Marketing consultants and agencies tend to work with businesses that have enough revenue where they see the opportunity to invest in platforms and services. Having started multiple companies in the last couple of decades, I know how difficult it is to establish that sole proprietor business and get revenues to a point where I could hire those first employees.
Over 12 million companies in the United States have between 1 and 4 employees.
NAICS
Many businesses would benefit from a digital presence but simply don’t have the funds to hire marketing employees, or marketing consultants, or invest heavily in the platforms necessary to grow their business. When I’m consulting with fellow entrepreneurs on getting started, I often recommend a few things:
- Register a Domain – search for a domain name that reflects their brand, products, or services – and egister it.
- Business Email – avoid using a personal email address and, instead, get a professional email address with your domain.
- Site – build a simple site that promotes your unique value proposition, who you serve, where you serve them, and provides a means to contact you.
- Ecommerce – if you can ship a product locally, domestically, or even internationally, incorporate an e-commerce site for people to order your products or schedule and pay for their next appointment.
Having this presence is a baseline for any business looking to expand its reach and grow. Of course, there are some additional strategies you can then deploy with your business:
- Local Search – if you’re a business that services a region, you should be registering for business directories, capturing reviews, and growing your presence on geographic searches.
- Organic Search – your site can be optimized to help search engines understand your business and rank your pages for relevant searches.
- Advertising – you can pay for advertising to drive people to call for appointments or visit your site for additional information.
- Social Media – you can share your company on social media, grow an audience by providing information to them, and drive leads through the shares or by advertising.
Web.com: Everything Your Business Needs To Get Started
Web.com is one of the few platforms where you can get everything you need in a single solution to start your business. They provide hosting, domain registry, business email, email marketing, website builder, online store – and even provide affordable expert services to get your business launched.
Web.com Products Include
As a one-stop shop, there’s no need for you to be logging into a bunch of different platforms and attempting to get them to work all together… which can be extremely frustrating. Web.com offers everything you need under a single platform:
- Domain name registration – After searching for the name you want, you’ll receive a list of available options, as well as similar names and recommended alternatives. Once you’ve selected and registered the name and extension you like, it’s all yours.
- Business email – Customers are more likely to trust that you’re a real business if your email address reflects your business name. Your professional email address will help build your brand, make it more memorable, and enhance your credibility.
- Reliable website hosting – Website hosting is safe and easy with Web.com. They offer tiers based on how many visitors you are getting (be sure to start with the Plus plan which includes a security certificate (SSL).
- Website builder – No need to learn how to code, Web.com has a drag & drop website builder with over 150 professionally designed templates to get you started. The platform even includes an hour of free design support.
- Ecommerce – Start your online store with their robust eCommerce features including marketplace selling, appointment scheduling, shipping, & more.
They also have a robust knowledge-base and a ton of how-to videos to get you started. Their website plans are incredibly affordable and you can even save more by paying annually rather than monthly.
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