We are going to dive into one of my favorite business topics: foundational pieces that you need in order to be good at doing business online.
I’ve been in the online space since 2015, I started out in network marketing, had a meal planning business and I’ve launched programs and courses.
I have a really good understanding of what works for different people and what doesn’t. The most important thing that I can tell you is you need to build both your content and your business strategy around the season of life that you’re in.
This is also your reminder that just because it’s your strategy for now or just because you’re focusing on it for now doesn’t mean it has to be forever.
Everybody needs to have these foundational pieces to do business online. It’s not going to be the same iteration for every person, but it does need to be a piece that you have in your business.
The truth is, online businesses aren’t going anywhere because we all love a virtual, “I can stay in my sweatpants moment.”
What I’ve seen happen, especially in the last year and a half, is I’ve seen more and more people that are experts in what they do in real life want to move it to the virtual space.
There’s a lot more passive-type income that can be created. There’s a lot of freedom that can be created.
I see a lot of people migrating their real life business to the online space. They think because they have years of expertise doing what they’re doing and they’re great at it, that it’ll be easy to move it online or that it just means posting on Instagram and the people will come.
Sometimes from the outside looking in, having an online business does look easy, but it’s really not.
I want to walk through five foundational pieces that I feel you need to either:
Bring your in real life business virtual.
OR
If you’ve just been dabbling in the online space, maybe you’ve maxed out your market, your friends, your family have bought from you, and now you need to find new people, have new leads, scale, step up, then these are five things that you actually need.
1. Mission & Focus: Defining Your Purpose in the Online Space
What is your goal in the online space? Who are you trying to help and how will you do it?
A lot of times, brick-and-mortar companies will create their mission, vision, and value statements so that anybody from the outside looking in or looking to work with them understands what the company is about. It’s really no different for an online business. Whether you are a therapist or a doula or you did in-person network marketing and now you’re moving to virtual, you have to have a mission and a focus, a voice of who you are online.
At the end of the day, the online space is saturated with businesses. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It just means you need to make sure you’re finding ways to stand out from what everybody else is doing. You need to have a voice so that you connect with people that understand you, get you on a human level as well.
The other piece of it is really understanding who you’re trying to help.
It burns my butt, more than anything when somebody tells me they want to help everybody. I want to help every mom in business. I want to help every woman. I want to help every human that needs X, Y, and Z.
That’s fine for your real life business, maybe, but it’s not going to work when you’re in the online space. You need to specifically be talking to someone. Even if you work with people outside of that ideal client avatar that you have, that’s fine. When you’re creating content, you really need to be having that one person in mind.
Another piece that’s really important is knowing how you’re going to help them with whatever you do. How are you helping them? Are you creating a group program, a membership? Are you doing one-on-one coaching? There’s no right or wrong answer. Choosing what you do depends on where your expertise lies and what your business is. Sometimes you’re just going to have to work one on one with people. Sometimes it’ll make more sense to do a membership. It really depends on your expertise, what your business is, and what your goal of helping people looks like. Keep in mind that this could change. You might have multiple offers, but when you first come into the online space, you really want to hone in on one way to help people as you get started.
2. Clear Messaging: Making a Meaningful Connection
Generally, there are three to four topics that make you an expert and that make you a human. What I see happen is people come online from the real world, and they are experts at what they do, but they treat their social media as if they’re presenting their resume at a job interview.
I’ve done this and I’ve done this and I’ve done this, etc. It’s like a checkbox.
While showing your expertise is important, it cannot be the only thing that you do when you’re creating a brand online. There, again, are a million people that do what you do and have the same expertise and have the same skills. So what makes you special? Typically, that’s your human experience, your likes and dislikes, and what you bring to the table as a person. Those three to four topics have to be business and personal related.
So for me, I’ll give you an example, my messaging is:
I’m a content expert
I’m a business strategist.
Those are my business perspectives. So when you come to my page, if you’re going to learn something from me, it’s typically going to be in one of those three categories.
My fourth topic is really realistic motherhood. That’s me talking about how I do motherhood differently, my postpartum journey, how it’s okay to be an ambitious mom and want more.
I also have these subtopics that you typically won’t see in my feed, but you will see me talk in my stories about Harry Potter, Brittany Spears, going to Disney, things that you may or may not connect with that make us potentially vibe together. It’s more likely that someone is going to buy from you when they like who you are as a human.
So knowing your clear messaging from both a business perspective and a personal perspective is incredibly important so that people understand what they’re going to get when they come to your page.
3. Building an Email List and Opt-in: A Non-Negotiable
In 2023, if you are an online business, an email list and an opt-in are non-negotiable. You may have heard this before, but if you don’t have an email list, you definitely need to hear it again.
You do not own your followers on social media, on any platform, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, on anything new that comes along. You do not own those followers. You can get hacked, you can get kicked out at any point in time.
Your email list is your safeguard. Your email list is also a way for people to see what you have to offer free, value, personality-wise, and sales-wise outside of social media. The typical open rate for a good email list that you are consistent with is 40-50%. So 40-50% of the people that are on your email list will open and read your emails.
On social media, only 3-7% of your followers, not just Instagram users in general or social media users in general, only 3-7% of your followers will see your content at any given moment. An email list allows you to touch them, reach them, talk to them much more directly and focused. Instagram, TikTok, is very fleeting. We’re just scrolling.
With an email list, you have much more of a chance of your message sinking in. The way you get people on your email list is an opt-in. It can be a webinar, guide or a really great newsletter that you send every week. What’s great about an opt-in is it gives you something of free value to offer every single day while you build your following, while you’re trying to find new people. It gives people a chance to really get into your world and know who you are, get a taste of what it’s like to work with you.
If you don’t have an email list and opt-in, please send me a DM immediately after reading this blog so that we can talk about getting you one because you need one.
4. Relentless Energy: The Driving Force Behind Online Success
You need relentless energy.
You need to be willing to show up a lot.
You need to be willing to throw spaghetti at the wall.
You need to be willing to be on YouTube University and learn the things that you don’t know.
You need to be willing to invest to get the knowledge you need.
You have to be willing to put in blood, sweat, and tears.
You have to be willing to follow through with what you say you’re going to do for yourself.
Relentless energy.
I don’t mean every moment of every single day. We all have days when we’re tired. I’m not telling you to hustle and burn yourself out. But, I am telling you that there has been this theme in the online space that it should be easy and you just need to work an hour a day.
If you get into the nitty gritty of the people that teach that, they worked a lot more than that in the beginning to set the foundation, put boundaries in place and build themselves to where they are now. In the beginning, do not kid yourself. In a push season, when you’re creating something new, do not kid yourself that one hour a day is going to be enough to reach the goals that you have because typically it’s not.
Relentless energy and a willingness to just show up over and over again, messy, ugly, perfect, imperfect, wonderful, brilliant, whatever it looks like, you have to be willing to do that. If not, you’re playing small.
If not, maybe this isn’t meant for you and that’s ok. Entrepreneurship and having a business online and in the real world isn’t meant for everyone.
If it’s not meant for you, that’s okay. If you can’t look in the mirror and say, I have relentless energy, I have the willingness to show up and I am going to follow through on what I promise. Well, if you can’t say yes to those three things, then you may need to consider if you’re in the right field. Let’s just keep it real. I’m sorry. I know it’s a hard message to tell you, but it’s true.
If you CAN look in the mirror and say, 85% of the time, I’m going to have relentless energy, I am going to show up, and I am going to follow through, then you’re in a good spot. Keep listening and keep going because it takes time and we have to keep pushing forward and not give up because the online space will have you convinced that you can make six figures in 30 days, but nobody wants to tell you about the five years that they worked to get to that point. Keep that in mind!
5. The Role of a Coach: Guiding You to Your Goals
You need support from somebody that’s done this before. If you want to streamline the process or if you want to cut the time that it takes to figure it all out on your own,you need a coach.
I would say 92% (I just made that number up) of strategy, you can figure out through free stuff, YouTube, Google, etc., but it’s all general.
When you download something for free or when you pay $57 for a course, that information is valuable to have, but it’s not going to teach you, help you, guide you on how to adapt it and make it work for your business. Sometimes you do need to take that leap. You do need to work with a coach who’s going to help you streamline the process, who’s going to hold you accountable, who’s going to ask you the tough questions to help you get closer to where you want to go a lot faster every single time.
I’ve invested in everything. I’ve invested in $7 things, $47 things, $107 things, and thousand dollar things. Every time I invest in a high level way where I get individualized attention, my business leaps.
There’s no doubt about it. Sometimes it leaps in a different way than I anticipated. Investing in your business is important. I recorded a podcast episode about mistakes I have made investing that you can check out HERE.
Investing in the right way, the right coach and the right support that you need at the time is also a really, really big piece about it.
The Ever-Changing Landscape of the Online Space
Those are the foundational pieces: your mission and focus, clear messaging for your marketing, an email list and an opt-in, relentless energy, and a coach. There are so many wonderful, beautiful things about having an online business, but you have to want it really badly because it doesn’t come right away. The freedom takes time, and it does take a lot of work at first, but it is so incredibly worth it. My business, I’ve seen it in so many different iterations where I was making a lot of money, but I was burning myself out, where I was making less money, but I had more freedom, where I was making no money and I was working really hard in the beginning.
There are going to be these different iterations of your business, and that’s okay. You just have to be willing to go along for the ride and release some of the expectations that you have on yourself because when we try to strangle the road, when we try to direct the path too much, that’s when we get in trouble. I hope this helped you frame some of those things that you need.
Please share this blog with your business owner friends, your biz besties. If you love it, hopefully they will too. If you have questions or you’re like, well, I need way more support on this. I’m always a DM away on Instagram @gianatrolongo, I would love to talk to you there!
Helpful links:
Follow me on Instagram HERE
Listen to this podcast episode HERE
