#Step 1: Start your Business
From Employee to Entrepreneur
In general, there are 2 types of business entities in Malaysia that suit a new startup business in the digital era. A Sole Proprietorship/Partnership, and Sendirian Berhad.
For startups with a minimum budget, you can opt to register as a Sole Proprietorship/Partnership in SSM – https://www.ssm.com.my/. It has a minimum startup fee of about RM100 per year. However, Sendirian Berhad registration will cost you a few thousand ringgit per year.
What do I need to do after registering a company?
Design a logo
A logo can be a simple company logo or a brand logo. Design a simple one to start with to start advertising in digital era. It can be a word logo you designed yourself.
You can always enhance it at a later stage when your business grows further. A unique designed logo should always portray your business nature.
A company stamp
Create a simple company stamp. You will need it to open a company bank account. Simplicity in design is better and always keep it safe to avoid unauthorized use.
A name card
A name card is required if you are meeting people. Name cards consist of basic information like company name, company logo, your name, contact number, address, website, email, products, and services. It is the first impression and the fastest way to pass information to your potential customers. Make a name card professional and presentable.
A Domain Name / Website Address
Register a domain name or a website address with your business identity. For example, you are in the food industry and your company name is Kent & Yen, you can register with the domains www.kydelicious.com or www.kyyummy.com .
Make it short and easy to remember. Construct a simple web page with your contact information and business nature. Make sure you create your online presence on the 1st day you start your business in this digital era.
An email and email signature
After you own a domain, create emails under your domain. Set an email signature that carries your identity, your business nature, and your credibility. Create a simple and attractive one that can be easily remembered by your receiver.
Looking for a graphic designer and web designer?
#Step 2: Grow your Business Online
A Website
In this digital era, a business is not complete without a website. So, you must own a website that holds your business details for customers. Creating a website that can generate organic leads is better than a website full of information but without any value for customers.
There are a few steps to create a workable website that can generate potential leads.
– Front-end –
First Impressions Matter
Let your visitors know your services at first glance by using eye-catching headlines that best grasp attention. Firstly, identify customer pain points by letting them know how your products and/or services can solve their problem.
Generally, customers don’t necessarily care about your company, they only care if your products and/or services are what they need.
Proof
Project portfolios and customer testimonials can really help to increase customer’s trust in you because they don’t want to be fooled with a poor experience with you.
Call to Action Button
Always include a call to action button after several sections on your website. Visitors can easily click on the button for inquiries or contact information for further information.
– Back-end and SEO –
Website Optimization
Simplifying the coding and optimizing photos can generate a faster website loading time. With the number of mobile visitors increasing tremendously nowadays, having a fast-loading website is a must. After a few seconds of loading, people will immediately lose interest and hop onto another website(read: your competitors!).
Metadata
Proper title, keywords, and descriptions are required for all your pages. You also need open graph tags that will control what content shows up when a page is shared on Facebook.
Keywords Study and Research
Insert suitable keywords in your website that best describe your business, products, and services. Be more specific in your keywords by using the Five Ws methods – who, what, where, when, and why. Relevant keywords will help your website to target the right leads.
Analytics
Install google analytics on your webpage to track and read the behavior of visitors. With this data, you can plan your next marketing campaign with the right target in mind.
Ready to grow your business in digital era?
#Step 3: Expand your Business Online
Content Marketing
Basically, websites with good content related to your business will be listed on top of the SERP. There are so many benefits when you continually update your website. For example:
- To Know You Better
To let your potential leads know about your company’s recent news and activities. The more they know about you, the higher chance they will become your customer. - To Speak out Your Specialty
To inform your potential leads about your products and services. How do your products and services help them solve their current issues? Why do they need your products and/or services? - To Create Content for the Community
Giving something to the community and in return, you will get something back. Google loves good content. Sharing your knowledge with the community can help newcomers learn too. - To Share the Latest Technology
Update your potential leads with the latest technology in your industries. Be the one that stays ahead of others, be the market leader in the business line.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Google Plus just to name a few, are the new era digital marketing. Thus, make your business presence on as many platforms as possible and update it frequently. But how to make it possible?
- Create content for social media and use it for all platforms.
- Use content from your articles/blog and share it on social media.
- Schedule the post and post it to different platforms using 3rd party applications for automated uploads.
#The Right Way to Succeed in the Digital Era
All in all, information is overloaded on the internet in this digital era. Now, people are holding their phones and scrolling through information constantly. Their eyes will focus on good designs with short taglines.
So, they won’t spend much time reading long paragraphs. Hence, making your sentence short and attractive is vital. Also, it is important to reach them instantly with a fast-loading website and with attention-grabbing headlines.
