7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing – Enerit and Social Media

Posted by David Scanlon on 17 February, 2012 in eMarketing | Internet | LinkedIn | Marketing | Saas | Social Media | Software - (Be the first to comment)

This is the fourth in a series of posts focused on how Irish SMEs are delivering real results using Internet marketing. This case study features an interview with Maricka Burke Keogh, Senior Online Marketing Executive, and Eimear O’Brien, Online Marketing Executive at Enerit, a client of Enterprise Ireland. Enerit received support from the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit to assist with the development of their Internet marketing strategy.

Energetic social media strategy boosts Enerit’s profile

Using social media, energy management software company Enerit is building a name for itself as a thought leader in its sector, as well as boosting its sales prospects through effective lead generation.

Galway-based Enerit is using social media to great effect as it strives to grow its reputation in the energy sector. And with plans in the works to broaden its social media strategy even further, Enerit is well on its way to becoming a recognisable global brand.

LinkedIn a hit for generating leads

The star performer in Enerit’s social media strategy is LinkedIn. Maricka Burke Keogh, Senior Online Marketing Executive for Enerit, says the business networking tool has been instrumental in boosting traffic to the company’s website and helping to identify relevant sales leads.

As well as a company page on LinkedIn, Enerit’s employees, including top management, all have separate personal LinkedIn profiles. The company’s strategy is clear when it comes to LinkedIn: no “hard sell”, explains Maricka. “On LinkedIn, our aim us to showcase our technical expertise and thought leadership.”

Enerit does this through active participation in LinkedIn Group Discussions. “We’re lucky that our CEO, Paul Monaghan, and COO, Mike Brogan, are passionate about social media. They’ve joined a number of relevant groups, like the generic ISO 50001 Group, and regularly comment on topics or start discussions themselves. I continually monitor LinkedIn and these groups and if I see a relevant discussion I point them in that direction. It’s much more effective for our management and engineers to be commenting on topics rather than our marketing staff,” explains Maricka.

Paul and Mike have also built up good networks on LinkedIn and they regularly communicate with their contacts, sending them Inbox Messages about any relevant Enerit news or developments. In fact, one such message sent out by Paul, highlighting Enerit’s recent work with Pfizer, increased referral leads in December by 100 percent, according to Maricka.

“LinkedIn has become one of our top sources for referral leads, and because we can target such relevant contacts the leads are proving to be extremely high quality,” she says.

Though the majority of traffic to the Enerit website comes from organic search results for either “Enerit” or “ISO 50001″ and direct traffic, LinkedIn is fast becoming a key factor. In December, 20 percent of traffic to the website came through referrals, with over a quarter of that traffic generated through LinkedIn. “And this is very high-quality traffic, with LinkedIn visitors spending on average 2.52 minutes on our site,” says Maricka.

Building credibility through social media

As it continues to build strong networks on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Enerit has plans to exploit its growing contacts. With any testimonials it has received from energy consultants Enerit adds a link to the consultants’ LinkedIn profile pages.

“We believe these testimonials with links to the consultants’ LinkedIn pages make for very credible recommendations of our software. We then feature these testimonials on our own company LinkedIn page, adding to our growing reputation,” explains Eimear O’Brien, Online Marketing Executive for Enerit.

Growing contacts list with Twitter

As well as LinkedIn, Twitter also plays a role in Enerit’s social media strategy. The company has been increasing its Twitter followers steadily and has started to attract increasingly relevant followers. “When we first started on Twitter it was mainly people looking for jobs that were following us, now it’s companies, energy managers and potential partners that we can target,” says Maricka.

All Enerit press releases are tweeted on Twitter and the marketing team also tweets any mentions of Enerit in media articles globally. The team also include links to its Twitter profile in all press releases to encourage relevant people to ‘follow’ Enerit on Twitter.

Maricka outlines how Twitter has become a key research tool for Enerit as it accumulates contacts and targets. “We regularly analyse our followers: we see who they follow and who’s following them and assess if these are relevant to us. That way we can compile a ‘who’s who’ for our sector, quite easily.”

“We’ve also found this a useful way to see which trade magazines would be worth getting in touch with. Once we identify the magazines and editors interested in our sector we get their contact details and send in our press releases, widening our global reach,” she explains.

Sharing knowledge to build the brand

For Enerit, it’s main aim with its social media presence is to raise its brand awareness by demonstrating its expertise. As it plans a new website with increased social media functionality, Enerit is also planning on building on its current online strategy.

For example, Maricka says she aims to develop a separate technical Twitter profile for Enerit, where people can ask technical queries about the company’s software. “As we continue to grow the business, we think Twitter could become an ideal medium for answering customers’ queries,” she explains. Maricka takes her inspiration from PC manufacturer Dell, which she says has used this strategy to good effect.

Also on the cards is starting up a profile on Quora, a “questions and answers” network. “Quora is something we’re exploring. It allows you to answer questions and start conversations on very relevant topics – so you can help people by offering tips and advice, and also give our thoughts on new developments, implementations and standards. Our engineers would be actively involved in this – showcasing their expertise.”

Video is another area that Enerit is keen to explore. The company’s new website is likely to feature a series of videos explaining its flagship software, as well as some training videos. Maricka also plans on expanding on the company’s thought-leading strategy by offering research whitepapers for download from the Enerit blog as well as sharing presentations via Slideshare.

There’s little doubt that social media plays a prominent role in Enerit’s overall marketing strategy, and with active support from top management, who are keen to share their knowledge on the various social media platforms, Maricka says she has been able to make a great start since she came on board in August 2011.

This article was written by ENNclick for the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit.

7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing – EPS Group and SEO

Posted by David Scanlon on 3 February, 2012 in eMarketing | Ireland | Marketing | Sales - (Be the first to comment)

This is the third in a series of posts focused on how Irish SMEs are delivering real results using Internet marketing. This case study features an interview with Patrick Buckley, Sales & Marketing Director at EPS Group, a client of Enterprise Ireland. EPS Group received support from the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit to assist with the development of their Internet marketing strategy.

EPS gets website traffic flowing with SEO

A solid SEO strategy has seen EPS Group drive new business and raise brand awareness as it looks to expand into overseas markets.

Sustainable water solutions provider EPS Group has transformed its website into a key marketing tool with an SEO strategy that puts the focus firmly on content and clever use of keywords.

Operation ‘website transformation’

Following a marketing review in 2010, EPS Group realised that its website was not being used to its full potential. “We weren’t really focused on our site as much as we should have been,” explains Patrick Buckley, sales and marketing director with EPS Group. “As a result, we noticed that our site was quite poor; there was too much content and we were saying all the wrong things.”

With less than 150 website hits per month, it became apparent that EPS Group was pretty much “invisible” online. “Basically, if someone wanted to find us online, they couldn’t; we didn’t exist as far as online was concerned.”

EPS made a start by employing a full-time person to deal exclusively with its online presence, and dedicating more time to improving the performance of the site. It also worked with a web development firm, Webtrade, as well as a marketing company, AMAS, to develop a content and marketing strategy.

Identifying keywords boosts visibility

In the sustainable water solutions market, the majority of Google searches feature the word ‘water’ e.g. ‘ water harvesting solutions’, ‘waste water treatment’, ‘rain water pumps’, ‘water purification systems’, ‘waste water pumps’. Armed with this information, Patrick decided to include the word water in the group’s URL – www.epswater.ie, as well as snapping up epswater.co.uk, epswater.fr and epswater.com.

Using keyword research tools and analytics, EPS also identified a selection of the most relevant and popular industry search terms, and decided to scatter these words throughout its website content. “We consistently track these keywords each month to see what page we show up on in Google search results. Previously, with some of the keywords we were appearing at page 6 or 7, but now we are on the first page every time, which is a significant improvement.”

Regular tweaking keeps content relevant

Continuously adding content and making amendments to existing content helps keep the EPS site fresh and relevant, says Patrick. “We regularly add news items to the site and constantly tweak metadata words in the background. By keeping a close eye on Google Analytics we can see what pages people are coming to and what they are looking for. If there’s a page that’s not as active as we want it to be, we will tweak it to make it more relevant. If we want to direct people to a certain page we’ll add content to the homepage that highlights particular sub-pages and try to funnel traffic through that way too,” he explains.

How it presents itself online has become a critical factor for EPS. With such a diverse range of products and services, confusion was a common element with customers who weren’t aware of EPS’s full range. “Our website had to address that issue and raise awareness of all our products and services. With our previous site, there was too much content, and this was confusing visitors, who struggled to find what they were looking for,” Patrick explains. “With the new site we’ve improved the navigation and the content, making it easier for people to get to the relevant pages. Also, by focusing on key search terms, we are seeing more traffic coming through to sub-pages of the site, and getting the information they’re looking for, quicker.”

This strategy is reflected in EPS’s analytics, which show that as site page views have decreased, length of time spent on the EPS site has increased. “Typically, people spend between 3.5 minutes and 4 minutes on our site, and with the page views down it leads us to believe that visitors are finding what they are looking for a lot quicker.”

Focused approach pays off

In just over a year traffic to the EPS website has rocketed, 150 hits per month to a consistent 3,500-4,000 monthly hits. And all this new traffic is translating to new business for the firm, according to Patrick. “With this increase in visitors, we’ve seen a huge boost in the number of enquiries through our site. The majority of these are sound enquiries which have led to new business.”

But EPS isn’t resting there. The company plans to use some of what it’s learned on the Irish site to enhance its newly launched UK site, with the aim of hitting 1,000 visitors per month by June 2012. Also on the cards is a global site, which Patrick says will be used to drive more traffic back to the Irish website.

Patrick credits advice given by Enterprise Ireland  as the impetus EPS needed to make changes to its website. “The Enterprise Ireland support and guidance  was of great benefit to us at the beginning of this project. That investment in time and resources is now paying off for EPS in both our domestic and export sales.”

“We’ve learned so much about the importance of our website over the past couple of years. We now see our site as a very important part of our overall strategy in growing our business,” Patrick concludes.

This article was written by ENNclick for the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit.

7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing – Celtrino and Content

Posted by David Scanlon on 27 January, 2012 in eMarketing | Internet | Marketing | Sales | Social Media - (1 Comments)

This is the second in a series of posts focused on how Irish SMEs are delivering real results using Internet marketing. This case study features an interview with Michael O’Brien, Head of Marketing at Celtrino, a client of Enterprise Ireland.

Quality content on its website is helping supply chain management specialist Celtrino develop its brand and differentiate itself from competitors.

A veteran in the supply chain management world in Ireland, Celtrino’s recent re-vamp of its website is allowing the company to showcase its expertise through a successful blog, as well as boosting brand recognition as it aims to expand into new markets.

Content strategy begins with research

After joining Celtrino in 2009, marketing director Michael O’Brien’s first port of call was to do a full marketing audit. With online becoming more and more important, Michael set about focusing on the Celtrino website and online presence.

“For me, the relevance of the website and being found online was of paramount importance.” Michael said his plan started with in-depth research. “I can’t underestimate how vital it is to understand the words being used online by your competitors, analysts and customers. Once you understand the ecosystem within which you are operating you can then set down a content strategy both for your own website and how you are going to engage with other online tools, like social media.”

Web content critical to search results

Celtrino’s new website went live on 27 May 2010 and within six months Celtrino dominated search engine results for all of its relevant key terms. “If I’m on the phone talking to somebody, chances are they are online typing our name into Google. Being found easily online is important for our continued success in the Irish market, but is also vital as we look to break into the UK market,” said Michael.

Developing relevant, quality content is key to Celtrino’s search engine success, according to Michael: “We need to keep producing quality content or we will lose people and cease to be relevant, and Google will pick up on that too.”

Continually refreshing the site’s content is also an important factor in Celtrino’s content strategy. “Our market is constantly changing and so our web content needs to be regularly updated to reflect that. Of course, regular content updates improve search engine visibility too.”

Content directs customers to next steps

While the homepage is the way most people will enter a website, Michael explains that because the Celtrino site is so optimised for search engines, there is a high chance people are coming to internal pages on the site through targeted search results.

Bearing that in mind, Celtrino developed dedicated content pages for each of its solutions, as well as identifying a list of ‘business needs’ that lead the visitor to relevant product pages. Clear action points were also added to each page, which makes sure that any visitor can see at a glance how they can contact Celtrino or get more information on certain products.

“It was imperative to us that someone coming to the site through a Google search for, say, ‘accounts payable solutions’ would have a clear call to action on the page they land on. This call to action could be a number of things, such as ‘email us’, ‘call us’, or ‘download a whitepaper’. Essentially, the key for us is understanding what the visitor is trying to achieve and giving them every opportunity to do so.”

Blog content gives Celtrino a voice

Keen to provide regular, fresh content on its site, Celtrino launched a blog in September 2011 and typically push out a new blog post three times a week. Michael says the blog has been a great success to date and has broadened the company’s reputation online. “The blog gives us a voice and the opportunity to engage with our audiences that we wouldn’t always have with the website. It also helps us to stand out in the market. For any companies considering a blog I would advise them to look around their sector and see what they can take ownership of in terms of content: ask themselves, ‘what can I write about that makes us stand out?’”

And when you do write a blog that gets noticed, that’s when you can really make an impact, according to Michael. “If your blog post is picked up by another blogger or commentator and shared, then all of a sudden you move up to a different level. Having your content reused around the web ensures that you are seen as a relevant and trusted source of content; the net result is that you will be favoured by Google and other search engines as they focus on delivering relevant and trusted content to their customers.”

Celtrino’s focus on developing quality content for its website has helped it create a strong online presence, which Michael said it is keen to take advantage of. “In February we plan on doing a major refresh of our website content to reflect changes within the sector and changes to our customers’ requirements. And within the next year or so, Celtrino aims to launch an e-commerce function on its site.”

This article was written by ENNclick for the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit.

7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing – Nualight and Email Marketing

Posted by David Scanlon on 20 January, 2012 in eMarketing | Internet | Marketing | Sales | Social Media - (Be the first to comment)

As mentioned in my previous post, this is the first in a series of case studies focused on how Irish SMEs are delivering real results using Internet marketing. This interview features Siobhan O’Dwyer, VP Marketing at Nualight, a client of Enterprise Ireland.

 

Nualight puts email marketing in the spotlight

LED retail lighting specialist Nualight is using email newsletters to build its brand and promote itself as a thought leader in the fast-growing LED lighting market.

Nualight is one of the original pioneers of LED food lighting and counts Tesco, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s among its key customers. Co-located in Cork and Amsterdam, the rapidly growing company has been making a name for itself in the buoyant retail lighting market helped by its content-filled company newsletters.

Monthly newsletter keeps customers up to date

A monthly e-newsletter – called Bright Thinking – is used to keep Nualight’s 4,000-plus customers across Europe and the US updated on company news. “We launch products on such a regular basis that it would be impossible to keep our customers up to date without the newsletter; it really is the most effective way to tell them our news,” said Siobhan O’Dwyer, vice president of marketing with Nualight.

The monthly e-newsletter is teased via a HTML email sent to a subscriber list, with snippets of content that link back to the Nualight website. “We’re keen to direct people back to our website, where we have so much content and information we’d like them to see. Newsletters are a great way to do that.”

Brand building with quarterly e-zine

In what has become a highly competitive market, with some of the biggest companies in the world vying for market share, Nualight’s newsletters have become a vital marketing tool.

“One of our main goals is to position ourselves as experts in our area. With our newsletters we can reinforce that position regularly using content that is interesting to people and, of course, telling people about our ongoing product innovation,” explained Siobhan.

The company’s 32-page online magazine – Bright – is published each quarter. It delivers company news as well as industry-related features and expert interviews. “Our expert interviews in particular are very well received, and they’ve really helped us to align ourselves as thought leaders.”

Creating company spirit globally with staff newsletter

Having just completed the acquisition of a company in the Netherlands, as well as having a manufacturing site in Poland and a global sales team, Nualight was keen to knit its team of over 200 employees together. A monthly email newsletter is sent out to all staff to keep everyone updated on changes within the company, local news from each site, as well as product launches and industry trends.

“The staff newsletter helps us integrate our global team together, and makes sure everyone knows what’s going on in the company and in the industry,” said Siobhan.

Weighing up what’s working

On average, Nualight’s newsletter open rates are at an impressive 25 to 40 percent, with a 47 percent click-through rate. Constant testing and analytics help Siobhan identify which articles are proving most popular.

“We’re learning as we go along. We know that the HTML emails are crucial to pulling people through to our site so we make sure to create really good content hooks and put some real thought into our subject lines. We’ve identified that readers are interested in innovation, so we make sure to put our product news front and centre. Visual works for us too; our industry is all about atmosphere and ambience so we have upped the image content in the HTML mail.”

Divide and conquer

With customers all across Europe, Nualight decided to develop its newsletters in English, French and German, with the subscriber database split into the three languages. This strategy has had a positive impact on open rates, according to Siobhan.

Nualight is also planning further segmentation of its subscriber database. A recently introduced newsletter signup box on its website asks people to select their interest in one of the company’s two distinct product lines: “case lighting” or “accent lighting”. Nualight plans to develop a newsletter for each of these lines.

“I would say without hesitation that email marketing is one of the most effective things we do. Customers in our sector are information-hungry and our newsletters have really helped us to tap into that requirement,” concluded Siobhan.

This article was written by ENNclick for the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit.

7 Ways To Improve Your Internet Marketing

Posted by David Scanlon on 17 January, 2012 in eMarketing | Internet | Marketing | Sales | Social Media - (4 Comments)

Over the course of 2011, the Enterprise Ireland Internet Marketing Unit was busy engaging with our clients to benchmark their Internet marketing efforts. You can take a look at the questionnaire we use for the benchmarking for yourself (feel free to complete it, we’d love to hear from you!), and we also published a short report back in October detailing some of the findings.

From talking with our clients and examining the results of the benchmarks, we’ve identified 7 key areas of activity and capability that make up an effective Internet marketing strategy, as follows:

  • Online Advertising
  • Web Traffic Analysis
  • Continuous Intelligence Gathering/Customer Relationship Management
  • SEO
  • Content
  • Social Media
  • Email Marketing

We’re not saying that your company needs to become an expert on all these areas, but you should at least have a good understanding of what they are, and what impact they can have on your existing online sales and marketing strategy. To help with this we’re going to publish a series of blog posts here on BestConnected over the coming weeks, each one focused on how an Irish SME is succeeding online by adopting the principles outlined above.
First up will be an interview with Siobhan O’Dwyer, VP Marketing at Nualight, who will be sharing her experiences of effectively using Email Marketing. Stay tuned to the blog, the interview will be published here before the end of the week. If you’ve any feedback on the benchmarking, or if you’d like to suggest some other case studies, then please let us know.

US Product Management Guru in Dublin on Wed 18th Jan – Book your place now

Posted by Andrew Peet on 12 January, 2012 in Marketing | Training | US - (Be the first to comment)

As recognition grows that market risk typically outweighs technical risk, the role of the product manager is one of increasing significance for Irish-based software companies. Software Skillnet in conjunction with DIT’s Postgraduate Diploma in Product Management is privileged to invite you to this seminar addressing compelling questions around Agile Product management and how that aligns with product ownership.

Rich Mironov is the author of “The Art of Product Management” and since 2002 he has been writing “Product Bytes,” a blog on product strategy, technology and product management read by C-level product champions around the world.  He writes and consults in the areas of agile product management, product ownership, and how to build commercially successful products with agile development teams.

Rich will host an open forum on agile product management and product ownership for those getting to grips with the challenge of working in an agile environment.

  • What implications are there for day to day management?
  • Do management roles need to change?
  • Where now for product strategy?
  • How do we derive market requirements?

Booking is Required as  Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. For more information and to book your place contact Susan Kelly at susan@isa-skillnet.com  or call 086-8067200.

Online Business Models and the Content Industry – Event

Posted by Pat Byrne on 1 November, 2011 in Animation | Conference | Digital Media | eMarketing | Event | Marketing - (1 Comments)

The theme for the upcoming IBEC  Audiovisual Federation seminar in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland will provide an opportunity to discuss new emerging online business models linked to the content industry focusing on “Creating a market online”, “Growing online customer relations” and “online copyright protection”.

Online Business Models and the Content Industry , Thursday, 17th November 2011  8am – 1:30 pm,  The O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dublin 2

Speakers and panellists include

  • Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation
  • Noel Curran, Director General, RTÉ
  • Gail Power, Facebook Ireland
  • Philip Clarke, Mediapeers
  • Barbara Galavan, CEO Screen Producers Ireland

To reserve your place please book online at IBEC’s Event site; and for further details contact Carolyn Doumeni (carolyn.doumeni@ibec.ie).

 

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Using The Internet To Compete In International Markets

Posted by David Scanlon on 16 September, 2011 in eMarketing | Event | Marketing | Social Media - (Be the first to comment)

An eMarketing event focusing on how companies can utilise the Internet to more successfully trade their products and services in international markets is taking place in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, on Thursday October 20th. Hosted by Enterprise Ireland’s Internet Marketing Unit, attendees will learn about the online strategies and processes needed to identify, reach and retain new customers.

eMarketing Workshop | Using the Internet to Compete in International Markets

The event is primarily aimed at those who either work in international marketing and sales, or those responsible for their company’s online marketing strategy. Leading experts in their fields will cover a broad range of topics, including:

  •  Developing an Online Marketing Strategy;
  • Online Localisation for International Markets;
  • Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click Marketing;
  • Web Analytics and Online Advertising;
  • Getting the Website Content Right.

Speakers attending the event include Aileen O’Toole, MD, AMAS, a consultancy specialising in online channels; Niall McKeown, MD, iON, a digital consultancy and online marketing business; John Coburn, MD, PraxisNow, a specialist SEO and search marketing service provider, Alan Coleman, CEO, OnlineAdvertising.ie, and Gareth Dunlop, a digital strategist and columnist, as well as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Northern Ireland Science Park.

The cost of this half-day event is €65 per person, and further details can be obtained from the event website. Please note that this event is strictly for existing clients of Enterprise Ireland.

In order to book and confirm your participation, register and make payment online here. Please note that registration for the event should be made on or before Friday October 15th.

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Postgrad Diploma in Product Management – boost your Company, boost your Career

Posted by Jennifer Condon on 14 September, 2011 in Event | Marketing | Training - (Be the first to comment)

This is a guest post from Edel Creely, Managing Director of Trilogy Technology, and chair of the Irish Software Associations  Product Managment Working Group.  Product Management is one of the things that successful exporters do ‘right’, but is too often a gap in Irsh company skillsets.

What makes Apple products from the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad so successful? Great user experience, great attention to detail, great engineering? Certainly. But without great Product Mangement focussing the 49,000 people that work at Apple on ‘Who is going to buy / use this product?’,  Apple would risk going the way of HP.

Traditionally, Irish Software and Technology companies haven’t been great at Product Management. Which is a problem, given that we’re depending on their export sales to bring the Irish Economy back to growth.

To try and solve this problem, the Irish Software Association Product Management Group, working with the Dublin Institute of Technology  and the Software Skillnet, have put together the Postgraduate Diploma in Product Management – Software and Technology Sectors (pdf).  Even better, because of the special grant from Skillnets (under the Future Skills Needs Programme), participants will receive 50% grant aid towards the course fees.

The Diploma launches at Dublin IBEC Offices, 84-86 Lower Baggot Street tomorrow (Thursday Sept 16) at 6pm. The seminar will focus on an overview of the programme contents, as well as the programme’s primary modules, how the diploma will lead to a Masters Degree, practical assignments and assessment, entry requirements and the application process.To book a place at the information seminar email Susan[at]softwareskillnet.com or phone Susan at 086-8067200.

Applications for the Diploma close Friday 23rd September; The number of grant-aided spaces are limited so best to get your application in as soon as possible. Applications and programme brochure are available on the Software Skillnet website.

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10 myths of building a business online – guest post from Alan of Spoiltchild

Posted by Paul Browne on 11 April, 2011 in eMarketing | IGAP | Internet | Links | Marketing | Social Media | startup - (14 Comments)

Following last weeks IGAP finale, this is a guest post from IGAP 1 participant Alan O’Rourke of Spoiltchild, creators of the Toddle business newsletter tool. Alan talks candidly about the 10 biggest mistakes he’s made in online business.

The following are all assumptions / mistakes I made over the years.

1.       It costs nothing to start a business online.
It is true that infrastructure costs have come way down. With the right technical knowledge you could set up an online shop or simple web application for about €50 and a little time.  With no technical knowledge, costs are closer to €10,000 and up. For you reading this, it is probably somewhere in the middle.  Compared to setting up a physical business on the high-street it is still a pittance.

But your website only gets you about 10% of the way. Now you need to start building a business. Time, marketing, advertising, sales guy(s), running costs, legal …did I mention time? Without upfront investment to hire the above resources, expect 2-3 years of hard work before your business starts supporting its self. Can you support yourself for that long?

2.       Build it and they will come.
Why would they? How do they know you exist out of the trillions of websites out there? If they do happen across your site why will they remember to come back when they actually need what you sell?

3.       The website must be perfect / fully featured before you launch. (more…)

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