Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Succeed Online

Why don’t I succeed online?

Approximately 90% of all online business end in failure after the first 120 days. We don’t mean to scare you away from beginning your journey, but as a new business, uncertainty is a huge factor you must overcome. One way to better manage this is through planning correctly from the start. See below just some of the common mistake's businesses make online and how you can learn from them to be successful online.

Why do most start-ups fail?

And how can I ensure my business doesn’t make the same mistakes?

1. A website with no visitors

Having a functional website that represents your brand, as well as being accessible on all devices, is a vital part of any online business. Got an impressive website design with no visitors? What’s the point? When you type in your product/service in Google – does your site come up?  

Conversion Guru stated that 90% of users said they won’t even go past the first page of results. Without an effective marketing strategy beyond your website design, beating competition online who are appearing first in that search, will be virtually impossible. If your business doesn’t invest in SEO and other digital marketing services, there may be no guarantee that your website will be found by your target market.  

2. Underestimating the power of customer loyalty

Planning a business plan around getting new clients is great - What about keeping your existing clientele? Don’t take your current clients for granted. Repeat business is just as valuable as new business.

Underestimating the power of customer loyalty can affect your business negatively. When searching for new customers, you don’t want to cause your loyal and current clientele to feel neglected. Offering a discount or voucher to new customers is great but it can also leave a sour taste in existing customers mouths when they feel that they are not benefiting from being loyal to your business. You must ensure that they too benefit from discounts or offers.  

3. Unrealistic business goals

No matter how inventive or unique your business idea is, it will fail without a detailed and realistic business plan. What are your goals? What is required to be successful? What are your revenue targets? How will you achieve your aims and objectives? What will you do each month to grow your business? What is your marketing budget?  

Getting straight into a business plan can be very difficult if you don’t know where to start. You can start off with some simple SMART objectives to start your transition from an idea into a reality. Setting smaller, more achievable goals, with realistic timelines will not only help your business, but ensure the growth is maintainable.  

4. Juggling too many products/services

You may think that by offering lots of products and services you will attract a more customers, however, by doing this, your brand’s specialism will become blurred. By trying to fill the gaps and offer the same as your competition may seem like a great idea on the surface but in reality, it can leave you spread too thinly.  

As the saying goes, ‘Jack of all trades but master of none’, you can’t target the whole of the market. This will help to keep costs low as you focus on quality as opposed to quantity, allowing you to reduce the waste of business expenses and increasing your businesses opportunities to reinvest.

5. A poor logo can lead to low expectations

How many times have you been online and seen a brand logo that instantly attracts you? You may only know what they provide because you’ve learnt from their frequent advertising. This is how to successfully attract customers through branding. Your branding and logo are what your customers will see first and then base other factors upon this to create their perception.

As a new business the quality of your branding and logo can easily make you stand out... for the wrong reasons, so investing in your logo from the beginning will help to further establish trust and allow you to direct how people perceive your brand.  

How to start an internet-based business?

You may end up asking yourself “what internet business should I start?”. However, you should note that there is not an industry out there with a 100% survival rate. There is uncertainty within every business idea you might have thought of.  

Failing does not mean you’ll never be successful. Intensive research into your target audience will limit this failure and help you plan the best marketing strategies to attract them. Most importantly, having a passion for your intended business is crucial to success.

To find out more on how to create a successful business online – speak to our digital marketing experts today.