So, you’re starting a business. Awesome! Now let’s talk about Internet. It would be really nice if you can ignore it and focus on the business. Unfortunately, but not sadly, you can’t. Let me/us walk you through all the things you can do there.
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| Rajaram Rajendran |
Website
Ah, the all important, all powerful, everything-at-the-click-of-your-mouse source of information. We will not spend much time on this right now, but if you really need to know and have time to waste, you could read my article in the previous issue.
E-mails
Even if you do not have a website up, do try to get a URL registered. This is cheap (you can get one for usually around 10-20 dollars), but effective. In other words, info@yourcompany.com gives much more of an impression and credibility than yourcompany@gmail.com.
Once you get your domain registered, (hundreds of places on the web do that, but make sure you select a good one that will not go out of business soon. The trouble with small time re-sellers is that they register your domain and vanish one day. And there goes your domain with them) there are free and easy tools from Google that let you use the same Gmail, but in your domain. Just like Gmail, it’s simple to manage. There, you have your company e-mail set up.
Social media
Time to join the bandwagon.
Now, what exactly do we do here? No one knows for sure. Some say that it’s for exposure, some say it gets new customers, some say it’s for keeping in touch with old customers, or for announcements, invites, so on and so forth.
Yes, you can have a Facebook page. Yes, you will invite everyone you know who has ever used a mouse to join the group. And yes, they will join, either because they are interested in your service/product, or they like you, or they simply cannot say no to you. But the question is, then what?
Now, every page out there that has thousands of “likes” is not equally effective. And really, there’s not much of a strategy here; but do make sure you don’t end up being just another “liked” page among your users.
Twitter. Fast. Good. Unfollow, just like follow, is only a click away. Tweet about interesting things, the competition, overall innovation in your domain, and other interesting things. Be nice to your followers. Don’t brag often.
Digg, del.icio.us, and the other million sites out there—what do we do with them?
Social media is effective. But be sure of what you want to achieve with that and how it helps your business. Social media for the sake of social media is not only ineffective but also an unforgivable waste of time for you and your customers alike.
Portals / Banner ads
Not a bad idea; sometimes more people get to know about your business through this than a television commercial. Make sure you select websites that are more targeted towards your customers. That way, you’ll reach more of your people by spending less.
E-mail blasts
I’m not a big fan of this, but I’ve heard success stories. Even if you do decide to send one out, make sure you do it with less copy and are as direct, simple, and pleasing as possible. I personally hate receiving bulk e-mails that have lots and lots of text to read before I find out what it is about. In most cases, my mouse cursor goes directly to the delete button, or the e-mail itself goes to the spam folder without bothering me much.
Newsletters
Considering they are chosen by people and not sent down your throat like the previous bulk e-mailers, they are a good option to keep people up-to-date with your business.
Search Engine Optimization
This really depends on the type of business and the target customers. But yes, it can yield results. Again, you can read my rants on this in my article Your Perfect Website in the October 2010 issue.
We shall continue with this. All the best with your start-up!
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The writer is an entrepreneur, designer, digital artist, wannabe musician and a jack of all, who thinks black & white photography is very cool.
To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Rajaram Rajendran'.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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