Almost half of all working Americans have a side hustle, either out of necessity to cover basic expenses or to try and build up some savings.
While some people opt to work for rideshare apps or other gig economy jobs, others run out and start a side business of their own.
Whether you’re running a lawn care company or a tutoring service as your second gig, you’re going to want to create a strong web presence.
Let’s take a look at five crucial web tips to launching a side business.
1. Create a Website
Once you’ve decided on your business concept, name, and the basics, the first thing you’re going to need is a website.
If you do nothing else to market your business, you absolutely must have a website. It can be as simple or as complicated as you please, but without a web presence, you’re at a significant disadvantage.
Having a website adds credibility to your business instantly. It also allows you to take more control over the image of your brand. Your website can also end up saving you time because people can find answers to their questions by looking at your site rather than emailing or calling you with frequently asked questions.
Websites don’t necessarily have to be expensive or complicated.
While a barebones website is better than nothing, it can be worth it to look into web design principles to ensure that your site is as useful to customers as possible. Following these website design best practices will make your website stand out among the competition.
2. Build a Social Media Presence
Over the past several years, having a social media presence has basically become a necessity for brands.
Having a social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can make your brand more visible on search engines and therefore increase your traffic. It also puts you in touch with your customers so you can mitigate any customer complaints or issues.
Your social media presence is another way you can curate your brand’s image. Be mindful of everything from the type of imagery you post to the voice used in the writing. Through these avenues, you’re creating the personality of your brand.
3. Deliver High-Quality Content
People make judgments quickly while searching the web, and one of the best ways you can get people to hang around your site, and social media longer is to deliver high-quality content.
You can do this by having a well-written company blog or even just informative product descriptions. You want the content on your site to be applicable, relevant, and genuinely helpful. If your product or service is something that could be benefitted by video content, consider starting a YouTube channel to further keep your customers informed.
The goal here is to present your company as an authority in its field. If there are obvious errors, inconsistencies, or nonsense in your content, customers will sense it from a mile away.
When posting images on your social media or your website, use personal images as much as possible. People find stock images to be less genuine and therefore they create less trust. Show people your shop, products, business practices, or office in authentic and well-thought-out photos.
4. Invest in Customer’s Online Experience
Without customers, your business won’t get very far.
When you’re creating your web presence, you’ll always want to be considering the customers’ perspective. If you were the customer, what would you want to know or understand? What questions or concerns would you have?
A vital aspect of your online presence is managing your reviews and feedback. You’ll want to encourage people to leave reviews after positive experiences. At the same time, you’ll want to direct negative feedback to your company’s email inbox rather than online review sites.
When you do receive negative reviews online, you always want to respond. Come up with a strategy for managing negative or inaccurate reviews that could hurt your companies presence online.
5. Focus On Your Target Demographic
When you start your business, you’ll want to have imagined a customer avatar that you’re appealing to.
If your product or service is geared towards urban Millennials, you’re going to market it much differently than if you’re targeting rural Baby Boomers. Understanding who your target audience is and how to reach them is crucial to use your online presence as effectively as possible.
It can be tempting to try and target everyone, with the assumption that the more people who are exposed to your brand the more customers you have. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case. When you cast such a wide net, you can end up trying to appeal to everyone and end up turning off your target demographic.
Using tools like Google Analytics can help you understand who your target audience is if you aren’t quite sure. Using this tool you’ll be able to view the activity data of your website, which will give you an idea of who is visiting your site.
Another way to get a sense of your target audience is by looking at your competition. Who are they marketing towards? How is their content and SEO writing set up?
Looking at your competition and seeing where they are successful and where they aren’t can be vital information as you get your side hustle started.
Read More: How to Build Links Effectively for Your Small Business Website
Start Your Side Business Right Using These Web Tips
Starting a side business is no small task, but if done right it can be well worth it. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling lawnmowers or a B2B service, you’re going to want a web presence to help your side hustle be as successful as possible. Did you love this article full of web tips for starting a side business? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more useful content!
