Successful Marketing Online For The Solopreneur

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Estimated reading time: 47 Min

Marketing online for the solopreneur isn’t for the faint-hearted, although it‘s not unusual to become extraordinarily successful on your own nowadays.

Ah-ha, a marketing business for the solopreneur—marketing online—the art of promoting your products on the internet.

Well yes, and I think maybe that’s a high-level description that is overly simplified…

Now – before we get started, a word of warning – the following may seem daunting at first.

However, step-by-step will get you to wherever you want to go.

If you’re new to the idea of creating your own asset online, realise that many millions of people have been there ahead of you.

If they can do it, then so can you!

Learn from those ahead and be consistent and persistent in your effort. OK then. Without more ado…

What’s a “solopreneur”?

Well, that’s the easy bit – a solopreneur, otherwise known as a solo-entrepreneur is someone who sets up and develops a business while working on their own.

So, I’m sure it’s no surprise that in the Oxford English dictionary, a solopreneur is an entrepreneur working alone.

So, what’s meant by “entrepreneur”?

Again in the Oxford dictionary, “entrepreneur” has a slightly broader definition than “solopreneur”.

An entrepreneur is someone who sets up a business, and most importantly, takes on financial risks, in the hope of a profit.

OK, then what’s meant by a “marketing business”?

The definition of a marketing business is less clear-cut.

All businesses need to market themselves and their products in order to make sales.

So in that sense, all businesses are marketing businesses.

However, on the internet, it’s not unusual for a solopreneur to set up a series of small businesses, each designed to market products of their own or supplied by third parties, to specific, well-defined niches.

(Note: a niche in marketing means a group of people who pursue a defined area of interest and therefore tend to experience similar challenges and perhaps spend money there; more on that later.)

Why set up a business or businesses for marketing online?

Here are a few of the benefits of Internet marketing:

• It’s a cost-effective way to reach a large audience. Domain names and websites are relatively low-cost assets (at least in cash terms).
• You can build relationships with customers and prospects worldwide.
• As a solopreneur, compared to building a business offline, it’s relatively simple to get started with building a marketing business online.
• Many online activities can be automated.
• You can target your advertising to specific demographics.
• You can automatically track your results and measure your return on investment (ROI).

So, if you’re looking for a way to start or grow your own business, marketing on the internet can be a great option.

Just in case it’s useful, here you’ll find my main personal reasons for starting a business online.

OK… Moving on… Obviously, every business needs something to sell.

It could be a physical or digital product or some kind of service.

This is where “Product Management” comes in.

Why mention “Product Management?”

Well, nowadays, marketing is emphasised a lot online; and often ignores a need to manage the lifecycle of products and services, from ideation through to eventual product withdrawal.

The Product Management role first appeared in the 1930s.

Marketing has been around far longer, however, its long-term effectiveness depends on the provision of well-designed products that meet prospects’ wants and needs.

Large organisations tend to employ separate teams of Product Management and Marketing specialists.

This article focuses on a combination of Product Management and Marketing for the solopreneur.

The thing is that Marketing and Product Management functions share a bunch of similarities but they have different roles and responsibilities.

A solopreneur needs to understand and carry out both roles.

Key commonalities between Marketing and Product Management include identifying market opportunities, conducting market research, and identifying and understanding product requirements.

However, the goals of the two disciplines are different and support each other…

The goal of Product Management: as already suggested, is to manage the provision of a product or service throughout its lifecycle.

This involves a focus on the process of planning, developing or finding, and managing a product, from idea generation to product launch and beyond.

So, a Product Manager needs to understand a marketplace (niche or customer) in enough detail to be able to influence the design and availability of solutions to problems that people want to solve.

The goal of Marketing: however, is to create awareness and demand for the product or service and to encourage sales.

This involves a focus on reaching your target audience and generating leads and sales by fulfilling a marketing plan that includes advertising, sales promotions, public relations, and other activities aimed at attracting and retaining customers.

So, a Marketer needs to understand a marketplace (niche or customer) in enough detail to be able to build relationships through excellent communications with prospects and customers, in order to introduce solutions to them that meet their wants and needs.

Both disciplines therefore start in more or less the same place and eventually branch out requiring different skillsets.

Where an organisation employs separate people in these roles, it’s essential that they are able to communicate well with each other.

Mindset For Marketing Online And Product Management

This is important – but I’ll say it only once!

A key to successful product management and marketing is to put customers’ interests first.

I lied – I’ll repeat that…

A key to successful product management and marketing is to put customers’ interests first.

That does not mean ignoring the needs of other stakeholders—it means, always remembering that every interaction, whether direct or indirect, is an opportunity to make a positive impression or influence.

I call these interactions “moments of truth.“

A Solopreneur’s Workload – 8 Areas Of Focus

Clearly, a solopreneur who sets up and runs a marketing business requires a working knowledge and skills for Product Management along with those for Marketing.

It can be useful to separate the two disciplines in order to understand their purpose.

Inevitably when it comes to workflow, the solopreneur especially needs to find ways to dovetail and simplify the roles for the sake of efficiency.

So, if you’re a solopreneur, in addition to technical skills, you’ll also need a mindset for handling the following 8 areas:

1. Market (or niche) Research
2. Market (or niche) Analysis
3. Specific Product Management Plans
4. Specific Marketing and Sales Plans
5. Online Marketing Methods
6. Online Monetisation Opportunities
7. Business And Strategy Planning Considerations
8. Getting Started Online

1. Market (Or Niche) Research

Find A Business Opportunity

First things first, it all starts with awareness of an opportunity; you need an idea for your business. Ideally, an idea that includes a twist that sets you apart from the rest.

There’s something of 3-way chicken or egg situation between this and the next two sections of this post…

The question is, which comes first – is it “Find A Business Opportunity”, “Know Your Audience” or “Identify Audience Problems?”

Nowadays, many people take to the internet simply because they’ve heard it’s a great place to earn some extra money!

Many will tell you they’re learning, and experimenting, by building a presence on the internet. There’s no harm in that—however, it helps to have a specific opportunity and outcome in mind.

Most people spot ideas from being interested in a specific subject. and your level of interest can help a lot when the going gets tough.

Whatever your level of knowledge at the beginning, I recommend learning as much as you can about your idea.

So, hang out in online forums, join Facebook groups – ask questions and capture the answer.

Maybe you’ve got a unique product idea or can improve on an existing product or service.

Perhaps you’ve spotted an opportunity for developing a market such as improving the promotion of an existing product or the customer service for it.

Maybe you’re a problem solver with a solution up your sleeve or want to find a wider audience for an existing offline business.

Whatever it is, make sure you’re at least enthusiastic about and ideally passionate about the subject area.

But, be wary of getting too excited until you’ve done your research (or due diligence if you prefer that expression) so you can make informed decisions about the best way forward.

Here is a short list I made earlier of “7 Ways To Find Business And Product Ideas.”

Know Your Audience

Your “audience” refers to your “marketplace“, “prospects”, or “niche” as they’re usually referred to on the internet.

A niche, from a business point of view, is simply a crowd of people interested in the area that’s supported by a product or service.

So decisions about what product or service to make available must be based on the wants and needs of an identified niche.

If you’re researching an idea you may well be tempted to ask friends with the same interest for input. Most people are happy to help a friend. A few words of warning…

Some friends may be overcautious on your behalf and might try to put you off what could be a successful venture.

Others may well be extremely supportive when they really have very little if any, useful knowledge of the subject area.

Also, avoid trying to sell to your friends – allow them to let you know If they’re interested or not.

Now, focusing on people who you’ll be trying to sell to, ask and answer these questions:

• Who are they (time of life, personal situation etc)?
• Where do they hang out on the internet?
• What habits do they portray?
• What makes them tick?
• What problems do they have that you can solve?
• What do they want?
• What are their needs?
• Are there any niche-related words that they tend to use?

It helps to develop two or three personas that describe your potential customers in some detail.

Take the answers to the questions above and use your imagination to describe their time of life, social status, family situation, fitness level etc.

Give each prospect’s persona a name; create whatever personas work for you.

When your product is ready, this activity will help you speak more directly to your audience and help you develop appropriate marketing strategies.

Identify Audience Problems

The bottom line is, if you can’t find prospects with a problem or a challenge to solve on which they’re willing to spend money, then there’s probably no opportunity.

To be clear, prospects’ problems or challenges may be wrapped up as their wants and needs.

Understanding their problems, challenges wants and needs makes it much more likely that you’ll provide a product or service that will be a hit.

To gather information you could conduct surveys, analyse social media conversations, and hang out on online forums to figure out what’s bugging your potential customers.

As you get to know your audience ask them for feedback to confirm the facts of any assumptions.

They will soon let you know if they think you’re wrong!

Know Your Competition

So you’ve got an idea for a solution to problems that prospects are experiencing.

This would put you head and shoulders above some entrepreneurs.

However, you need to be sure that you can fit in, alongside other competitors addressing the same or related problems – so:

1. Identify competitors
   This includes both direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are businesses that offer the same or similar products or services as you and indirect competitors are businesses that offer related products or services, perhaps in a different way.
   
2. Research competitors
   This includes looking at their websites, their marketing campaigns, and their customer reviews. You can also use online tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to research your competitors’ SEO and their paid advertising strategies.
   
3. Analyse competitors
   This includes identifying their strengths and weaknesses, their target market, and their marketing strategies. You can use this information to help you develop your own marketing strategies and to better position your business in your chosen marketplace.
   
4. Monitor competitors
   Monitoring them includes noticing and analysing their latest marketing campaigns, their website changes, and their customer reviews. You can also use tools like Google Alerts to set up alerts for your competitors’ websites and social media accounts.

Nowadays, social media can be a great way to gauge public opinion about your competitor’s solutions.

In addition, pay attention to what people are saying about you, your brand, and your existing products (you don’t want to be your own biggest competitor :-), and use this feedback to improve your offerings.

2. Market (Or Niche) Analysis

So the second step in the process is to analyse the market (or niche) information that you’ve gathered…

Obviously, you can’t analyse anything until you have some information. In this case, gather as much as possible about your potential audience, their problem/s and any competitors trying to address those problems.

In other words, you need to figure out if anyone other than you, cares about your ideas!

Now, to a couple of hard truths…

Many ideas have failed when it turns out that not enough people are interested in using their hard-earned cash on the idea.

By now you should have a good feel for whether there are enough potential customers.

If there aren’t, then you may need to be strong and move on to other ideas.

Also, many ideas fail because competition has been underestimated…

However, do bear in mind that successful business Ideas often come from having just a little knowledge of a possible opportunity.

So assuming you’ve done the research, organised it and thought about it, you could position yourself at least alongside, and even ahead of the main competition.

You And Your Business

Having already researched and analysed the competition for their offerings in your niche and identified their strengths and weaknesses you should also focus a little on yourself and your own organisation.

Honesty and realism is essential. Do a SWOT analysis…

SWOT – is an acronym for a simple and powerful strategic planning tool for an organisation, a project or a product and is used to assess:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

You can do a SWOT Analysis by brainstorming, conducting research, and talking to industry experts.

Once you’ve identified your SWOT factors, you will need to assess their importance and their impact on your organisation.

A SWOT Analysis can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Planning
  Identify your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats in the environment. This information can be used to develop a plan that capitalizes on your strengths, addresses your weaknesses, and takes advantage of opportunities in consideration of any perceived threats.
• Decision making
  Make better decisions by gaining a clear understanding of your organisation’s situation. It can help you identify the risks and rewards of different options and choose the option that is most likely to succeed.
• Problem solving
  Identify and solve problems by using the SWOT framework to figure out the causes of a problem and identify possible solutions.
• Communication
  A SWOT analysis can be a valuable communication tool. It can help you communicate your organisation’s strategy to any employees, stakeholders, and investors. It can also help you build consensus and support for your plans.

The bottom line: can you deliver a product or service that delivers more than your competition does?

A Feel For The Demand

Getting a feel for the demand for a solution can be tricky. But if there are obvious, successful competitors, that can be a very good sign.

Any prior relevant experience and skills you have would also add weight to your ability to compete.

Sometimes there will be an obvious “yes” or an obvious “no” to an opportunity. Often though it’ll be a best guess.

But, try not to guess before you’ve gathered what information you can.

You could be considering developing your own product.

If you’re not sure about that route, there are many opportunities online to market someone else’s product or service as an affiliate marketer, in return for a commission.

So, if you’re not sure, test the waters first.

Go through the research and either develop a cut-down version of your solution that you can deliver cost-effectively, or market someone else’s product first…

However, although marketing someone else’s product or service alleviates much of the overhead of creating, managing and providing direct customer support for your own product, you are in effect dependent on the Product Management skills of a third party.

So it’s important to do your due diligence on the product supplier and (ideally) their methods before committing to marketing their product.

Equally, they may well want to check out your level of marketing competence and commitment as well.

Whatever direction you’re considering, base your decision to move forward, as much as possible on facts, as opposed to perceptions.

3. Specific Product Management Plans

Once you’ve gathered the necessary information about the target market, you must either develop your own product or find a third-party product or service, that meets your audience’s needs.

Defining And Providing A Product Or Service

The following steps help to find or develop a product or service:

• Develop a vision for the product or service
• Define requirements (product features and capabilities)
• Marketing considerations
• Find an existing product or create a development project
• Pricing
• Distribution and Customer Service

Product Vision

Start by writing down the problem or challenge that your product will help solve. Then define what your product will need to do to address the challenge.

Product Requirements

Define what the product will deliver and how it will achieve that. This is a more detailed comprehensive version of the vision. It should be detailed enough for decisions to be made when assessing whether to build something new or start marketing someone else’s product or service.

Marketing Considerations

From a product management point of view, there are several key considerations that you should take into account throughout the lifecycle of a product or service.

Here are some important points to keep in mind:

1. Changes to product requirements or design
   As a solopreneur, your target audience has already been identified and analysed. Any of the following could trigger the need for product requirements or design changes:
   ◦ Changes in the marketplace (customer requirements)
   ◦ Your own commercial reasons
   ◦ Changes in other competitors’ offerings
   ◦ Legislative changes
   The effect of any changes to product requirements or design would need to be considered from a marketing point of view to make sure they can be presented in ways that appeal to your target audience.
   
2. Unique selling proposition
   Clearly articulate the unique selling proposition of your product design – what makes it different from the competition and why should customers choose it over other options. This is a big contributor to the marketer’s unique selling proposition, which includes other factors such as the business’s expertise and support.
   
3. Pricing strategy
   Determine the optimal pricing strategy for your product based on factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, and perceived value by the target audience.
   
4. Promotional channels
   Identify the most effective promotional channels for the product to reach your target audiences, such as social media, email marketing, search engine marketing, or influencer marketing etc and appropriate strategies such as introductory discounts.
   
5. Launch plan
   If the product is not available yet, when will it be available? Develop a comprehensive launch plan that considers promotional activities, timing, budget, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.

By considering these marketing factors, you can develop a comprehensive strategy to successfully launch and promote your product.

Finding, or Designing and Building Products

Based on the research, you (the company) then decide to develop, acquire, or become an agent for a product or service that meets the needs and wants of the target market.

If you’re creating your own product, once you have a design, build prototypes (or write a draft if it’s a book for instance), test against requirements (or edit), and refine as necessary.

Pricing

Pricing is a critical aspect of product management, and determining the price of a product or service can be challenging.

Obviously, if you are going down the affiliate marketing route, you may have no control over what the customer is asked to pay, however…

Product managers must consider various factors, such as production costs, competitor pricing, and customer demand, to find the right balance between pricing and profitability.

The price of a product or service needs to be both affordable for the customer, competitive in relation to similar products and profitable for your business.

Distribution and Customer Service

Product distribution is another important area of product management.

It involves identifying the most effective channels to distribute the product or service to the target market.

This includes direct sales, retail stores, online sales, and other distribution channels.

You need to consider factors such as customer preferences, convenience, and cost-effectiveness when choosing distribution channels.

Once someone has made a purchase, make sure you deliver your product or service in a timely and efficient way.

Fast and efficient delivery of goods and services along with excellent post-sales customer support helps enormously in keeping your customers happy and encouraging positive customer reviews.

Distribution methods and post-sale Customer Service strategies need to be set up before making any sales.

Always remember that happy customers are always the best prospects for future upgrades and new products.

Customer Feedback

Customer feedback for the product or service is essential for:

• Maintaining relationships with customers
• Spotting problems and making improvements to your product or service
• Spotting opportunities for future upgrades.
• Monitoring market trends

Plan how you will collect and analyse customer feedback to look for potential improvements to the product or service.

In addition, market research is an ongoing activity.

This means periodically analysing customer feedback and spotting market trends. Plan it into your schedule.

It’s also important to monitor customer feedback from a marketing and sales perspective.

In addition to product feedback from customers, there may well be opportunities identified for sales, distribution and communication processes.

4. Specific Marketing And Sales Plans

Create a promotion plan that spells out how you’ll inform potential customers about the product or service.

This includes website content, advertising, sales promotions, public relations and special offers etc as appropriate.

By using the right strategies, you can increase your visibility online and attract more customers to your business (worldwide if appropriate).

Product and Brand Awareness

Product promotion is obviously essential for businesses since without it you’re dependent on word of mouth.

Product promotions should also contribute to brand awareness, minimising recall, product and business credibility, and above all, sales.

A product without a promotion strategy is like a car without wheels— it’s going nowhere fast!

When a competitor is selling similar products to yours, having a clear promotional strategy with a clear Unique Selling Proposition (USP) will help in differentiating and selling your products.

Brand awareness is a by-product of any successful marketing strategy.

In addition to promoting its products or services, it’s important to position your business relative to competitors.

Brand promotion is critical to establishing a strong brand identity, increasing brand recognition and ultimately to driving sales and revenue.

All marketing materials and methods used should include a recognisable logo and where appropriate an indication of your unique selling proposition (USP).

Your business name, website names and straplines (subtitles) can all be used to indicate the vision and mission of your business.

Keep in mind that every piece of content is an opportunity to promote your brand.

There’s your website content of course and any other communication with prospects and customers such as videos, podcasts, emails, social media posts and advertisements.

If you have the budget for it, offline methods such as advertising boards, banners, mailshots, postcards and even well-designed business cards can be remarkably effective.

Do all that you can to help establish your brand as an authority in its industry, increase engagement with the target audience, and generate leads and sales.

In addition to promotion through regular marketing channels, building relationships with the media, influencers, and other stakeholders can help to promote your brand.

Public relations activities can include press releases, influencer partnerships, and event sponsorships.

These activities help to generate positive publicity for the brand, increase credibility, and build trust with the target audience.

Remember, every communication is an opportunity to incite a positive reaction.

Marketing Strategies (Channels And Materials)

Marketing channels and materials are important enough, and vast enough to warrant a section of their own – see “Online Marketing And Sales Methods” below.

The Buying Process vs Sales Process

OK – so you’ve got people visiting your website. What do you do now?

It’s time to convert them into customers.

That means, developing a customer journey and buyers’ funnels that guide visitors through the buying process.

Yes, rather than thinking “sales process”, it’s better to think of it as a “buyer’s process” that reflects what buyers go through to reach a decision to buy.

It’s important to implement the buyer’s process within whichever marketing channels you choose to use.

Importance of the Buyer’s Process

• Having a well-defined buyer’s process is essential for businesses to achieve consistent sales growth.
• It helps sales teams identify where prospects are in the buyer’s process and tailor their approach accordingly, leading to higher conversion rates.
• All of us, before we buy anything, go through a natural 4 stage process. So it makes sense to build the 4 stages into our website designs.

4 Stages of the Buyer’s Process

The acronym “AIDA” is often used to identify the 4 stages of the buyer’s process:

1. Awareness Stage
   First, prospects become aware of their own problem (challenge, want or need) and start looking for information to find a solution. So if we have a possible solution, It’s essential to provide valuable content that educates them, demonstrates your understanding of their problem, and establishes your business as a trusted expert in the field.
2. Interest Stage
   Once a prospect becomes aware of your business, they’ll start showing interest in your product or service. It’s good to be patient, provide them with more in-depth information and answer any questions they may have.
3. Decision Stage
   During this stage, the prospect moves towards making a decision and is evaluating different options. It’s important to provide them with social proof, such as case studies or customer testimonials, that show how your product or service has helped others.
4. Action Stage
   If your prospect gets to this stage, they become a customer by taking action and purchasing your product or service. It’s important to follow up with them and provide excellent customer service to ensure they have a positive experience.

Developing Relationships With Prospects Over Time

Building a relationship with prospects is essential for sales success.

It helps establish trust and credibility, often before they even get into the buyer’s process, making it more likely that they will choose your business over your competitors.

How to Build Relationships with Prospects

• Personalisation: involves tailoring your approach to meet the individual needs and preferences of each prospect. This could include using their name in communication or referencing their specific pain points.
• Consistency: is about following up with prospects regularly and providing them with valuable information. This helps keep your business top of mind and demonstrates your commitment to helping them find a solution.
• Following up: with prospects after the sale is critical to building long-term relationships. This could include sending them a thank you note or following up with them a few months later to see how they’re doing and asking for feedback.

Pre-sales Support

Pre-sale support is integral to the buyer’s process and is about providing information, guidance and assistance to potential customers before they make a purchase.

It’s important for several reasons:

• It helps to build trust and rapport with the customers, which can increase their loyalty and satisfaction.
• It helps you to understand the customers’ needs and preferences, which can help to tailor the product or service to their expectations.
• It helps to address any doubts or objections that the customers may have, which can reduce the risk of cart abandonment or refunds.
• It helps to showcase the value and benefits of the product or service, which can motivate the customers to buy.

Pre-sale support can be achieved online through various channels and methods, such as:

• Live chat
  This allows for real-time communication with the customers, where they can ask questions and get instant answers. Live chat can also be used to proactively initiate conversations with customers based on their behaviour or profile.
• Email
  This allows for sending personalized and relevant messages to the customers, where they can get more information or follow up on their inquiries. Email can also be used to send reminders, offers or incentives to the customers to encourage them to buy.
• Phone
  This allows for having a direct and personal conversation with the customers, where they can hear the tone and emotion of the voice. Phone can also be used to provide demonstrations, consultations or recommendations to customers based on their needs.
• Social media
  This allows for engaging with the customers on platforms where they are already active and familiar. Social media can also be used to share testimonials, reviews or case studies of satisfied customers to build social proof and credibility.
• Website
  This allows for providing comprehensive and accessible information to the customers, where they can browse and learn more about the product or service. The website can also be used to display FAQs, videos, guides or comparisons of different features or options to help customers make informed decisions.

Pre-sale support is a key factor in influencing the customer’s buying journey and enhancing their experience.

By providing pre-sale support online, businesses can attract more leads, convert more sales and retain more customers.

Distribution

Although distribution strategies are essentially a product management responsibility and are not covered here under marketing, it’s mentioned to highlight the fact that the distribution strategy needs to be in place before any sales are made.

Post-Sales Support

Post-sales support is the process of providing information, guidance and assistance to existing customers after they make a purchase.

It’s important for several reasons:

• It helps to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can increase retention and referrals.
• It helps to resolve any issues or problems that the customers may encounter, which can reduce complaints and negative feedback.
• It helps to collect customer feedback and insights, which can help to improve the product or service quality and performance.
• It helps to upsell or cross-sell additional products or services, which can increase revenue and profitability.

Post-sales support can be achieved online through a selection of the same channels and methods that are used for pre-sales support.

Post-sales support is a key factor in retaining customers and enhancing their experience.

By providing post-sales support online, businesses can reduce churn, increase loyalty and grow revenue.

Analytics and Tracking

The marketing process is not complete without evaluating the success of marketing efforts.

This includes tracking sales (see Analytics and Tracking below) and making adjustments to the marketing plan based on the results.

The essential processes of collecting and analysing feedback data have already been mentioned quite a few times.

Feedback from collecting analytical data is the best, perhaps the only way, for measuring the effectiveness of your website and marketing methods and indicates areas for improvement.

By using tools like Google Analytics, and Google Search Console you can track website traffic, user behaviour, and other important metrics to help you optimise your marketing campaigns.

A mindset for continuous improvement enables the shortest path to success.

5. Online Marketing And Sales Methods

Here is an introduction to the main marketing methods and channels used online today.

The thing is that many budding online entrepreneurs (and online teachers!) just focus on this list ignoring the rest of the marketing process and product management.

An approach to marketing online that works some of the time, but rarely leads to longevity.

For example, affiliate marketers often assume that the product developer has done adequate market research.

The supplier may not have been diligent, so you still need to do your own due diligence:

• Get to know your niche and audience
• Make decisions based on your own research
• Find your own preferred marketing methods and
• Find your own prospects.

Build A Website

It is possible to develop an online presence without your own website, however, if you’re starting or running a business, building a website is an essential step for several reasons:

1. Establish an Online Presence: making it easier for potential customers to find you and learn about your products or services.
2. Building Credibility: by showing that you’re a professional and running a legitimate operation. Customers are more likely to trust a business with a professional website than one without.
3. Marketing and Advertising: on your website showcase your products or services, run promotions, and engage with customers through social media and other channels.
4. E-commerce: this can be a way forward if you plan to sell products online, you can set up your own e-commerce store if you have a website. With an e-commerce website, you can easily process transactions, manage inventory, and track orders.
5. Analytics and Insights: are easily gathered via your website. Use your website to track analytical data and gather valuable insights about your customers, such as their demographics, preferences, and behaviours. Although personal information is not available, general statistics can help you make informed decisions about your marketing and business strategies.

Overall, a website is an essential component of any modern business, providing a range of benefits that can help you reach more customers, build credibility, and grow your business.

Your website is your online storefront, so make sure it’s well-designed and optimised to sell your products or services.

Always bear in mind that your website is a portal for visitors to explore, and for most niches, it’s not useful to be demonstrating how excellent your graphic design skills are.

Make sure it’s easy to navigate, visually appealing, and user-friendly.

You can learn how to do this yourself (it’s not as difficult as you might think nowadays) or hire someone to do it for you.

Brand Awareness

Developing a strong brand identity is key to standing out in a crowded market.

Create a logo, choose a colour scheme, and establish a tone of voice that reflects your brand’s personality.

Show your logo on all communications. If you have a strapline on your website that (ideally) reflects your mission, use that too.

Publicise your website every chance you get, especially to your niche or audience (that is to say, people interested in what you have to say).

However, all of the following techniques can be effective ways to reach a wider audience, generate leads, and increase sales.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing valuable content to attract and engage prospects.

Nowadays, blogging is a fantastic way to promote businesses. But content can take many forms, in addition to text in blog posts, infographics, videos, and podcasts are very popular.

Owning a website is a bit like owning your own media channel: a combined magazine or newspaper, plus TV and radio channels.

The goal of content marketing is to build relationships with customers and to position your business as a thought leader in your industry.

There are many benefits to content marketing. Content can help you to:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your website
• Generate leads for products
• Build relationships with prospects and customers
• Make sales
• Position your business as an authority

If you’re not sure where to start with content marketing, you could start by taking a few lessons.

I started online for free by joining a training organisation that allowed me to sign up without a credit card and even allowed me to start learning with a free website.

Content marketing is a powerful tool that can help you to achieve your business goals and here are some tips for creating engaging content:

• Make your content relevant to your target audience. It should address their interests and pain points.
• Your content should be timely. It should address the way things are today.
• Content should be visually attractive and useful. Use images, infographics, and videos to make your content more engaging.
• Make your content easy for your target audience to share on social media and other platforms. Utilise the power of networking.
• It can help to make your content interactive. Get your audience involved. Perhaps ask questions and/or run polls, and/or create quizzes.
• Focus on EEAT as outlined below…

With a little careful thought and planning you can create content that will attract and engage your target audience.

EEAT becomes NEEATT

Google, of course, isn’t the only kid on the block in the world of online search engines.

However, they do get a lion’s share of worldwide searches and so tend to be setting standards in the search world.

Google’s EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) standard is a concept that has gained a lot of attention in recent years.

It refers to the criteria that Google uses to assess the quality and reliability of the content of a website, page or post.

However, Google, as at March 2024, has just appended EEAT and turned it into NEEATT!

It’s useful for content creators to establish a mindset for NEEATT since the ideas are a key component in helping Google to determine which sites and pages should rank higher in its search results pages (SERPS), and which ones get penalized or even removed.

Search Engine Land reports thar Google’s “quality raters guidelines” have been updated.

They outline how Google evaluates websites and pages. NEEATT is a fundamental part of the guidelines which provide a set of principles that Google’s search quality evaluators use to rate the quality of a page or site.

N for Notability

Does the writer have experience that indicates significant experience in a field? Notability is a concept that varies considerably between niches. I recommend familiarising yourself with any special requirements for your niche.

E for Experience

Does the content demonstrate that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as from the actual use of a product, having actually visited a place and communicating what a person experienced?

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes – there are many situations where what they value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience of the topic.

E for Expertise

This refers to the credibility (knowledge and skills) of the author or publisher of a page or other content.

It’s important for Google to know that the content is written by experts who have the necessary knowledge to provide accurate and helpful information to users.

This means that the author should, where necessary, have credentials or qualifications in the field they are writing about, or at least be able to demonstrate experience, and that the content is well-researched and up-to-date.

A for Authoritativeness

Authoritativeness refers to the level of respect and reputation that a website or page has within its industry or niche.

This is measured by factors such as the number of backlinks from other authoritative sites, the level of engagement on social media, and the number of citations in academic publications (where appropriate).

Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen overnight.

Over time, the more authoritative a site or page is, the more likely it is to be seen as a reliable source of information.

T for Trustworthiness

Reflects the level of confidence that users have in a website or page.

This is determined by factors such as the accuracy and reliability of the information provided, the transparency of the site or page’s purpose and ownership, and the level of security and privacy protections in place.

Google places a high value on trustworthiness, as it wants to ensure that users can rely on the information and organisations that they find online.

T for Transparency

The concept of transparency is fast becoming non-negotiable. Transparency refers to the need for a website owner to be open, clear and honest about who you are as a content creator or website owner.

How to improve NEEATT

In order to improve their NEEATT, website owners and publishers should focus on creating high-quality content that is accurate, reliable, and helpful to users.

When editing content get into the habit of asking yourself if your content is accurate, reliable and is genuinely helpful to readers.

Site owners should also work on building their reputation and authority within their industry or niche, by networking with other experts, building relationships with influential bloggers and journalists, and engaging with their audience on social media.

In addition, a well-presented, accurate author profile will help.

So, focusing on NEEATT can improve the chances of your website being seen as a reliable source of information, and ultimately improve search rankings and traffic.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimising a website or webpage to improve its organic, free, or “natural” placement in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

There are many factors that affect a website’s ranking in SERPS—some of the most important include:

• The quality of a website’s content
  Search engines are looking for websites that provide high-quality, relevant content and useful content to their users (also see EEAT above).
• Title tag and meta description
  Each page (or blog post) has a title tag and meta description associated with them. They are the main inputs to Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) and are important factors in SEO. The title tag should provide a concise and accurate heading for the page’s content, and the meta description provides a brief, accurate and compelling summary of the page’s content.
• Internal and External Links
  Links are the clickable areas that take readers somewhere else, either on the same site or to a different site. If you allow them, Google can also follow the links. Links can be set up though such that Google bots won’t follow them. There are Internal Links and 2 types of external Links:
  • Internal links take readers somewhere else on the same site. They can also be used by search engines to build a better interpretation of what the site is about so are usually set up for Google bots to follow.
  • Outgoing External links are from your site to another. A small number of outgoing links to sites that add additional, related information can help your readers. Some outgoing links will be set up for Google bots to follow but most, especially affiliate links for example, are best set up as a no-follow link.
  • Incoming External links (or backlinks) are from other websites to your website. Backlinks can be a valuable signal to search engines that your website is popular and authoritative. Be cautious with backlinks. They can be seen to be spammy and unnatural. Never buy backlinks and make sure that any natural backlinks are relevant to your site.

In addition to these factors, there are many other things that you can do to improve your website’s SEO. Some of these include:

• Search engines use XML sitemaps to index your pages and make them easier to find. An XML sitemap is a file that lists any pages on your website that you want the search engine to index.
• “Keywords” are phrases that people use to search online for what they want in search engines. When writing content for your website, be sure to base your writing on keywords that you want to rank for and include any related keywords that are normal and natural in relation to the subject matter.
  Finding keywords that people are actually searching for is a key skill. As is creating content designed to respond appropriately to the intention of the person who entered the keyword.
  However, don’t overdo the keywords. Too many repeated keywords will make your content look spammy to search engines. As I hinted earlier, keep your writing natural. Use a single, popular keyword to help you focus on a specific subject when creating content.
  
  Also, if you utilise Google Analytics and Google Search Console (as suggested earlier – or other similar services) you’ll notice, over time, that your content naturally contains many search keywords that people are actually asking but that perhaps had never occurred to you.
  
• Understand and improve a website’s “Core Web Vitals” which is a set of user-experience metrics introduced by Google that measure the loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability of a website. These metrics are intended to help website owners and developers improve the user experience of their websites. The three Core Web Vitals are:
  ▫ First Input Delay (FID) – measures interactivity. It refers to the time it takes for a webpage to respond to a user’s first interaction, such as a click or tap.
  ▫ Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures loading performance. It refers to the time it takes for the largest piece of content on a webpage to load.
  ▫ Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – measures visual stability. It refers to the number of unexpected shifts that occur in the layout of a page while loading.
  There are various tools available for measuring Core Web Vitals factors such as Pagespeed Insights or GTMetrix that offer insights into how to fix any problems found.
• Also, be aware that un-optimised images can be the biggest inhibitor of the speedy loading of webpages. So it’s important to optimise images for fast loading on rendered pages. A slow-loading webpage can quickly lose visitors.
• When you upload an image to your website, in addition to a brief description of the image, be sure to include the keywords that you want to rank for in the Alt text.
• When you’ve made any significant changes to a webpage, be sure to submit it (or re-submit it) to search engines like Google and Bing. This will help them to take a look at your web pages faster and may improve your ranking.

SEO can be a complex topic, but it’s important to understand the basics if you want to improve your website’s ranking in search results.

Social Media Marketing

Using social media platforms to promote a product or service can be a good decision for online marketing.

You can use social media to connect with current and potential customers, build brand awareness, and generate leads.

There are many different social media platforms available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the most popular social media platforms for businesses include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Here are just a few tips for using social media for marketing:

• Choose the right platforms:  Social media platforms are not created equal. Some platforms are better suited for certain types of businesses than others. For example, if you are a B2C business, you might want to focus on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If you are a B2B business, you might want to focus on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Create engaging content:  Many people use social media to connect with friends and family, to be entertained, and to learn new things. If you want your social media marketing to be successful, you need to create content that is engaging and relevant to your target audience.
• Be consistent:  One of the keys to success in social media marketing is consistency. You need to post new content regularly and to interact with your followers on a regular basis. If you’re not consistent, your followers will lose interest.
• Build relationships:  Social media is a great way to build relationships with customers and potential customers. When you interact with your followers on social media, you show them that you care about them and that you are interested in their feedback. This can help you to build trust and loyalty with your followers.
• Provide customer service:  Social media is a great way to provide customer service. When you respond to customer questions and concerns on social media, you show them that you are committed to their satisfaction. This can help you to build goodwill and to avoid negative reviews.
• By adding Social Share buttons to your website, you can encourage people to connect to your social media pages and/or encourage people to share the contents of your website with their social media contacts.

Social media marketing can be a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the act of sending informative messages to a group of people using email.

Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of online marketing, and it can be used to connect with a large audience with a relatively small investment.

There are many benefits to using email marketing:

• It’s a direct channel:  Email marketing allows you to communicate directly with your customers and prospects. You can use email to send them information about their interests, your products or services, special offers, and news about your business.
• It’s a personal channel:  Email is a personal form of communication. People are more likely to open and read emails about subjects that they are interested in or because they have a relationship with the sender.
• It’s a targeted channel:  You can use email to target your messages to specific groups of people. For example, you can send emails to customers who have purchased from you in the past, or to prospects who have expressed an interest in your products or services.
• It’s measurable:  You can track the results of your email marketing campaigns to see how many people are opening and reading your emails, and how many people are taking action, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter.

If you’re not already using email marketing, now is the right time to start.

It’s a powerful tool that can help you to reach a large audience, build relationships with your customers, and generate leads and sales.

Here are some tips for creating effective email marketing campaigns:

• Create a list of subscribers…  You need to have a list of people who you can send your emails to. You can build your list by collecting email addresses from customers, prospects, and visitors to your website.
• Create an “irresistible offer”… In order to collect email addresses you would do well to offer something of value for no charge. A free offer could be for anything that’s useful to your audience – perhaps in the form of an eBook, video or sound recording.
• Choose a good email service provider…  There are many different email service providers available that incorporate an “autoresponder” for managing the sending of appropriate emails in bulk. So it’s important to choose one that is reliable and that offers the features that you need.
• Create engaging content:… If you collect the names of your subscribers alongside their email addresses you can personalise your email and your email content should be relevant to your target audience and should be interesting enough to encourage them to open and read it.
• Test your emails…  Before you send your emails to your entire list, it’s important to test them to make sure that they look good and that they work properly.
• Track your results… Once you’ve launched your email marketing campaign, it’s important to track the results to see how well it’s performing. This will help you to improve your campaigns and to achieve your business goals.

Advertising

Running ads on social media, search engines, or other websites can be a good way to get your business in front of more people.

Just make sure you’re targeting the right audience and using the right ad format.

Also, be careful to set a budget. It can be easy for advertising costs to run away from you!

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a form of online advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.

PPC ads can be displayed on search engines, social media platforms, and other websites.

When someone clicks on a PPC ad, they are taken to the advertiser’s website or landing page.

The advertiser only pays the fee if the person takes the desired, pre-selected action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

PPC advertising can be a very effective way to reach a large audience and drive traffic to your website.

However, it’s important to create well-designed ads and target your campaigns carefully to get the most out of your investment.

Here are some tips for creating effective PPC ads:

• Choose the right keywords
  Yes, keywords get everywhere! The keywords that you use in your PPC ads will determine which ads are shown and who sees them. It’s important to choose keywords that are relevant to your business and that people are likely to search for.
• Write compelling ad copy
  Obviously really – your ad copy is the text that appears in your PPC ad. It’s important to write compelling ad copy that will encourage people to click on your ad.
• Target your ads
  You can target your PPC ads to specific demographics, interests, and locations. So this is one of the places where your research and understanding of your audience begins to pay off and will help you to reach the right people with your ads.
• Track your results
  It’s important to track the results of your PPC campaigns so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you to improve your campaigns over time.

PPC advertising can be a great way to reach a large audience and drive traffic to your website.

By following the tips above, you can create effective PPC ads that will help you to achieve your business goals.

Here are some of the most popular PPC platforms:

• Google AdWords 
  Is the most popular PPC platform in the world. It allows you to create ads that appear on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Facebook Ads
  Allow you to create ads that appear on Facebook’s social media platform.
• Twitter Ads
  Allow you to create ads that appear on Twitter’s social media platform.
• LinkedIn Ads
  Allow you to create ads that appear on LinkedIn’s professional social network.
• Microsoft Ads
  (Formerly known as Bing Ads) allows you to create ads that appear on Microsoft’s Bing search engine results pages (SERPs).

Each of these platforms has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to choose the right one for your business.

If you’re not sure which platform is right for you, you can consult with a PPC expert.

Special Promotions

Special promotions are marketing campaigns that offer discounts or other incentives to customers.

These promotions are designed to encourage customers to buy more products or services from a business.

Here are some examples of special promotions that are often promoted for limited time:

• Buy one, get one free (BOGOF) promotions.
• Discounted prices on products or services.
• Free shipping on orders over a certain amount.
• Free gifts with purchase.
• Loyalty programs that offer rewards for repeat purchases.

6. Online Monetisation Opportunities

This is a short, but very important section—there are many ways to monetise a website.

Here is a short introduction to a few ideas:

• Create and sell your own product
  Selling your own products is an excellent monetisation method if you have expertise in a particular area and you’re able to handle customer relations for your products yourself. You could be providing either a physical or a digital product. Of course, it’s usually most efficient and cost effective to provide digital products since manufacturing, storage and distribution costs are more or less non-existent.
• An online shop
  An online shop is a website or application that allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the internet using a web browser or a mobile app. There are various eCommerce platforms available, such as Shopify or WooCommerce that make it relatively easy for you to set up your shopfront online.
• Books and eBooks
  You can write books or eBooks about your area of expertise and sell them directly or promote them on platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.
• Sell advertising space
  In addition to advertising elsewhere on the internet, you can enable others to use some space on your webpages to display their adverts. You could try to sell space directly to advertisers but it’s usually much easier to use services such as Google’s Adsense or similar.
• Monetise your expertise
  You could monetise your expertise by offering consulting services or coaching sessions. For this to work well, you’d need to invest time in building up a solid reputation. You can charge them on an hourly basis or a fixed fee for a project.
• Start a paid membership website
  You can create a membership site that offers exclusive content to members for a fee.
• Gate some of your content
  You can gate some of your content behind a paywall and offer it only to subscribers.
• Online courses
  You can create online courses that teach people about your area of expertise. You can sell these courses directly or on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, or Teachable.
• Monetise access to your email list
  You can monetise your email list by offering exclusive content such as online courses to subscribers.
• Publish sponsored posts and product reviews
  You can publish sponsored posts and product reviews on your website for a fee.
• Accept donations
  You can accept donations from your readers if they find your content valuable.
• Speaking engagements
  If you like being on stage, you can offer speaking engagements at conferences or events. You can charge a fee for your time and expertise.

7. Business And Strategy Plans Considerations

Overall, the product management and marketing processes involve a deep understanding of the market, careful planning, and effective execution to reach and satisfy customers and achieve business goals.

For those without an existing business, this process would ideally, also include Business Planning and Strategic Planning first.

A Business Plan provides high level direction for a business while a Business Strategy builds on the Business Plan and provides more detailed guidance on how the business is to be run (or will “operate”) on a day-to-day basis.

Both provide important input for product management and marketing activities.

The thing is though, that the nature of the web is such that many starting out to make money on the internet skip many of the planning steps.

If you’re a “solopreneur” who doesn’t need to raise funding you may well get away with that approach, but if you become successful and start employing others, you’ll find that business and strategy plans become far more important.

8. Project Management

I believe that developing product management and marketing plans for a newly discovered opportunity is best handled as a project—this means organising work into a standardised project process.

Organised projects can be crucial for businesses to achieve their goals, whether it’s introducing a new product, entering a new market, or improving an existing process.

Running projects using a standardised process helps organisations to stay in control of complex operations.

Here are some benefits of organising work into projects:

• Meeting objectives… Projects are initiated to achieve specific objectives or goals. Project management ensures that the objectives are clearly defined, planned, and executed to meet the desired outcomes.
• Improved efficiency… A project management process provides a framework for planning, execution, and monitoring. It helps to identify bottlenecks, improve resource utilization, and streamline processes, resulting in improved efficiency.
• Better resource management… Running projects requires resources such as people, time, and money. Project management helps to allocate resources efficiently and effectively, reducing the risk of overspending or wasting resources.
• Increased collaboration… Projects often require cross-functional teams, where they exist, to work together towards a common goal. Project management provides a framework for collaboration and communication, ensuring that everyone is working towards the same objectives.
• Risk management… Project management helps to identify and control potential risks. This reduces the risk of project failure or delays.

Project Management Process

Project management follows a systematic process to ensure that projects are completed successfully.

The process I use typically involves six phases that are simple to use:

1. The purpose and goals are outlined, including any time constraints.
2. Existing resources are clarified and committed. This could include assets such as websites, skills and cash.
3. Explore options for achieving the purpose and goals are explored and evaluated.
4. Decisions are made: options are chosen and action plans are created and approved.
5. Plans are implemented, managed and tracked.
6. Finally, the whole project is reviewed in order to implement any ideas for improvement next time.

If you want more detail, click here for the G.R.O.W.T.H. Process.

Get Your Business Started Online: For The Solopreneur

If you’re not sure where to start with internet marketing, there are plenty of resources available to help you.

Perhaps you have the budget to pay someone else and don’t have the time or expertise, or the inclination to develop the expertise.

There are many companies that offer internet marketing services, so you could outsource the work

If you choose to outsource, be sure that you are very clear about what you want to achieve and how to get it done.

You’ll need to have enough knowledge of product management and marketing to develop and communicate plans for what you want.

You only have yourself to blame if it goes wrong.

There is an enormous amount of information online which leads to many new internet solopreneurs diving straight into operational activities for their ideas.

If you’re aware enough of the breadth and depth of product management and marketing, then you’re able to get started, and learn while developing an online presence.

This is especially true if you reach out for guidance from people with proven experience…

So, take care… if you’re relying on others to tell you how to succeed online, be sure to consult those with proven experience.

I’ll happily help you navigate through it all with the focus turned towards those aspects that are essential for succeeding on the internet.

FAQs

Summary

If you’ve got to this point, I’m very impressed and a little amazed.

I’m impressed by your persistence!

That will stand you in good stead into the future and you’re probably champing at the bit to get going now.

Online marketing is a multifaceted function that with careful planning and execution can be highly rewarding.

By taking on board the principles outlined in this article and leveraging the latest online marketing tactics, new and old businesses can successfully reach their target audience, build brand awareness, and achieve enormous success and satisfaction in today’s digital age.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, businesses of all sizes will need to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the needs of their customers.

If you’ve read to this point, I’m both amazed and impressed!

Please let me know what you think…

If you have any questions or feedback, please get in touch either via the contact form or leave a comment below.
🙂
Richard