Online Business

Roadmap
PLAN BUILD LAUNCH GROW

Build Targeted
1 2 3
Initial Research Select
& Planning Customer Your Keywords
Profiles

Build Business
6 5 4
Find Your
Your Content Formation &
Domain & Brand
Formalities

Build Set up
7 Your Website
& Online 8 Analytics
& Reporting
9 Automate
Follow-ups
Properties

12 Launch
11 Pre-Launch
10 Set up Customer
Communication
Channels

13 Post-Launch
14 Attract
New Customers 15 Retain Existing
Customers

17 16
Scaling & Managing Your
Growth Online Business
Planning Your Online Business
The aim at this stage is to develop a clear plan for your online business,
giving you a solid foundation to build online success.

1. Initial Research & Planning

s Brainstorm and write down your ideas

s Research your market and main competitors

s Perform a SWOT analysis

Define your monetization strategies

Determine what kind of resources may be required for execution

Make a pro forma spreadsheet and business plan

Set business performance goals

2. Build Targeted Customer Profiles

s Describe your Ideal Customer

Build multiple customer profiles (customer persona) using information like

demographics and psychographics to group customers into segments. Find customers
s
on facebook using groups/pages/posts by reverse engineering
your competitor's customers.
s Target all ad campaigns, articles, email, social posts, etc. directly communicate
to a specific customer persona

3. Select Your Keywords

Select seed keywords relevant to your market to begin your research

Build a list of an appropriate blend of long and short tail keywords for your
business

Use tools to dig deeper, expand, prioritize and refine your keyword list

4. Find Your Domain & Brand

Decide how you want to position your online business in the marketplace

Choose a name for your online business and purchase the domain

Create your branding (colours, fonts, logo, etc.)

Create your elevator pitch

Congratulations, you’ve now completed the planning stage!

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 Building Your Online Business
The aim at this stage is to construct the assets needed to put your plans
for a successful online business into action.

5. Business Formation & Formalities

Set up a business entity if needed

Get any required tax ID numbers

Open a business bank account

Set up a merchant account or a way to collect online payments

6. Build Your Content

Develop content needed for each page of your website

Write specific website content based around your keywords

Select your images and multimedia resources

Make engaging content for your social media channels

Fill out a content calendar

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 Set up your scheduling tools to help post your content

7. Build Your Website & Online Properties

Choose a platform to build your website

Construct your website

Conduct on-page SEO

Host your website to take it online

Integrate a payment gateway and any necessary plug-ins

Claim and build-out your business profiles on all relevant social channels

8. Set up Analytics & Reporting

Establish useful metrics to track your business

Set up Google Analytics or an alternative

Begin to track leads, conversions and all useful qualitative and quantitative data

Set up keyword rank tracking

Use Google Alerts or an alternative to monitor online conversations relevant to

your business

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 Establish monitoring and tracking of your competitors’ online performance

Track and utilize data from your social media and traffic campaigns

Integrate an overview dashboard to monitor your business at a glance

9. Write Your Email Sequences

Write automated email follow up responses for various common customer

interactions
Write an onboarding email introducing your brand to be sent when collecting
email opt-ins from new customers or prospects

Develop a campaign to collect email addresses of new prospective customers

Write an engaging ongoing email series that promotes your business as well
as educates your customers and prospects

10. Set up Customer Communication Channels

Get a business email with your domain name

Set up an autoresponder and load your email content

Implement all the following customer communication channels relevant

to your business: live chat, phone, customer support software
Make use of Facebook Instant Messenger and communication tools of
your other social channels

Congratulations, you’ve now completed the building stage!

Launching Your Online Business
The aim at this stage is to plan and execute a successful launch
giving your online business an opening boost.

11. Pre-Launch
Write down your launch plans, goals and set a date

Consider hiring launch support – customer service, tech support, Facebook ads

Set up campaigns to collect new targeted email leads

Utilize your email list to promote your launch

Regularly email your list with useful pre-launch information such as behind
the scenes and details

Reach out to possible strategic partners

Start building buzz and anticipation by running traffic to pre-launch

content, e.g. sneak peeks, teasers, testimonials, pre-launch specials, etc

Create a wait list website page for your upcoming online business

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12. Launch
Make an online celebration of your business’s online doors opening

Run a launch special

Utilize social media and strategic paid advertising

Incentivize viral sharing for your launch

Find unique ways to welcome your new customers building goodwill.

Make special launch announcements to your email list

Take advantage of social proof

Encourage engagement and respond to all post comments and communications

with the public

13. Post Launch

Analyze your launch marketing results and fine-tune accordingly

Be inspired by things that worked well during your launch and fix

any problems that revealed themselves

Publicly thank your launch partners and your customers

Keep up your marketing momentum

Create a plan for developing ongoing content

 Get feedback from customers on their initial experience

Survey leads that didn’t become customers and find out why they didn’t buy

Utilize positive customer feedback for social proof

Plan date for next launch or promotion

Congratulations, you’ve now completed the launching stage!

Growing Your Online Business
The aim at the growth stage is to grow, manage and take your online
business to the next level.

14. Attract New Customers

Decide on core traffic strategies e.g. content, video, emails, FB group

Look at analytics and stats for areas of improvement

Create a marketing & promotional calendar for the year

Consider retargeting ads for those opting in or visiting checkout/

sales page

Consider sales boosting tactics such as affiliates, bonuses,

targeted promotions

Put an abandoned checkout sequence in place to salvage lost sales

15. Retain Existing Customers

Check whether your onboarding sequence is effective – tweak
if needed

Survey existing Customers for areas of improvement

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 Look at ways of increasing customer engagement - regular emails,
live calls, Social media posts

Find out why your customers leave and address any areas possible

Set up a win back sequence for customers you have not heard from recently

Make sure your customers know they are appreciated

Under promise, over deliver and build a long term customer relationships

16. Managing Your Online Business

Regularly check in with your customers and encourage engagement

Develop a routine for content creation

Have a process in place for consistent content delivery

Know your numbers – keep track of signups, churn rate, customer acquisition cost,
lifetime customer value etc

Send regular scheduled engaging emails with useful information as well

as promotional content

Have a process in place for failed payments

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17. Scaling & Growth

Start scaling your marketing with Facebook or other ad platforms

Look at additional sales tactics such as intro offers, upsells and cross-sells

Consider a ‘customer only’ affiliate program

Assess and tweak your email sequences and existing funnels

Find ways to increase your average transaction total and customer

transaction frequency
Grow your team efficiently; often outsourced employees are the best option
for many positions

Regularly assess the health of your online business including growth rate

Consider expanding your offering with higher tiers or additional products

Congratulations, you’re now a successful Online Business Owner!

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