How to Start a Digital Business: A 9-Step Guide for Success

Digital business is a thriving segment of the global economy, offering endless opportunities for entrepreneurs.

The digitization of nearly every industry has made it easier for small businesses like bootstrapped SaaS companies to compete with larger companies in their market.

It’s also a growing trend among the world’s smaller businesses. This means that now is an excellent time to capitalize on your small company’s strengths by investing in online products and services.

If you're wondering how to start a digital business, this comprehensive guide will help you understand the essential steps, strategies, and tools needed for success in the digital marketplace.

‍

Digital Business: What Is It?

A digital business is an enterprise that relies on digital networks and internet technology for its primary operations, including marketing, sales, and production.

In today's world, digital businesses range from bootstrapped SaaS companies to large organizations leveraging the power of digital business models to enhance customer experiences. The digitization of nearly every industry has leveled the playing field, making it easier for small businesses to compete with larger companies.

Now is an excellent time to capitalize on the strengths of your small business by investing in online products and services. If you’re wondering how to start a digital business, this guide outlines essential steps, strategies, and tools for success in the digital marketplace.

‍

4 reasons to start a digital business

Starting a digital business can be one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of your life. It takes hard work, stress, and sacrifice with little monetary reward.

However, this is all just the beginning. Once your business starts taking off, it can become one of the most rewarding experiences in your life.

If you’re considering starting up your own business rather than getting a job somewhere else, you might be wondering if it’s worth it. After all, there are some downsides to being your own boss, like no sick leave or paid vacation.

However, some upsides only come from being an independent worker that you won’t get from any other job.

Here are 4 reasons why you should set up your digital business:

1. You'll have more freedom

As a business owner, you are the business, so you set the hours you clock in and out. You have no boss to tell you what to do and where to go. Instead, you can take time to make the best decision for you and your business.

Another added benefit to owning an online business? You can work from wherever you want.

Want to work on the black sand beaches of the Canary Islands? You can do it.

Want to work from 3 pm-midnight? You can. Digital technology makes it possible to set your own hours and make decisions that align with your personal and business goals.

This isn’t to say maintaining a business isn’t hard work (it is), but there’s immense flexibility when you’re in charge.

2. You won’t have to pay a lot of upfront costs.

Starting a business takes time and money, and you might be hesitant to put forth capital. However, as an online business, you won’t have to worry about paying for a lease and purchasing inventory.

With an online business, you can start out with only a:

• Computer
• Web host and domain name
• Web designer or a website builder

If you already own a computer (and if you’re reading this, you probably do), your start-up cost is less than $25/month. No need to risk your life’s savings on your online business.

3. You’ll have more growth potential

One of the major benefits of starting your own digital business is having more growth potential. When a company hires you, your salary is nearly set in stone. There are few ways to increase your salary other than getting a promotion or negotiating a higher wage.

However, if you own your own business, you have the opportunity to make as much money as you want. With a solid digital strategy, you can scale your business and increase your earnings without the limitations of a fixed salary. This is because you have full control over both your income and expenses.

4. You’ll have little cost

It can cost less to start a digital business. This is because:

• Web hosting costs can be as low as $10/monthly.
• Marketplaces are free to sign-up and take a small percentage of sold items.
• You can market your business in several ways: through social media, organic search, and Google Adwords.

Starting an online eCommerce business avoids many costs of a physical storefront like office space, payroll, and other storefront costs. In addition, with an online store, you can scale it as your sales increase.

How to start a digital business in 9 steps

Step 1: Create a unique product or proposition

If you are just starting your business, choosing what products and services may present a challenge. Select products and services that you’re already familiar with or have a special interest in. If you’re already good at it, you can have the edge over your competitors. This can help you stand out in the competitive digital business landscape.

Unique products are one of the easiest ways to stand out in a crowded market. It’s no longer enough just to sell another pair of blue jeans or another floral-print top - consumers want unique products that they can’t find anywhere else.

Unique doesn't just mean "never been done before." It can also mean "does it better than" or "does it differently than."

What does your business do differently from other companies?

What makes your business stand out?

This will help you come up with what products to sell.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to create something unique.

Step 2: Brand your product with poise

Branding is the way you position your product or service in the minds of your target customers. If they cannot understand your product, they won’t be buying from you. Therefore, you must define your product or service to make it easily relatable to your target customers. Once you define your branding, you must properly position your business to else customers won't know what to make of you.

Your brand’s positioning is how you describe the value you offer to your customers. For instance, phenomenological research is commonly used in branding research to gain valuable insights into the audience's perceptions and experiences of the brand, thus understanding their feelings.  Positioning is a critical component of any successful branding strategy.

Your brand’s positioning should be clear, concise, and well-defined. It should be one that clearly defines your brand’s unique selling proposition and what makes it different from its competitors. Once you have established your brand’s unique selling proposition, you can start marketing your brand to potential customers.

If you can properly position your brand, you can see an increase in sales and profits. Once you have determined the right position for your brand, you can build it out.

Step 3: Come up with a compelling brand name and logo

The logo is the first thing people will see when looking for your product or service. It may also be the first thing they remember once they find it. If your logo is bland and doesn’t have a lot of meaning behind it, you may be losing out on a lot of business.

The logo should be

1. easy to understand
2. memorable
3. relatable to your brand/business idea

For example, let’s look at the Discover logo.

This logo is:

• Easy to understand: You know the company’s name is Discover, and you can make out every letter and image, even when the logo is compressed.
• Memorable: This logo has a distinctive rising sun for the “o.” It reminds you of discovering a sunset or going on an adventure.
• Relatable to your brand: Discover is a credit card company. The logo reminds us of discovering new cities, which you can do with the help of a credit card. So, it’s relatable.

You can also use a memorable tagline to help customers remember your name. With logos, don’t overcomplicate things. A simple logo can go a long way.

Like Nike’s:

A simple black check like you’re checking off your exercise goals. Logos don’t need elaborate details, and often the simpler ones look the best.

Your logo should also be legible when compressed.

Let’s look at the logo for “Top 10 Film Lists.”

Looks great enlarged, right?

Let’s see what happens when we shrink it down to icon size.

The projector details are lost, so you’re not sure what you’re looking at. Also, the projector is too small compared to the light beam coming from it.

Top 10 Film Lists would be better suited for a simple logo more like this:

It’s simple, it’s clean, it’s memorable. And it looks legible when smaller in size:

‍

Step 4: Identify your target audience and have a segment strategy

A target audience is a group of people (customers) who share a standard set of characteristics or interests. And identifying it is crucial for any digital business. By identifying your target audience and understanding your customer experiences, you can develop products and services that appeal to their needs. You can also use your target audience to inform your marketing strategy, including creating promotional materials, such as advertisements and social media posts.

There are several ways to identify your target audience, including:

Method 1: Surveys

Surveys are one of the most common ways to identify your target audience. By asking questions about their demographics, preferences, and interests, you can better understand who they are and what they want from your product or service. Survey responses can be used to create a profile of your target audience, which you can use to guide your marketing efforts.

Method 2: Focus groups

A focus group is a group of people who are brought together to discuss an issue or product. Focus groups can be used to identify the needs and concerns of your target audience and test out new products and services before they go to market.

Method 3: Research online

Researching online is another way to identify your target audience. By looking at the websites, social media accounts, and purchasing patterns of people who share similar interests and demographics, you can understand how they think and behave.

Once you know what you want to achieve, it’s time to develop your segmenting strategy.

Segmentation is the process of dividing your customers into groups based on shared characteristics. There are many reasons why you might want to segment your customers, including the ability to target them with tailored products and services more accurately.

Once you’ve identified the different segments that make up your customer base, you can then prioritize how you allocate your resources and marketing efforts.

Studies have shown that segmenting your audience can result in a 200% increase in conversion rates. However, it’s important to note that effective segmentation is not an overnight undertaking, and it involves much more than simply labeling people based on their demographics. Instead, when done correctly, segmentation involves assigning each customer to one or more segments based on their behaviors and attitudes. That way, you’ll be able to customize your approach for each group and ensure that you’re providing them with the right products and services at the right time.

There are many different methods that you can use to segment your customers. Some of the most common include:

By Age: By looking at factors such as age, businesses can create specific marketing strategies for each age group. This could mean using different advertising mediums or offering discounts for certain demographics.

By Demographics: Demographics are the characteristics used to describe a population. These may include gender, race, income level, and education level.

By Psychographics: Psychographics are characteristics that describe a person’s attitudes, interests, and behaviors.

By Behavior: This includes anything from how often they shop to where they shop.

By Geography: Where a customer lives can also be an important part of segmentation. For example, businesses in rural areas might want to create products for farmers, while those in urban areas might want products for city-dwellers.

When done right, customer segmentation can effectively increase sales by targeting the right customers with the right products.

Step 5: Create social media pages while maintaining consistency

Social media is crucial in the digital business world. It's a great way to connect with your customers, but maintaining consistency is the key. If you’re going to create social media pages for your business, you need to post regularly. This will keep your followers engaged, and it will also help you build trust and credibility.

MeetEdgar is specifically designed for businesses and agencies to automate their social media posting. We have a unique feature called the “continuous posting” feature, which lets you continuously post to social media accounts during specific time periods.

This feature will automatically create and schedule new posts to your social media accounts regularly when activated. You can set the time period and frequency of these posts, and they will be posted automatically without any involvement on your part. You can use this feature to post on social media accounts daily or just once per week.

The continuous posting feature is useful because of two things:

1. it saves you time and effort when scheduling and creating social media posts. Instead of manually creating new posts whenever it’s time for a new one, this option allows you to set and forget about it until the next scheduled post is due. This leaves more time for you to focus on other necessary activities for your business.
2. It ensures that your social media accounts are always updated with fresh content. This gives them more visibility in search engine results and helps them attract more followers and engagement.

Most businesses start with a Facebook page, but there are plenty of other platforms that can benefit your business, such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The key is to pick the platform that makes the most sense for your business and then set up a content calendar for yourself.

You can do this manually or use a social media scheduling tool like MeetEdgar.

One of the most important things you need to do when running a social media account is to be consistent. If your followers expect to see your posts at certain times of day and don’t see them, they can get annoyed. For example, if you post on Facebook at 10 am every day and one day you don’t post until 11 am, your followers may be upset.

It can be helpful to make a schedule for yourself so that you know when you’ll be posting. You might want to make a calendar with designated times for posting each week, or you might be able to make a schedule with the help of a tool like MeetEdgar.

Once you have your schedule set up, you can use Edgar's social media analytics tools to track your posts' performance. This way, you can identify what works and what doesn’t and make adjustments as necessary.

Step 6: Keep reminding customers what you are good at and how your services can make life easy

So many businesses go under every year because they don’t care about their customers. When this happens, it’s difficult to retain customers or attract new ones. As a business owner, it is your job to ensure that you are constantly looking out for your customers' best interests.

There are several different ways that you can do this.

First, you can look for CCaaS providers that can ensure that your customer service is top-notch. You should also invest in good quality products and services that will leave your customers satisfied and happy with their experience.

Finally, you can also work to remind your customers how you can make their lives easier with the products and services. Do you deliver on your promises? Does your product stand the test of time? Do your services garner positive reviews? You must prove that your business is worthy of your customer’s attention, or you’ll end up with dissatisfied customers.

Step 7: Get customers to write positive reviews about our services offered

Customers who have had a positive experience with your business are likely to leave a review online. But what if you don't have enough customers?

This is where you can encourage your customers to leave reviews on your behalf by offering them rewards. For example, you could offer a discount on their next purchase if they leave a review. You can also offer sneak peeks of new products, early access to sales, and other incentives for leaving a review.

By incentivizing your customers to leave reviews about your business, you can help increase your online presence and drive more traffic to your business. By encouraging your current customers to leave reviews about your business and services, you can create positive buzz about your brand and showcase how great your business is.

Step 8: Sign up with freelance websites like Fiverr and Upwork

Fiverr and Upwork are excellent platforms where you can market your online business. These platforms are perfect for individuals with a particular skill like programming or content marketing. You can also look for freelance websites specializing in your desired industry and look for jobs related to your skillset.

By offering your services on freelance websites, you can grow your following. Your customers may continue on as repeat customers, and they’ll refer others to your business. Rome wasn’t built in a day; this technique won’t work right away. But in time, you’ll watch your customer list grow.

Step 9: Create affiliate links with relevant brands

One of the most effective ways to promote affiliate links is through relevant brands. Creating links with brands relevant to your niche can create a stronger, more trustworthy relationship between yourself and your audience. Plus, relevant brands are generally more likely to share your content in the first place.

To create an affiliate link with a relevant brand, start by looking for an existing third-party link where you can add your own referral code.

This can be as simple as adding a few lines of code to an existing link. Once you’ve added your code, your affiliates can share the link on social media or on your own website. When someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase, your affiliate will receive a commission from the sale.

Once you’ve identified a brand relevant to your niche, the next step is to reach out to them and ask permission to share your affiliate link on your website. If they agree, you can share the link just like any other affiliate link.

Conclusion

Now that you understand what it takes to set up your digital business, it’s time to put these tips into practice. The most important thing is to be unique and focus on what you are good at. This will help you create a product or proposition that stands out from the rest of the competition. Additionally, branding and positioning are key to marketing your new business.

Come up with a catchy brand name and logo that represents your company well. Furthermore, identify your target audience and make sure you have a segment strategy before launching any social media campaigns. Lastly, remember to maintain consistency across all channels – this will help build trust with potential customers.