provide a structured product catalog with photos, descriptions, and prices.
As your service will be something new, customers may have some questions, so make it easy to contact you. For example, you can create an additional “Contact us” page or place your email on the most visible part of the page.
Also, consider adding a blog to your website. You can tell your audience about your niche, new products, and special offers there. The more engaging your website is, the more visitors you get!
Consider adding eCommerce platform
Creating a site from scratch with all necessary functionality may take a long time. If you want to build a robust online presence, you should consider integration with an eCommerce platform. There are a lot of useful platforms in the marketplace: Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart, and more. Each of them has its pros and cons, but you need to choose the eCommerce platform that suits your needs best. But the thing that unites all of them is the fact that you can run your website in just a few clicks. Besides, launching a store using the eCommerce platform doesn’t imply that you have in-depth technical knowledge. Many of these platforms offer pre-made templates to create your online shop.
Web to print tool
One of the thing that can be really helpful for your online shop is a web to print tool. People love things that are designed especially for them. Adding a web to print tool to your website can save a lot of your money and time. First of all, you get a more automated process: people design the products by themselves, and you print and send them. You will not need to make a lot of calls or correspond for a long time to approve the design. Secondly, you get fewer returns, because web to print tool means an individual approach to each customer. Web to print tool lets you edit and manage orders efficiently.
Moreover, it is well known that custom stickers or t-shirts, or other promotional products about Covid-19 are becoming more and more popular nowadays. So you will have a chance to offer your customers things that are in great request.
Create a marketing strategy
Even if you have a perfect website with web to print tools or other features, people will do not know about this. If you are only going to start an online business tell your existing customers about your intentions, they should be prepared. After launching your website, you should somehow claim that you are now online.
The right strategy is to start social media marketing. Social media like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more are irreplaceable for finding new customers, getting a promotion, and building a brand. Review your target audience, determine your goals, and start with amazing content. You can try paid marketing at the same time — for example, Google Ads or Facebook Ads. The more fields you try, the bigger chances to be noticed you get.
The situation in which we are now has given us one lesson - we should be able to adapt to new conditions quickly. Transitioning from offline to an online business may cause some difficulties. We should understand that Coronavirus will come to an end. Still, you will have skills and knowledge of how to do business online. And perhaps it will be your most profitable business!
If you have any questions or need help with transitioning your web to print business online feel free to contact us.