Williams reveals 2024 livery at launch event
Williams has revealed its new livery for the upcoming season at a launch event in New York.
The post Williams reveals 2024 livery at launch event appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.
Tag: Launch
How to Create and Launch a Google Ads Campaign [2022 Update]
I don’t get it. I have a ton of friends who own companies. As soon as they start making some money, they start talking to me about all kinds of investments.
“Real estate’s supposed to be good.”
“I wanna be an angel investor, any tips?”
My usual response?
“Google Ads, dude!”
They run these big companies, selling great products, and what do they do? Run off and try to put their money in anything, EXCEPT their own business.
Why not just sell more of their products? Double down on what’s already working, instead of starting to play in a field you know nothing about?
In my experience, Google Ads is usually the easiest way to do it. If my friend wants to increase his investment money, say $50,000, he can spend 1000 hours trying to become good at angel investing, learn everything about it, and hopefully land an investment in the next Facebook. A friend of mine could do the same for real estate, trying to snag a cheap apartment or condo, and flip it (easier, but still hard).
Instead, you can spend 100 hours learning Google Ads (or just hire someone who knows it) and invest $50,000 in Google Ads campaigns to make $500,000 in sales. Which one do you think is the most likely to pan out?
In my opinion, option three is a no-brainer.
In light of that, today, I want to open a black box most people are unfamiliar with: Google Ads.
Google Ads is a way to get your money’s worth, often boasting an ROI in the hundreds of percentage points. However, the steps I cover here ensure you’re depositing more money into your own bank account rather than just funding Google’s empire.
Now, let’s get down to it. Tie on your Google Ads apron, grab a pen to write down the key steps of a successful campaign, and follow along as I walk you through how to create a profitable Google Ads campaign from scratch.
See How My Agency Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website
- SEO – unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.
- Content Marketing – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
- Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.
Google Ad Step #1: Is There Customer Demand?
If your customers are not searching for your product or service online, then obviously, Google Ads won’t work for you.
With that in mind, before you get too excited about creating your first Google Ads campaign, you need to verify there is a search volume for what you’re offering.
I recommend using Ubersuggest, which is my free keyword research tool. The keyword tool acts much like a thesaurus. You enter in phrases you think your prospects are searching for, and it tells you other similar, relevant phrases.
Additionally, Ubersuggest tells you how:
- often people search these phrases.
- competitive the keywords are.
- much it costs to advertise on each keyword.
When put together, all this information helps you determine which keywords to use in your first Google Ads campaign.
I also recommend you use the keyword “Suggestions” provided under the main chart. This gives you an idea of related keywords and how much search volume those keywords have.
In addition, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to help you find the best keywords to target. It provides you with bid estimates and total searches, so you can make a plan.
Next, there are three questions to ask to determine whether to advertise on a particular keyword:
- Are people looking for the keyword on Google? If there is no search volume, then that tells you no one is typing that phrase into Google.
- Is the person searching this keyword likely to buy my product or service? Or is the person more likely just doing research with no intention of buying? In other words, what is the intent of the keyword? When starting out, you need to build your advertising around “buying intent” keywords where the person is clearly looking to buy.
- Finally, ask yourself, can I afford to advertise on the keyword? This question is important, but it requires a bit of math to calculate. Let’s take a look at that now.
Google Ads Step #2: Can You Afford to Advertise on Top Keywords?
Before finalizing your keyword list, you must ensure it makes sense to target that term. This prevents you from going after unprofitable keywords. I find it’s better to run these numbers before you start sinking time and money into a campaign destined to fail.
To answer the question “Can I afford to advertise on this keyword?” you need to calculate your maximum cost per click (Max CPC). To do this, you compare your business’s Max CPC to the estimated keyword CPC in the Keyword Tool to see if you can afford to advertise.
For example, if your Max CPC is $5 and the estimated CPC is $4, then you know there’s a good chance you can profitably advertise on that particular keyword.
You determine your Max CPC by your website’s conversion rate, profit per customer, and target advertising profit margin. If you don’t know these numbers, you need to guesstimate or set up tracking to calculate them more accurately.
Use the formula below to calculate your Max CPC and then compare it to the estimated CPC you found above:
Max CPC = (profit per customer) x (1 – profit margin) x (website conversion rate)
For example, let’s say your average profit per customer is $500, and out of 1,000 website visitors, you convert 10 into customers. That means you have a 1 percent website conversion rate.
If you are comfortable with a 30 percent profit margin, then here’s how you would calculate your Max CPC:
Max CPC = $500 x (1 – 0.30) x 1% = $3.50
Again, your Max CPC must be in the neighborhood of the estimated CPC in Google’s Keyword Planner tool, or else you’re in trouble.
Suppose your Max CPC is $3.50 and the estimated CPC for a keyword is $10. In that case, you need to first increase either your profit per customer or your conversion rate before you can profitably advertise on that particular keyword.
Google Ads Step #3: Perform Competitor Analysis
At this point, you now have a list of “buying intent” keywords that you’re confident you can afford. The next step is to reduce your risk by leveraging competitor intelligence.
In most industries, you find competitors who know far more than you do about optimizing and testing their Google Ads campaigns. That means they understand which keywords, ads, and landing pages work in your niche. Peeking into your competitor’s business helps you to determine if it’s easy to outrank a competitor.
Here’s how to get started.
Go to Spyfu.com and enter your keyword. In this case, it’s “cheap bricks.”
It shows you the average CTR and the number of companies that have advertised for this keyword in the past three months.
In this case, there are just 41, which is nothing, considering there are over 1 million companies advertising on Google Ads.
It also shows you other keywords that are performing well on Google Ads.
If you click on “Advertiser history,” you even see the actual ads that your competitors use.
Pro tip: One determinant of relevancy, for Google’s quality score, is whether the keyword shows up in your actual ad.
In this case, Brickit doesn’t even mention bricks in its ad. That means they shouldn’t be too hard to beat.
However, here’s an even better tip.
You can look up an individual competitor. Maybe start with the 800-pound gorilla who’s dominating the SERPs.
Then you can go in and look up all the keywords they’re currently bidding on (along with their estimated volume and costs, of course).
See, combining these approaches helps you uncover your competition’s entire PPC playbook, and then you can reverse engineer it to outperform them.
Sneaky, right?!
Don’t compete. Dominate.
Google Ads Step #4: Leverage a Powerful USP
Your USP, or unique selling proposition, differentiates your business from your competitors and gives your prospects a compelling reason to choose you.
In other words, your USP answers the question, “Why should I, your prospect, choose to do business with you, versus every other option.”
When it comes to Google Ads, there are three important reasons to create a powerful USP. It:
- generates more traffic from qualified prospects (encourage clicks on your ads) and repels unwanted leads (prevent clicks on your ads).=
- skyrockets your sales conversion rates. Not only do you generate more traffic because you get more clicks on your ads, but you also convert more of your traffic into paying customers.=
- reduces price comparison shopping. This can be a game-changer because buyers don’t view you as a commodity. If you give your prospects a compelling reason to do business with you, then price becomes a secondary issue
OK, a USP is a key ingredient. Makes sense, but how do you create one?
Well, first, you focus on your core strengths. What are you better at than your competitors?
Second, talk to your customers, and more importantly, listen to them. The best companies built their USP on customer insight, so ask your customers why they do business with you.
Also, ask questions to determine what your customers dislike about your industry and what your customers wish you could provide in addition to your core products or services.
Third, analyze your competitors, and look for an opening. The most important word in unique selling proposition is unique.
To create a solid USP, you need to study your competitors’ ads, websites, and marketing materials, and find your opportunity to stand out. To find the commonalities in your competitors’ ads and websites, I recommend you use a spreadsheet. As you’re doing this, look for an opening to say something unique and superior.
For example, remember the old Domino’s slogan?
“You get fresh, hot pizza, delivered to you in under 30 minutes – or it’s free!”
(Image source: ConversionXL)
What more could you want when ordering pizza? Fast delivery and it’s still hot when you get it.
Domino’s Pizza doesn’t claim to be all things to everybody, though. In fact, it doesn’t even mention quality ingredients, price, or taste. It focuses its entire business on the one thing its customers care about most – fast, on-time delivery.
Picture some college students late Saturday night, and you’re looking at Domino’s Pizza’s ideal customer profile!
Now, spend some time thinking about how you’re different from everyone else. What can you bring to the table that your competitors don’t?
Capitalize on that.
Google Ad Step #5: Have an Irresistible Offer
What can you offer in your Google Ads campaign that is so compelling your prospect would be a fool to not take action? How can you stand out from the other ads your prospect sees in the search results?
The answer is your irresistible offer, which consists of the following four components:
1. Valuable
Your product or service must be more valuable than the price. That’s marketing 101. This doesn’t mean your offer has to be cheap. You just need to clearly define all the value your product or service provides to your customer and ensure it outweighs your price tag.
2. Believable
When you make an offer that appears to be too good to be true, then your prospect may be a little skeptical. That’s why you must provide a believable reason for your offer.
For example, if you’re running a special sale, explain why you’re offering such a steep discount. The reason could be anything: clearing out inventory, end-of-the-year sale, celebrating an anniversary, opening a new store, your birthday, and so on.
3. Reduce or Reverse Risk
Everyone is scared of getting ripped off online. One of the best tactics to minimize the risk to your customer is with a money-back guarantee. A money-back guarantee puts the risk on your business to deliver excellent service, or else you have to give the money back to the customer.
Whenever possible, I always recommend you include some kind of guarantee in your offer. It improves your response rates, and it’s a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
4. Call to Action
One of my elementary school art teachers once gave me fantastic advice when he was teaching a class. He told me to always “Use the KISS method… Keep it simple, stupid.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but those truly are words to live by, especially when you’re creating an irresistible offer.
If you want your prospect to call you, then make it crystal clear and simple to pick up the phone. Don’t expect your prospect to connect the dots or search around your website to figure out the next step. Use a strong call to action and keep it simple.
At this point, you’re probably wondering when you actually create your Google Ads campaign. After all, we’re already halfway through the steps, and you don’t have any ads to show for it!
Trust me, the first five steps are absolutely critical, and you’ll thank me later once your ads are live and you’re generating profit.
However, since you’re so keen, let’s dive in and talk about creating your ads.
Google Ads Step #6: Create Compelling Ads
With a Google Ads campaign, you pay only when people click on your ads. Therefore, your ads have two crucial jobs:
- Attract qualified prospects so they click on your ad instead of competitors’ ads.
- Repel unqualified prospects so they do not click and waste your Google Ads budget.
That means more traffic, more sales, and less wasted money on unqualified leads, which all leads to higher profits for you.
There’s one more important job for your ads. Compelling ads with a high click-through rate (CTR) boosts your Quality Score, which in turn lowers the cost per click of your keywords.
Don’t forget that your ads directly affect how much you pay per click for each keyword. Great Google Ads lower your costs, while lousy ones raise your costs.
Do you see why step #6 is so important? This is also why you must complete the previous steps, because we use them all to make the ads more compelling.
There are four key components to your Google Ads text ads:
- Headline
- Description line 1
- Description line 2
- Display URL
Headline
The headline is the most critical component because it’s the first thing your prospect will read. Try to include your keyword in your ads’ headline because Google will bold the text, which makes it stand out from other ads.
This also is the easiest way to ensure your ad is 100 percent relevant for the prospect that is searching.
Another great strategy is to ask a question in the headline. For example, if the keyword is “new york city dentist,” a compelling headline is “Need a New York Dentist?”
Not only is part of the keyword in the headline, but the question will get the prospect nodding their head yes. As all great salespeople know, just one yes is sometimes all it takes to start a chain reaction leading to the sale.
Now, let’s look at character length.
Google Ads allows 30 characters for your headline, so make every letter count and use abbreviations whenever possible.
Description Line 1 and 2
In your two description lines, reiterate the benefits of your service, state your USP, provide social proof, and/or describe your offer. And, of course, include your call to action. Google’s description fields allow 90 words each.
Display URL
The display URL is an easily overlooked area of your ads. Don’t just copy and paste your domain name. Instead, use your display URL to include your offer, your call to action, your USP, or anything else that makes your ads stand out.
Here are three examples for a dentist to give you an idea of what you can do:
- www.domain.com/Whiter_Smile
- www.domain.com/NYC_Dentist
- www.domain.com/Free_Whitening
Before we move on, I want to show you an example of a good ad and a bad ad, so you can see the difference.
Example of a Good Ad for the Keyword “appliance repair”:
Same Day Sub-Zero Repair
24 Hour Service…Within 1 Hour
$25 Off Coupon. Call Us Now.
As you can see, the advertiser is clearly targeting a specific niche – people with Sub-Zero appliances. They offer compelling benefits, including same-day 24-hour service within one hour. They have an offer of a $25-off coupon. And they have a clear call to action to call now.
Note that I would try to improve this ad by including the keyword in the title to make it more relevant to the search phrase.
Example of a Weak Ad for the Keyword “appliance repair”:
[Name of Company]
family-owned since 1939 for all
your appliance needs call now
The headline of this ad was the name of the company, which is not relevant to the keyword “appliance repair.” Unless you’re a big-name brand, no one will recognize or even care about your name. It’s not compelling and there’s no congruence from the keyword to the ad.
Also, “family-owned since 1939” is not a specific benefit. There’s implied benefit if the prospect puts two and two together and believes longevity equals good service. However, that’s a lot to ask and clearly does not follow the KISS principle. Stick to explicit benefits rather than implied benefits in your ads.
Finally, the phrase “for all your appliance needs,” is too vague. This is an example of trying to be all things to all people, rather than solving a very specific problem for a very specific target customer.
Google Ads Step #7: Use Relevant Landing Pages
At this point, your prospect is actively searching for your product or service. They found your ad to be compelling versus all of the other options, clicked to learn more, and landed on your website.
Now what?
Well, if you’re like a lot of first-time advertisers, then your prospect is now on your homepage scratching their head trying to figure out what just happened. The ad made a promise the homepage couldn’t keep.
That’s because your homepage is not an advertising landing page!
Homepages explain everything your business does, all of your products and services, and all the different customers you serve. In other words, your homepage is not 100 percent relevant to the keyword searched and the ad clicked. Do not make this mistake.
Instead, create a dedicated landing page that matches the keyword and the ad. The goal is to make the entire sales process congruent so your prospect is continually reassured they are going down the right path.
The most important component on your landing page is your headline, which is the first thing your prospect will read. Your headline must grab attention, reiterate the offer made in the ad, and compel your prospect to keep reading the rest of the page.
Ensure the copy of high-converting landing pages is relevant both to the keyword searched and the ad clicked on. In addition, include:
- your USP
- The benefits of your product or service
- details about your irresistible offer
- social proof, like reviews
- credibility that you’re a legitimate business
- a strong call to action.
Google Ads Step #8: Conversion Tracking
We’re almost ready to set up your campaign in Google Ads, but there is one final ingredient: conversion tracking.
If you skip this step, you never know which keywords and ads generate sales and which are losing money. In other words, you can’t optimize your Google Ads campaign once it’s up and running.
Conversion tracking measures the sales generated by your Google Ads campaign. More specifically, you want to know which keywords and which ads are generating sales.
If some or all of your sales occur online with an e-commerce shopping cart, then conversion tracking is pretty straightforward. Just use the built-in Google Ads conversion tracking.
The Google Ads conversion tracking code can be found in your Google Ads account under the tool icon, then “Measurements > Conversions.”
To create a new conversion, simply click on the [+ Conversion] button and follow the steps to define your conversion. Then add the small snippet of code to your order form’s thank-you page or receipt page.
This code is similar to Google Analytics code, if you have that installed on your website, but it should be on only the final page after a customer completes their order.
Then, when a customer lands on your receipt page or thank you page, Google tracks the conversions in your Google Ads account automatically. That’s really all there is to it, and there’s no reason not to install this before you turn on your ads.
Google can also track app installs, web conversions, phone calls, and offline conversions.
What if you generate leads online, but you ultimately close the sale “offline” – over the phone or in-person – rather than online? Clearly, you can’t add a conversion code to your cash register, so what can you do?
The three tactics I recommend for tracking offline sales are:
- Create a conversion page in your sales process. For example, send all of your customers to a special page to get their receipt, create an account online, or download an important document. Think of a way to get your customers to that webpage and add the Google Ads code to that page. Now you can track the sales.
- Use unique coupon codes in your ads and landing pages. If you use unique coupon codes in your ads and landing pages, then you can match the codes back to the ad and keyword that generated the sale.
- Use tracking phone numbers in your ads and landing pages. If you use unique tracking phone numbers, you can match the calls and subsequent sales to the ads and keywords that generated the sale.
Once conversion tracking is in place, then the time has finally come to log into Google Ads and set up your first campaign.
The Google Ads interface makes campaign setup a breeze, but don’t blindly accept the default settings as one of them can get you into trouble.
Google Ads Step #9: Settings for Success
As I mentioned, Google Ads does a great job of making it fairly easy to set up your Google Ads campaign. Simply click on the blue plus symbol, then the New Campaign button, as shown below, and follow the steps to add in your ads and keywords.
The process is pretty simple; however, many of the default settings are not in your best interest. That’s why step #9 is to use the correct Ads settings for success.
Here are the most important settings to watch out for:
- Search vs. Display
- Device Bids
- Keyword Match Types
- Negative Keywords
Search vs. Display
Select Search Network Only for your campaign type, so you’re targeting only the Google Search Network and not the Display Network.
The display network is a completely different animal than search advertising and it requires a different set of keywords, ads, and landing pages. So always set up separate campaigns to target each network.
Keyword Match Types
Many first-time advertisers have no idea there are different match types. As a result, they waste money on irrelevant search phrases that are not part of the keywords listed in the account.
There are three main keyword match types:
- broad
- phrase
- exact
Broad match, as you now know, is the default match type. If you leave your keywords as a Broad match, then Google will show your ads to any search phrase Google thinks is relevant to your keyword.
This means your ads will get more impressions, but you’ll likely show ads to irrelevant search phrases that will just waste your budget. So I do not recommend Broad match.
Phrase match keywords will trigger ads when the exact phrase is part of the keyword typed into Google. For example, if your Phrase match keyword is “office space,” then your ad will display for “New York office space” and “office space in New York.” However, your ad would not display for “office in space” because the phrase “office space” is broken up by the word “in.”
Phrase match gives you much more control over your ads than Broad match. To change your keyword to Phrase match, simply add quotes around the keyword (see image below).
Exact match simply tells Google to display your ad only when the exact keyword is typed into Google. You get the most control with Exact match, but you limit your exposure. To set your match type to Exact match, add square brackets around your keywords (see image below).
I recommend starting with Phrase match because you get the best of both worlds with regard to targeting and reach. However, when you use Phrase match, you need to make sure you include negative keywords.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords give you the ability to block phrases from triggering your ads. For example, if you’re an office space rental company advertising on the Phrase match keyword, “office space,” then you will want to block the keyword “movie.”
That way, Google won’t display your ads for an office space rental for folks searching for the Office Space movie.
To add negative keywords, go to the Keywords tab in your account, scroll down, and click on the Negative keyword link (see image below).
Next, click the Add button to add in the keywords you want to block.
Once you’ve completed the setup process, then you’re ready to enable the ads and start optimizing your campaign!
Google Ads Step #10: Optimization
As soon as you set your bidding, enable your campaign, and Google approves your ads, you can take a nice deep breath. Congratulations, your ads are live!
Unfortunately, you can’t relax yet. Most campaigns are not profitable from the start and they always require continual optimization to stay profitable.
There are three main areas to improve your Google Ads campaign performance:
- Your keyword bids. For getting started, I recommend using Smart Bidding but once you start to generate clicks and sales, you might want to adjust your bids accordingly. If your keywords are generating sales profitably and you’re not ranked #1, then continue to raise your bids. If your keywords are not generating sales profitably, then obviously, you need to lower your bids or pause the keyword entirely.
- Your ad click-through rate (CTR). As I mentioned earlier, your ad CTR directly affects your quality score, which in turn determines how much you pay per click. To optimize your CTR, A/B test different ads to see which version gets the most clicks.
- Your landing page conversion rate. The final area to optimize is your landing page. There are many tools to help you test different landing page versions, but if you’re just starting out, I recommend you use Google Optimize. It’s easy and free to get started. Create an experiment to test two different versions of your landing page and measure to see which one generates the most conversions.
Conclusion
You’ve set up your Google Ads. What do you do now? Don’t sit back and wait. I’m serious.
Turn on your second ad and once everything is running, do something else.
Don’t sit at the computer waiting for things to happen.
Remember the third promise that you made before we began? Google Ads takes patience.
Check back in a day. Then, create more ads and start building your first ad groups. Read the data. Start tweaking.
Finally, remember that nothing matters without conversions.
It’s great if you can tell which Google Ads get a better CTR, but, if they don’t get conversions, that also doesn’t help you make money.
It might take you a month or more to get results.
Just follow your ads and analyze the data, as it comes in over the next 10 days.
Then, review, turn off ads that don’t work, add more keywords, and double down on what’s performing well.
Once you start going deeper, be sure to check out the great videos we have on Google Ads, over at Quicksprout University. You can also try to join the Google Partner program.
Have you launched a successful Google Ads campaign? What tips do you have to share?
Launch Your Startup: 7 Essential Steps, Tips, Strategies, & Ideas
Everyone has ideas. Some of them may be worth running with, while others are probably not so good.
However, even if your project looks awesome on paper, there’s a big difference between that and creating a successful startup company.
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
If your answer is yes, then you need a detailed guide on how to start a startup.
For those of you who haven’t launched a business before, it can sound like an intimidating task.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that getting your startup off the ground is an easy mission.
It takes hard work, dedication, money, some sleepless nights, and, yes, some failures before you succeed.
Nearly 20 percent of businesses fail in the first year, and just because you make it beyond 12 months doesn’t mean your startup is going to continue to thrive.
According to government stats, 30.6 percent of businesses fail after their second year, 49.7 percent fail after five years, and 65.6 percent fail after their tenth year.
Once you get your company off the ground, it doesn’t get any easier: you need to work just as hard to keep it going each year.
With that said, it’s useful to have a guide and a set of instructions to follow to learn how to launch a startup.
When I write about launching a startup, I’m talking from personal experience. I’ve created several startup companies like Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and NP Digital.
I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience to help make things a little easier and less stressful for you as you go through this process.
Realistically, it takes hundreds of stages to launch your company, but I’ve narrowed down the top 7 steps into a blueprint for you to follow if you want to learn how to start a startup and learn how to create and develop your own business.
In the following article, I outline and discuss each step in detail so you have a better understanding of what I’m talking about.
Let’s begin with the basics.
1. Create a Business Plan
Have you heard the saying ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?’ That was the thinking of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.
Well, research appears to back that up. Study after study shows that businesses with a plan are more likely to succeed. In addition, you can find many articles spelling out the importance of a business plan.
However, the Small Business Development Center at Duquesne University explains it most succinctly:
“A business plan is a very important and strategic tool for entrepreneurs. A good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.”
It’s pretty straightforward, really. Having an idea is one thing, but having a legitimate business plan is another story.
A proper business plan gives you a significant advantage, but what should you include in a business plan? It helps if you think of it as a written description of your company’s future. Basically, you outline what you want to do and how you plan to do it.
Typically, these plans outline the first three to five years of your business strategy and detail your business’s purpose and aims. Ideally, your document should outline your business goals, strategies, and your plans for achieving them.
Here are the key steps to writing a successful business plan:
- Outline your business goals
- Describe your target market
- Explain your product or service
- Detail your marketing and sales strategies
- Write down your financial projections and detail the funding
- Summarize your overall strategy
If you need some help with your plan, the Small Business Administration has an easy-to-follow guide, along with some templates.
2. Secure Appropriate Funding
Without adequate funding, your business won’t launch or stay afloat long-term. According to Statista, in 2021, there were nearly 840,000 businesses that had been in operation for less than a year. Many of these startups won’t survive because they underestimate the cost of doing business.
Perhaps you’re wondering what level of financing you need? When it comes to raising cash, there’s no magic number that applies to all businesses. The startup costs vary from industry to industry, so your company may require more or less funding depending on the situation.
Costs also vary depending on whether you’re a brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce enterprise, or service business. If you’re unsure how much you might need, try the SBA’S startup cost templates to get a better idea.
Once you’ve got a clearer picture of the costs, where do you get the funding? These days, most startups get their funding from:
- Online startup loans, which you can apply for online and pay back over time, with interest.
- SBA microloans, providing up to $50,000 in loans for start-up businesses. The main advantage is the lower interest rates.
- Lines of credit, which is a type of loan available in both secured and unsecured formats.
- Invoice factoring/financing, a process in which a business sells its invoices to a third party, at a discount.
- Friends/family/personal loans, which are unsecured loans.
- Business loans, which you pay back over an agreed period.
- Angel investors, who have considerable wealth and give seed funding to start-up businesses.
- Crowdfunding, where you raise money from a group of investors online.
Let’s circle back to our business plan for a minute.
All business plans contain a financial plan. This usually includes a:
- Balance sheet, which displays your business’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity of the company.
- Sales forecast, which predicts future sales.
- Profit and loss statement, which details your earning and spending patterns. This figure helps calculate your net income.
- Cash-flow statement, or financial statement detailing how much your business has spent and generated.
You use these financial statements to determine how much funding you need to launch successfully. Additionally, you may discover that the number is significantly higher than you originally anticipated.
For example, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “That would make a great app,” or “I should make an app for this.”
Do you know how much it costs to make an app? Depending on the complexity, you’re looking at anything between $40,000 – $300,000, and that’s just to make it.
It doesn’t include the cost of running it or customer acquisition costs.
This is the point I’m making: to secure the appropriate funding, you need to find out how much money you need.
To find this number, you must research and predict realistic financials in your business plan.
Let’s say you discover that your startup needs $100,000 to get off the ground.
What if you don’t have $100,000?
You’ve got some options, like bank loans and commercial lenders, and that’s the way many small businesses go. With this said, banks are less likely to give large amounts of money to new companies with no income or assets to default on, which may make it hard for your typical startup to get the funding they need.
Don’t worry, your dream isn’t dead yet. You can find investors. They could be:
- Friends
- Family
- Angel investors
- Venture capitalists
- Crowdfunding
However, whichever method you use, proceed carefully because you don’t want to start giving away significant equity in your company before you launch.
Then, if you get lucky and find a potential investor, you need to know how to pitch your idea quickly and effectively. Here are some tips to help you do that:
- Memorize your financial numbers; ensure you know them inside out.
- Refer to your business plan and ensure your financial figures cover the costs.
- Make sure your business plan is presentable so you can give potential investors a copy.
- Practice and perfect your pitch.
One more thing: It’s imperative that your business plan has a proper executive summary to entice busy investors.
Once you secure the appropriate funding, you can proceed to the next step of how to start a startup business: finding the right people.
3. Surround Yourself With the Right People
No one makes it on their own. William Proctor might not have been a high-profile, successful businessman if he hadn’t met James Gamble.
Where would we go for advice if Larry Page hadn’t met Sergey Brin? Not Google, that’s for sure.
Then what if Ben Cohen never met Jerry Greenfield? We would’ve been denied one of the world’s most famous ice cream brands.
Even if you’ve already got a co-founder in place, you need some core staff.
Where do you start? According to Business News Daily, there are eight people your startup needs:
- CEO and COO. Between them, they develop a vision and put it into action.
- Product Manager, who is responsible for taking a product from its development stages and onto the market.
- Chief Technology Officer, who works with executive members to oversee the technical side of a business.
- Chief Marketing Officer, whose job involves creating a marketing strategy and executing it.
- Sales Manager, for managing customer relationships, selling products/service, and motivating the team.
- Chief Finance Officer, who manages the financial planning and decisions for a company.
- Business Development Officer. This is a varied role that involves drawing up a business plan, establishing funding, and building customer/relationship funding.
- Customer Service Officer, who assists customers with their questions, any complaints, and providing product information.
However, your business structure depends on the industry, so look at the above as definitive.
When you’re just starting up, hiring an entire team often isn’t realistic, and you find yourself wearing several business hats. That’s OK, to an extent. Just remember to play to your strengths and outsource if you can’t afford to recruit.
That said, there are some experts you should consider essential, including a:
- Lawyer
- Accountant
- Financial advisor
Unless you’re an expert in law, finances, and accounting, these three people can help save your business some money in the long run.
They can explain the legal requirements and tax obligations based on how you structure your business. For example, it could be a:
- Sole proprietorship
- Partnership
- Corporation
- Limited liability company
While your lawyer, accountant, and financial advisors are not necessarily employees on your payroll, they are still important people to surround yourself with.
Finally, for this section, don’t forget the fundamentals for starting any company:
- Register your business name.
- Get a federal ID number from the IRS. The IRS lets you submit your business information online to get your employer identification number (EIN).
- Get insured: Shop around and find an insurance agent who can get you plenty of coverage at an affordable rate.
Now that you’ve got staff, you need to start work on a website and find a place to base your business.
4. Find a Location and Build a Website
Now you’re ready for the next stage of your how-to start a startup plan: finding a physical location and setting up a website.
Whether it’s offices, retail space, or a manufacturing location, you need to buy or lease a property to operate your business.
Unless you’re working from a home office, your two main options are leasing or ownership. Leasing usually works as out more expensive long term; however, don’t just base your decision on costs. Leasing and ownership both have their pros and cons. Look at the whole picture before making a decision.
I appreciate that it may not be realistic for all entrepreneurs to tie up the majority of their capital in real estate.
Strategize for this in your business plan and try to secure enough funding so that you can afford to buy property. It’s worth the investment and can save you money in the long run.
Let’s move on to setting up a website.
Today, your company can’t survive without an online presence. Don’t wait until the day your business officially launches to get your website off the ground, either, and remember, it’s never too early to start promoting your business.
If customers are searching online for a service in your industry, you want them to know that you exist, even if you’re not quite open for business yet.
The beauty of an online presence is you can even start generating some income through your website before you find premises. If it’s applicable, start taking some pre-orders and scheduling appointments.
For those of you who aren’t convinced about the pre-orders business model, many startups are succeeding with it.
Here are some tips about how to launch and promote a successful website:
- When designing a website, it is important to keep the user in mind. The layout of the website should be easy to navigate and use. The colors and fonts should be easy on the eyes.
- Make your website visually appealing. Use eye-catching images and dynamic designs to make the website stand out from the competition.
- Keep the content of the website fresh and up-to-date to keep users coming back to visit your site. Your website is an ideal place to keep your audience up-to-date with a glimpse inside your company, product launches, and, of course, the details of your business premises.
- Another important thing to keep in mind is usability. Your site should be easy to use on all devices, from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets.
Finally, make sure that your website is fast.
I can’t stress this point enough.
I’ve got a video tutorial that explains how to speed up your website.
All of these items combined may sound tough, but it’s really not that difficult. Just focus on one task at a time, and you’ll get there.
Once your website is up and running, you need to expand your digital presence. To do this, use social media platforms like:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
Your prospective customers are using these platforms, so you need to be on them, too. However, when choosing a platform, ensure you go where your core audience is. For instance, if you’re targeting a younger market, TikTok may be ideal.
5. Become a Marketing Expert
If you’re not a marketing expert, you need to become one.
You might have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then your startup can’t succeed.
To start spreading the word, you must learn how to use digital marketing techniques like:
- Content marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
However, if you’re starting a small business in a local community, some of the traditional methods can still work well. Think:
- Print advertising
- Radio advertisements
- Television
- Billboards
While some would argue that outbound marketing efforts are not as effective these days, research shows that methods like cold emailing and calling still work well.
For those of you who aren’t efficient marketers, there is no shame in hiring a marketing director or even a marketing team, depending on the size of your company.
Your marketing efforts will be one of the most important, if not the most important, components of launching your startup business. To improve your chances of success:
- Allocate a marketing budget.
- Determine how you’re going to distribute this money across different channels.
- Have a plan and try to maximize your return on investment for each campaign.
Take these numbers into consideration before you spend your entire budget on something like banner ads.
The bottom line is this: Marketing needs to be a top priority for your startup company.
6. Build a Customer Base
If you’re following this plan in order, the good news is that you’re already on the right track to building a customer base.
Starting a website, growing your digital presence, and becoming an effective marketer are all steps in the right direction. However, now it’s time to put these efforts to the test. That means:
- Opening your doors (or website) for business.
- Getting a customer to make a purchase is the first step.
- Retaining customers.
There are three keys to customer retention:
- Customer service
- Customer service
- Customer service
It’s no secret. The customer needs to be your main priority. They are the lifelines of your business, and they need to be treated accordingly.
Once you establish a steady customer base, you can use it to your advantage.
You’ll get more money from your existing customers than from new ones.
It’s a more effective method than cross-selling.
Less than 0.5% of customers respond to cross-selling.
Over 4% of your customers will buy an upsell.
These strategies both double back to having effective marketing campaigns.
Overall, establishing, building, and maintaining a customer base will help you get your startup company off the ground.
7. Prepare for Anything
Expect the unexpected.
Launching your startup company won’t be easy, and you need to plan for some hurdles along the way.
Don’t let these speed bumps become roadblocks.
You can’t get discouraged when something goes wrong.
Preserve and push through it.
The difficulties that you face while launching your startup company help prepare you for the tough road ahead.
Even after your business is up and running, it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing for the entire lifecycle of your company.
As illustrated above, you face peaks and valleys while your company operates.
Mistakes and setbacks happen.
Some of these things will be out of your control, like a natural disaster or a crisis with the nation’s economy.
Employees will come and go.
You’ll face tough decisions and crossroads.
Sometimes, you’ll even make the wrong decision.
That’s OK.
Part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your mistakes.
It’s important to recognize when you’ve done something wrong, move forward, and try your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Pay your bills.
Pay your taxes.
Operate within the confines of the law.
As long as you’re doing these things, you’ll be able to fight through any obstacle your startup company faces in the future.
FAQs
How Do I Start a Startup?
Check if your idea is viable. Do some research and ask around. Are people looking for a business/service like yours? Then ask yourself: How are other businesses in your sector performing? Have you spotted a genuine gap in the market?
Then you’re ready to start drawing up a business plan.
Where Can I Acquire Startup Funding?
There are several sources, including personal financing, banks, crowdfunding, friends, family, angel investors, and venture capitalists.
Do I Need a Website to Launch My Startup?
In the vast majority of cases, yes. You also need a social media presence that is applicable to your audience. After all, social media is a free, efficient way to reach a huge volume of people that you couldn’t otherwise target.
How Can I Use Marketing to Launch My Startup?
It depends on your budget. Begin with strategies like social media, free press release distribution, and content marketing. As your business grows, you can allocate a budget for affiliates, email marketing, SEO, online ads, and influencer campaigns.
Conclusion
Let’s recap.
Launching a startup company is not easy.
First, you need to determine if your idea is worth turning into a business, then you must determine if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur.
The percentage of entrepreneurs in the United States is growing strong, and each one of them is going to face challenges along the way.
With that said, having a proper blueprint to follow helps simplify the process. You can get learn the basics of how to start a startup by following the seven steps, and adapting them to suit your individual needs.
With that said, most successful businesses start with validating an idea, creating a comprehensive business plan, and raising adequate funding. Without proper financial planning, your startup doesn’t stand a chance.
Then, surround yourself with the right people and play to your strengths.
For instance, if you’re great at organizing and motivating, focus on that; If marketing just isn’t you, outsource it to a professional who excels in that area.
Don’t forget about lawyers, insurance agents, and accountants to keep your business in order, and make sure you have essentials like an online presence.
Launching your startup is an imperfect journey, and you must prepare for unforeseen circumstances. However, proper planning and execution help limit these hurdles and get your business off to a flying start.
How will you raise funding to get your startup company off the ground?
The post Launch Your Startup: 7 Essential Steps, Tips, Strategies, & Ideas appeared first on #1 SEO FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.
The post Launch Your Startup: 7 Essential Steps, Tips, Strategies, & Ideas appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.
Launch Your Startup: 7 Essential Steps, Tips, Strategies, & Ideas
Everyone has ideas. Some of them may be worth running with, while others are probably not so good.
However, even if your project looks awesome on paper, there’s a big difference between that and creating a successful startup company.
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
If your answer is yes, then you need a detailed guide on how to start a startup.
For those of you who haven’t launched a business before, it can sound like an intimidating task.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that getting your startup off the ground is an easy mission.
It takes hard work, dedication, money, some sleepless nights, and, yes, some failures before you succeed.
Nearly 20 percent of businesses fail in the first year, and just because you make it beyond 12 months doesn’t mean your startup is going to continue to thrive.
According to government stats, 30.6 percent of businesses fail after their second year, 49.7 percent fail after five years, and 65.6 percent fail after their tenth year.
Once you get your company off the ground, it doesn’t get any easier: you need to work just as hard to keep it going each year.
With that said, it’s useful to have a guide and a set of instructions to follow to learn how to launch a startup.
When I write about launching a startup, I’m talking from personal experience. I’ve created several startup companies like Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and NP Digital.
I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience to help make things a little easier and less stressful for you as you go through this process.
Realistically, it takes hundreds of stages to launch your company, but I’ve narrowed down the top 7 steps into a blueprint for you to follow if you want to learn how to start a startup and learn how to create and develop your own business.
In the following article, I outline and discuss each step in detail so you have a better understanding of what I’m talking about.
Let’s begin with the basics.
1. Create a Business Plan
Have you heard the saying ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail?’ That was the thinking of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.
Well, research appears to back that up. Study after study shows that businesses with a plan are more likely to succeed. In addition, you can find many articles spelling out the importance of a business plan.
However, the Small Business Development Center at Duquesne University explains it most succinctly:
“A business plan is a very important and strategic tool for entrepreneurs. A good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.”
It’s pretty straightforward, really. Having an idea is one thing, but having a legitimate business plan is another story.
A proper business plan gives you a significant advantage, but what should you include in a business plan? It helps if you think of it as a written description of your company’s future. Basically, you outline what you want to do and how you plan to do it.
Typically, these plans outline the first three to five years of your business strategy and detail your business’s purpose and aims. Ideally, your document should outline your business goals, strategies, and your plans for achieving them.
Here are the key steps to writing a successful business plan:
- Outline your business goals
- Describe your target market
- Explain your product or service
- Detail your marketing and sales strategies
- Write down your financial projections and detail the funding
- Summarize your overall strategy
If you need some help with your plan, the Small Business Administration has an easy-to-follow guide, along with some templates.
2. Secure Appropriate Funding
Without adequate funding, your business won’t launch or stay afloat long-term. According to Statista, in 2021, there were nearly 840,000 businesses that had been in operation for less than a year. Many of these startups won’t survive because they underestimate the cost of doing business.
Perhaps you’re wondering what level of financing you need? When it comes to raising cash, there’s no magic number that applies to all businesses. The startup costs vary from industry to industry, so your company may require more or less funding depending on the situation.
Costs also vary depending on whether you’re a brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce enterprise, or service business. If you’re unsure how much you might need, try the SBA’S startup cost templates to get a better idea.
Once you’ve got a clearer picture of the costs, where do you get the funding? These days, most startups get their funding from:
- Online startup loans, which you can apply for online and pay back over time, with interest.
- SBA microloans, providing up to $50,000 in loans for start-up businesses. The main advantage is the lower interest rates.
- Lines of credit, which is a type of loan available in both secured and unsecured formats.
- Invoice factoring/financing, a process in which a business sells its invoices to a third party, at a discount.
- Friends/family/personal loans, which are unsecured loans.
- Business loans, which you pay back over an agreed period.
- Angel investors, who have considerable wealth and give seed funding to start-up businesses.
- Crowdfunding, where you raise money from a group of investors online.
Let’s circle back to our business plan for a minute.
All business plans contain a financial plan. This usually includes a:
- Balance sheet, which displays your business’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity of the company.
- Sales forecast, which predicts future sales.
- Profit and loss statement, which details your earning and spending patterns. This figure helps calculate your net income.
- Cash-flow statement, or financial statement detailing how much your business has spent and generated.
You use these financial statements to determine how much funding you need to launch successfully. Additionally, you may discover that the number is significantly higher than you originally anticipated.
For example, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “That would make a great app,” or “I should make an app for this.”
Do you know how much it costs to make an app? Depending on the complexity, you’re looking at anything between $40,000 – $300,000, and that’s just to make it.
It doesn’t include the cost of running it or customer acquisition costs.
This is the point I’m making: to secure the appropriate funding, you need to find out how much money you need.
To find this number, you must research and predict realistic financials in your business plan.
Let’s say you discover that your startup needs $100,000 to get off the ground.
What if you don’t have $100,000?
You’ve got some options, like bank loans and commercial lenders, and that’s the way many small businesses go. With this said, banks are less likely to give large amounts of money to new companies with no income or assets to default on, which may make it hard for your typical startup to get the funding they need.
Don’t worry, your dream isn’t dead yet. You can find investors. They could be:
- Friends
- Family
- Angel investors
- Venture capitalists
- Crowdfunding
However, whichever method you use, proceed carefully because you don’t want to start giving away significant equity in your company before you launch.
Then, if you get lucky and find a potential investor, you need to know how to pitch your idea quickly and effectively. Here are some tips to help you do that:
- Memorize your financial numbers; ensure you know them inside out.
- Refer to your business plan and ensure your financial figures cover the costs.
- Make sure your business plan is presentable so you can give potential investors a copy.
- Practice and perfect your pitch.
One more thing: It’s imperative that your business plan has a proper executive summary to entice busy investors.
Once you secure the appropriate funding, you can proceed to the next step of how to start a startup business: finding the right people.
3. Surround Yourself With the Right People
No one makes it on their own. William Proctor might not have been a high-profile, successful businessman if he hadn’t met James Gamble.
Where would we go for advice if Larry Page hadn’t met Sergey Brin? Not Google, that’s for sure.
Then what if Ben Cohen never met Jerry Greenfield? We would’ve been denied one of the world’s most famous ice cream brands.
Even if you’ve already got a co-founder in place, you need some core staff.
Where do you start? According to Business News Daily, there are eight people your startup needs:
- CEO and COO. Between them, they develop a vision and put it into action.
- Product Manager, who is responsible for taking a product from its development stages and onto the market.
- Chief Technology Officer, who works with executive members to oversee the technical side of a business.
- Chief Marketing Officer, whose job involves creating a marketing strategy and executing it.
- Sales Manager, for managing customer relationships, selling products/service, and motivating the team.
- Chief Finance Officer, who manages the financial planning and decisions for a company.
- Business Development Officer. This is a varied role that involves drawing up a business plan, establishing funding, and building customer/relationship funding.
- Customer Service Officer, who assists customers with their questions, any complaints, and providing product information.
However, your business structure depends on the industry, so look at the above as definitive.
When you’re just starting up, hiring an entire team often isn’t realistic, and you find yourself wearing several business hats. That’s OK, to an extent. Just remember to play to your strengths and outsource if you can’t afford to recruit.
That said, there are some experts you should consider essential, including a:
- Lawyer
- Accountant
- Financial advisor
Unless you’re an expert in law, finances, and accounting, these three people can help save your business some money in the long run.
They can explain the legal requirements and tax obligations based on how you structure your business. For example, it could be a:
- Sole proprietorship
- Partnership
- Corporation
- Limited liability company
While your lawyer, accountant, and financial advisors are not necessarily employees on your payroll, they are still important people to surround yourself with.
Finally, for this section, don’t forget the fundamentals for starting any company:
- Register your business name.
- Get a federal ID number from the IRS. The IRS lets you submit your business information online to get your employer identification number (EIN).
- Get insured: Shop around and find an insurance agent who can get you plenty of coverage at an affordable rate.
Now that you’ve got staff, you need to start work on a website and find a place to base your business.
4. Find a Location and Build a Website
Now you’re ready for the next stage of your how-to start a startup plan: finding a physical location and setting up a website.
Whether it’s offices, retail space, or a manufacturing location, you need to buy or lease a property to operate your business.
Unless you’re working from a home office, your two main options are leasing or ownership. Leasing usually works as out more expensive long term; however, don’t just base your decision on costs. Leasing and ownership both have their pros and cons. Look at the whole picture before making a decision.
I appreciate that it may not be realistic for all entrepreneurs to tie up the majority of their capital in real estate.
Strategize for this in your business plan and try to secure enough funding so that you can afford to buy property. It’s worth the investment and can save you money in the long run.
Let’s move on to setting up a website.
Today, your company can’t survive without an online presence. Don’t wait until the day your business officially launches to get your website off the ground, either, and remember, it’s never too early to start promoting your business.
If customers are searching online for a service in your industry, you want them to know that you exist, even if you’re not quite open for business yet.
The beauty of an online presence is you can even start generating some income through your website before you find premises. If it’s applicable, start taking some pre-orders and scheduling appointments.
For those of you who aren’t convinced about the pre-orders business model, many startups are succeeding with it.
Here are some tips about how to launch and promote a successful website:
- When designing a website, it is important to keep the user in mind. The layout of the website should be easy to navigate and use. The colors and fonts should be easy on the eyes.
- Make your website visually appealing. Use eye-catching images and dynamic designs to make the website stand out from the competition.
- Keep the content of the website fresh and up-to-date to keep users coming back to visit your site. Your website is an ideal place to keep your audience up-to-date with a glimpse inside your company, product launches, and, of course, the details of your business premises.
- Another important thing to keep in mind is usability. Your site should be easy to use on all devices, from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets.
Finally, make sure that your website is fast.
I can’t stress this point enough.
I’ve got a video tutorial that explains how to speed up your website.
All of these items combined may sound tough, but it’s really not that difficult. Just focus on one task at a time, and you’ll get there.
Once your website is up and running, you need to expand your digital presence. To do this, use social media platforms like:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
Your prospective customers are using these platforms, so you need to be on them, too. However, when choosing a platform, ensure you go where your core audience is. For instance, if you’re targeting a younger market, TikTok may be ideal.
5. Become a Marketing Expert
If you’re not a marketing expert, you need to become one.
You might have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then your startup can’t succeed.
To start spreading the word, you must learn how to use digital marketing techniques like:
- Content marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
However, if you’re starting a small business in a local community, some of the traditional methods can still work well. Think:
- Print advertising
- Radio advertisements
- Television
- Billboards
While some would argue that outbound marketing efforts are not as effective these days, research shows that methods like cold emailing and calling still work well.
For those of you who aren’t efficient marketers, there is no shame in hiring a marketing director or even a marketing team, depending on the size of your company.
Your marketing efforts will be one of the most important, if not the most important, components of launching your startup business. To improve your chances of success:
- Allocate a marketing budget.
- Determine how you’re going to distribute this money across different channels.
- Have a plan and try to maximize your return on investment for each campaign.
Take these numbers into consideration before you spend your entire budget on something like banner ads.
The bottom line is this: Marketing needs to be a top priority for your startup company.
6. Build a Customer Base
If you’re following this plan in order, the good news is that you’re already on the right track to building a customer base.
Starting a website, growing your digital presence, and becoming an effective marketer are all steps in the right direction. However, now it’s time to put these efforts to the test. That means:
- Opening your doors (or website) for business.
- Getting a customer to make a purchase is the first step.
- Retaining customers.
There are three keys to customer retention:
- Customer service
- Customer service
- Customer service
It’s no secret. The customer needs to be your main priority. They are the lifelines of your business, and they need to be treated accordingly.
Once you establish a steady customer base, you can use it to your advantage.
You’ll get more money from your existing customers than from new ones.
It’s a more effective method than cross-selling.
Less than 0.5% of customers respond to cross-selling.
Over 4% of your customers will buy an upsell.
These strategies both double back to having effective marketing campaigns.
Overall, establishing, building, and maintaining a customer base will help you get your startup company off the ground.
7. Prepare for Anything
Expect the unexpected.
Launching your startup company won’t be easy, and you need to plan for some hurdles along the way.
Don’t let these speed bumps become roadblocks.
You can’t get discouraged when something goes wrong.
Preserve and push through it.
The difficulties that you face while launching your startup company help prepare you for the tough road ahead.
Even after your business is up and running, it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing for the entire lifecycle of your company.
As illustrated above, you face peaks and valleys while your company operates.
Mistakes and setbacks happen.
Some of these things will be out of your control, like a natural disaster or a crisis with the nation’s economy.
Employees will come and go.
You’ll face tough decisions and crossroads.
Sometimes, you’ll even make the wrong decision.
That’s OK.
Part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your mistakes.
It’s important to recognize when you’ve done something wrong, move forward, and try your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Pay your bills.
Pay your taxes.
Operate within the confines of the law.
As long as you’re doing these things, you’ll be able to fight through any obstacle your startup company faces in the future.
FAQs
How Do I Start a Startup?
Check if your idea is viable. Do some research and ask around. Are people looking for a business/service like yours? Then ask yourself: How are other businesses in your sector performing? Have you spotted a genuine gap in the market?
Then you’re ready to start drawing up a business plan.
Where Can I Acquire Startup Funding?
There are several sources, including personal financing, banks, crowdfunding, friends, family, angel investors, and venture capitalists.
Do I Need a Website to Launch My Startup?
In the vast majority of cases, yes. You also need a social media presence that is applicable to your audience. After all, social media is a free, efficient way to reach a huge volume of people that you couldn’t otherwise target.
How Can I Use Marketing to Launch My Startup?
It depends on your budget. Begin with strategies like social media, free press release distribution, and content marketing. As your business grows, you can allocate a budget for affiliates, email marketing, SEO, online ads, and influencer campaigns.
Conclusion
Let’s recap.
Launching a startup company is not easy.
First, you need to determine if your idea is worth turning into a business, then you must determine if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur.
The percentage of entrepreneurs in the United States is growing strong, and each one of them is going to face challenges along the way.
With that said, having a proper blueprint to follow helps simplify the process. You can get learn the basics of how to start a startup by following the seven steps, and adapting them to suit your individual needs.
With that said, most successful businesses start with validating an idea, creating a comprehensive business plan, and raising adequate funding. Without proper financial planning, your startup doesn’t stand a chance.
Then, surround yourself with the right people and play to your strengths.
For instance, if you’re great at organizing and motivating, focus on that; If marketing just isn’t you, outsource it to a professional who excels in that area.
Don’t forget about lawyers, insurance agents, and accountants to keep your business in order, and make sure you have essentials like an online presence.
Launching your startup is an imperfect journey, and you must prepare for unforeseen circumstances. However, proper planning and execution help limit these hurdles and get your business off to a flying start.
How will you raise funding to get your startup company off the ground?
North Korean launch apparently ends in failure, South Korea's military says
North Korea’s latest weapons launch on Wednesday apparently ended in failure, South Korea’s military said, amid speculation that the North could soon launch its biggest long-range missile in its most significant provocation in years.
Haas becomes first team to launch new-look 2022 F1 car
Haas has become the first Formula One team to release images of its 2022 car ahead of the upcoming season.
The post Haas becomes first team to launch new-look 2022 F1 car appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.
How to Create, Launch, and Grow a Membership Site and Community
If you’ve found yourself reading this blog, you’re probably interested in the idea of a membership site. These sites are not to be confused with paid subscriptions, which refer exclusively to a financial model that binds users to its pages.
Netflix, for example, is the classic example of a subscription website: a platform that users gain access to via a recurring fee. On the other hand, membership sites refer to platforms that offer gated content only accessible through, you guessed it, membership.
These sites can be paid, free, or operate on a tiered basis, depending on the site’s intent as a whole.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the benefits of membership sites, share how to build out gated content for members’ eyes only, and share our top three favorite membership sites.
Why Should You Create a Membership Site
There are many benefits to creating a membership site, including building your community and monetizing your content.
Below, we break down the three biggest benefits of building a membership site structure.
1. Establish Yourself as an Expert
Everyone wants to be considered an expert in their field. At times, however, achieving this can be much easier said than done.
One surefire way to establish yourself as an expert is to offer invaluable content that fills holes in your industry’s general knowledge base. These assets can come in the form of white papers, infographics, blogs, podcasts, and any other form of consumable content.
When these content assets are available via a membership-only relationship, you not only drive demand for your content, but you also firmly establish yourself as an industry expert, given consumers’ willingness to engage with your gated site.
2. Foster Your Community
When you commit to building a membership site, you’re not just building a transactional environment; you’re building a community.
Your audience has agreed to participate in your membership site given their shared interest in your product or topic.
Foster this community by providing them with unique offerings and benefits, as well as giving them a place to interact with one another. Whether your membership site is paid or free, you have a unique group of active members with shared interests ready to engage.
This community-building also serves you in the long run, as you’ve created a base of followers with whom you’ve built trust and goodwill, making them that much more likely to interact with your products and offerings in the future.
3. Increase Your Overall Value
With each new member and content asset, your website becomes increasingly valuable. The more content you create, the more you have to offer to prospective community members.
While traditional digital models will operate on one-off sales of products or services, your membership site has the potential to acquire cumulative value that increases over time.
How to Create a Membership Site
If we’ve convinced you of the benefits of the membership site, the next step is breaking down how to actually build one. This section will discuss the three steps for building a membership site that keeps users coming back for more.
1. Establish Your Membership Model
Before delving into the actual work of building out a membership site, you need to establish your membership model. In this step, you must first decide if you’re charging your members. If you are, you must determine how much and at what frequency.
This assessment of pricing should include researching how much competitors are charging and what they are offering. Sometimes, forgoing the fee may be worth the lost revenue as it provides a slew of qualified leads.
After establishing pricing, look to your buyer personas to establish what would drive value for your consumers. These value drivers don’t necessarily have to fall into the realm of content; they can include offerings like free shipping or points for purchase. Regardless of which route you choose, ensure that your offerings align with what your audience finds valuable.
2. Create Members-Only Content
If you’re offering exclusive content through any model, it better be just that: exclusive. When potential members hand over a fee or offer up their personal information, they better receive something of value in return.
Here, revisit your buyer personas to determine what content assets need to be created to ensure that your members find value in your site.
3. Choose the Right Membership Platform for Your Needs
Now that you’ve established your membership model and built out your members-only content, it’s time to find the right platform to make your site a success. If you’ve built your existing site on WordPress or Squarespace, there are plug-ins that can make this step super easy.
If you’re not using these platforms, you can choose a third-party provider to enable the membership site for you.
Regardless of which platform you use, your membership site should include the following features:
- Membership management: This function allows you to create different tiers of memberships and add and manage members.
- User registration and member profiles: This refers to front-end functionality that allows users to sign up and access their profiles.
- Content restriction: We’ve talked a lot about gated, so you want to be sure that your site has the functionality to hide those valuable assets from non-member audiences.
3 Examples of Successful Membership Sites
While there are a lot of membership sites out there, we’ve broken down a few examples that really hit the mark. These include both recognizable names and lesser-known membership sites that provide value to their respective audiences.
1. Scott’s Cheap Flights
Everyone wants to spend less to go further–and that’s what this membership site lets members do. With curated flight offers, this membership site enables users to score flights on the cheap, opening their horizons and closing their wallets.
Offering members up to 90% off flights, the big takeaway from this membership site is the customizable offerings. By providing each member with flights that align with their respective travel interests, Scott’s Cheap Flights creates a personalized experience for members they can’t help but return to.
2. International Gem Society
If agate doesn’t leave your jaw agape, this site may not be for you. If rocks rock your socks, this membership site should be bookmarked in your browser. Members subscribe to a paid model for certification courses, articles, and a thriving forum.
Here, too, much can be learned about growing a membership site, particularly within a niche market. By offering their members content that speaks specifically toward the needs and interests of a specific group, the International Gem Society keeps their members coming back for more.
3. Food Blogger Pro
This membership site is for all the would-be food bloggers out there, as the name suggests. Powered by the expertise of two successful food bloggers, this membership site offers users a forum, as well as course content.
If you’re considering building a membership site, take notes on this forum. Lively and interactive, a community truly is formed on the discussion page of this membership site.
Membership Site FAQs
Should my membership site model be paid or free?
Determining whether your membership site should be paid or free depends on your goals. If you aim to monetize your content, you should subscribe to a paid model. However, if you’re simply attempting to gain credibility and establish yourself as an expert and thought leader in your field, a free subscription may be right for you.
What content should I include on my membership site?
The content you build on your membership site should be specific to your audience. Provide content that of value to your target audience, offering them assets they can’t live without.
These offerings can include infographics, white papers, blogs, podcasts, and other assets that fill holes in your industry’s knowledge base or offer utility to your members. Again, constantly return to the question: What will my members truly value?
How do I build a membership site?
Building your membership site doesn’t mean you have to be an expert coder. Sites like WordPress and Squarespace offer plug-ins that can help you migrate your existing site to a membership model. If your platform doesn’t offer plug-ins to streamline this process, consider hiring a developer to help you include a members-only section of your site.
Why should I consider a membership site?
The benefits of membership include creating income, building a community, establishing yourself as an expert, and monetizing your content.
Membership Site Conclusion
Whether you’re looking to monetize your content or simply solidify yourself as an expert in your field, creating a membership site can add inherent value to your brand.
For a truly successful membership site, however, you must have a clear understanding of your audience. By establishing who you’re trying to reach, you can better identify what they’re trying to reach by subscribing to your membership site.
From there, build out a reserve of content that you can serve up to members at a predetermined cadence to ensure that your offerings live up to their expectations. By setting a cadence, you establish a reliable exchange, further building trust in your site and ideally growing your base.
What’s the best example of a member site you’ve seen?
How to Launch a Business With PPC Ads
You came up with an idea, did your research, maybe even found some funding. You are ready to launch a business — but how do you get people to your website or store?
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are one of the most effective ways to drive growth for your new business. Unlike brand building, content marketing, and social media, PPC ads can drive traffic today. There’s no need to wait weeks or months for your efforts to pay off.
Even if you have years of business experience behind you and are pretty well-versed in marketing, PPC ads for a new business need to be handled differently. Below, you can learn more about why PPC ads may be the way to go for your business and find tips for to make the most of them.
Why Should You Launch a Business With PPC Ads?
PPC ads can be a great way to launch a business because they allow you to reach your specific target market through keywords and target demographics.
With PPC ads, you create an ad and pay only when someone clicks on it. The ad should do something to draw the audience’s eye and make them want to click.
This type of ad is for new businesses for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is since they’re paid, you don’t have to wait to get to the top of search engine results organically. They show up at the top of the list automatically.
Some other reasons include:
Reach Only Your Target Audience
PPC ads are highly targeted. When creating a PPC ad, you get to enter a ton of details about who you want to see the ad. The ad is then shown to people who fit that description. For example, you can target people based on their location, age, income, likes, family status, and even what shows they like.
Budget-Friendly
While the platform requirements vary, you can set a budget limit upfront with PPC ads. You know the absolute max you’ll spend on an ad campaign when you start, then you can track the success of your PPC ad and make alterations for future ones.
This also makes it easy to scale; when you a ready for more traffic, just up your budget.
Trackability
Because PPC ads are based on each click or interaction with the ad, you can follow how people respond. If an ad isn’t getting the responses you want—though remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day—you can alter the way the ad looks and see if that works better.
Being able to track the ROI of your ads directly makes it easier to pivot if things aren’t going well — or spend more money when they are.
How Are PPC Ad Campaigns for Launching a Business Different From PPC Ad Campaigns for Existing Businesses?
Existing businesses have name recognition working in their favor, while new companies don’t. So, your PPC ads need to work a bit differently. While both types involve keyword research and target audiences, your research and focus on both factors need to be more intensive.
Keywords and PPC Ads for New Businesses
You need to use keywords specific to your brand and products in your PPC ads. Businesses that have been around for a while already know what keywords drive their traffic; you need to do a lot more digging as a new business owner.
Start with a keyword research tool. Search for words relating to your brand, determine which combinations seem to drive the most traffic for other brands, and tailor them for your needs.
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, make sure they’re in your copy so potential customers know exactly what it is you’re selling, why they should choose you, and call them to action.
Here’s an example. When we search for tomato seeds, we get a selection of ads from various sellers:
The ones that stand out showcase the tomato seeds keywords, as well as related keywords such as heirloom and organic. Unless a user searched for a specific brand, they’re likely to be drawn in by your keywords and not your brand name.
Target Audiences and New Business PPC Ads
Your target audience is the group you want to see your ads. You can define them by location, age, gender, income, and more. Again, this is about being as specific as possible, figuring out who you want to buy your product via intensive research.
Your potential customers are more than just data, though. They like specific things. When you launch your first campaign, you should find out what types of ads they’re most likely to click on and create ads lining up with those details. You also need to find out where they’re most likely to click on them. Are they on Google or social media?
If they’re on social media, use strong visuals to stand out. As a bonus, you can often have a bit more copy with social media PPC ads than with search engine PPC ads. To grab their attention, use your picture and content to make it clear your new business meets your audience’s needs.
Let’s take TapRm. When you see this ad, specially targeted for those who live in NYC, you know immediately what they are all about. The various selling points, such as same-day delivery, may entice you to click and learn more.
5 Tips for Launching a Business With a PPC Ad Campaign
Are you ready to dive into PPC ads to launch your business? Here are some actionable steps.
1. Get Really Focused
One way to ensure you’re getting the most out of your PPC ads is to zone in on exactly who you are targeting and what you want them to do right now. Don’t get distracted by possibilities down the line.
Stay focused on the market your business is best designed for and limit your reach to the most qualified buyers. These early days are the time to build buzz among your most potentially loyal customers, who will fall in love with your business.
2. Decide Where Your Audience Should Go
Your audience likely found you because they searched for a resolution to a specific problem, so avoid the temptation to send them to your homepage.
Instead, think through exactly where you want them to go when they click your ad. Maybe it’s a product page, sign-up page, or landing page created just for this campaign. Since customers are likely new to your website, you want to keep the conversion journey short and straightforward.
3. Start Small
You could create a wide range of PPC ads when you launch a business, focusing on different aspects of your business and showing up in various online spaces. But in these early days, keep it simple. Choose one of the platforms where your target audience is likely to be, either on social media or search engines, and focus on solving specific problems your customers have.
Keeping things this focused at first can help you figure out what types of ads people click on to find your site and whether or not they convert. Later, you can use this information to expand your types of PPC ads.
4. Analyze the Data
Once you launch your PPC campaign, keep an eye on how your ads perform. Luckily, most paid platforms track this data automatically, making it relatively easy to see how many people see the ads versus how many click.
Are people seeing the ads but not clicking? Maybe you aren’t speaking to your customers’ needs.
Are people clicking but not converting? Maybe you’re sending them to a page that doesn’t immediately solve their problem.
Keep watching the ads, figure out when and how people are converting, and change tactics accordingly.
5. Build on What’s Working
As you continue your PPC efforts, create campaigns using campaign strategies that worked in the past, making them better each time. If you had a copy-only ad at first, you could take that copy and use it to create a PPC ad with a photo or video, for instance.
Measuring the Success of Your PPC Campaign When You Launch a Business
Watching your PPC campaign’s metrics can provide the feedback you need so you can create paid ads that actually convert.
The metrics you should pay attention to include:
Impressions
These tell you how many people see your ads. Knowing how many people see the ad lets you know if your audience is too broad or narrow, particularly when compared to the number who click.
Click-Through Rates
Click-through rates show you how well your ad design and copy are performing. If people are clicking through, you’ve made a good first step.
Conversion Rates
Once you notice those click-throughs, you’ll need to watch for conversion. Are people buying, signing up, or other actions? If not, find out why and change accordingly.
Social Interactions
If your ads are on social media, look for interactions such as likes or shares. With your new business, these metrics may not be about conversions but to show some growth in brand awareness.
When you launch a business, you’re bound to try things that aren’t going to work. Don’t be afraid to scrap an idea and start fresh. Success in PPC ads involves trial and error until you connect with your ideal target market with a message they respond to.
Conclusion
You’ve launched your big idea. As a struggling startup, what’s next?
It’s time to get out there and start advertising. PPC ads can help you narrow down your focus, provide valuable feedback about how customers respond to your new business, and help you understand how to meet their needs.
What kind of PPC ads are you going to use for your next business venture?
Launch Your Podcast and Take Your Brand To A Next Level
Podcasts are gaining massive traction and are very deserving of it. As of 2020, there are currently 850,000 active podcasts and over 30 million podcast episodes. Just recently The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast moved from …
The post Launch Your Podcast and Take Your Brand To A Next Level appeared first on Paper.li blog.