Newbie Guide

In this modern day, most people look up everything on the internet.

Let's say for a moment that your brand name is "Newbie". You've made yourself known in your small community by having a shop with the same name, where you sell various teenagers' items.

These are some real, possible situations:

• local satisfaction: teenagers satisfied with your products will share them online (#trendNewbie)
• interest & curiosity: people will ask who and what is "Newbie" and look it up online
• assessment: by looking your brand name up and your products, the customers will decide if they want to buy from you
• reach out: you have become a real interest to potential new customers outside your local region, but you can't offer your services easily
• how to purchase: teenagers from another region are interested to buy, but they first want to see the products and then to add in cart, all from the safety of their home
• one click away: time is of the essence, and people nowadays will prefer to look up and order online

So, it is important to have an online presence, through which you can scale up your business, gain wide visibility, increase your sales, grow your customer base, and become a successful brand in the market.

Consider this as an online CV, where the platform and its look represent your brand. The better the CV, the more views and employing approaches you will receive. The same goes online. Interested visitors will check your website, convinced ones will make a purchase, satisfied ones will buy regularly, other companies will gain an interest in you as well (either as competition or partners), etc.

Here are some of the key factors for having a website that represents your activity:

Don't make your customers wonder if you are a real business or not! Show them what you have to offer, send a clear message through your website (e.g. "I am a shopping website that sells various items for teenagers, in the EU space").

People usually want to know:

• how can they find you (online and physical location)?
• are you visible on all devices (mobile phone | tablet | desktop)?
• who are you (are you a scam site or are you a legit one)?
• what do you sell?
• where do you sell (countries, regions available)?
• how do you sell?
• what prices do you have?
• what is the quality of your products (usually through purchase or reviews from other buyers)?
• how can they purchase?
• what offers do you have (discounts)?
• what kind of availability do you have (customer care, order shipment, etc.)?
• how can they register/become members for details on their orders, easier purchases, membership discounts, etc.?
• who is their competition and what does it provide (quality, distinctive products, good price-quality offers, discounts, etc.)?
• is there a possibility of a partnership (sell | buy goods, grow together, etc.)?
• how can they contact you?

So, make a good impression and show that you are a legit online business!

How can people find you, if they don't know your "name"? Yes, it is as important as a "name", because you know who to address and how to find the person.

Remember the online CV? When you make a good impression on the recruiter, they will search you by your "name" and contact you. Well, same here, your customers and potential clients will look up your Brand.

Also, the more you get recognized as a brand, the greater the chances are for you to grow world-wide and become a successful business.

Gain the interest of your visitors; make them your customers and/or clients! You want people to contact you and request that you provide your service for them.

Here are a few examples of how to do so:

• Direct approach: engage with your potential customers in person | by email | by phone | by social media
• Advertise on Social Media: to reach your target audience, make your brand visible and known, and build trust
• Statistics: use web analytics services in order to understand what your audience wants, how much website trafic you have, etc.
• Referrals: ask your existing customers to refer your services. A good example in use is "Refer your friend and you will get a discount | offer, etc."
• Search Engines: customers search by keywords, so it is important that you have a well-structured information on your site that includes the keywords of your targeted group. Make it easy for your audience to find you, use SEO to improve the content quality.
• Answer questions: if you find your business tagged | mentioned on social media and there are questions related to it, try your best to provide a good and clear answer
• Interviews: get to know people that work in the same business and compare notes on how to improve. You can also market your brand through influencers
• Email offers: You almost certainly have subscriptions to various websites in your inbox that will send you offers and information about their business. So, make a presentable "flyer" with your offers, discounts, etc. and send it to your subscribed customers.

Pop-up in the Google Search Results! You are now visible online and have good SEO of your website, so don't waste time and increase your customer base!

Make your customers happy by keeping your website functional on all devices, clear (too many pop-ups and they will lose their interest and leave) and up-to-speed with fast content delivery (patience is a virtue). Shortly put, good quality will increase your chances of growing your client base.

Save time both for you and your customers by providing as much information as possible, especially basic ones, like contact information, order | payment | delivery services, working hours, product details, issues when processing orders, how to complete their information, etc.

You would want your clients to reach out when they have not found the answer on the platform, they encountered some issues that you had not foreseen, etc. Of course, there will be those customers that do not read and just call you to have a "chit-chat" because they are bored.

You don't want to keep your customers wondering when you have an offer or if you are making updates to your platform. The best thing is to keep them informed through your website, email subscribers, etc. on the new changes.

Don't forget! Your clients' interests spike when they know that there are Promotional Sales coming up, as everyone wants a good buy deal.