Carv is a Los Angeles, CA-based developer of a gaming platform designed to provide all games in one place. The company’s services offer achievement display, friends, game discovery, and direct monetization, enabling gamers with data sovereignty and games with intelligence.
Carv was funded $4 million led by Vertex, Temasek Holding’s venture capital arm, with participation from EVOS, Infinity Ventures Crypto, YGG SEA, SNACKCLUB, UpHonest Capital, Lyrik Ventures, Lintentry Foundation, PAKADAO, 7UpDAO, Angel Investor Aliaksandr Hadzilin. The company intends to use the funds to onboard talent and continue building the interoperable credential infrastructure alongside ecosystem partners.
It uses blockchain-based technology to allow users to host their usernames and information and carry it between applications. This information can include data such as achievements users have earned in games, their reputation, connections to friends they have met along the way, and more. Decentralized identity acts as a single sign-in where the user generates a unique identity that the user control.
The company concentrated on Web3 gaming because of the considerable consumer-facing demand, and that’s where the most significant draw for decentralized identity opportunities currently exists. Web3 is the name given to the possible successive era of the web, learned as the decentralized web, where apps use peer-to-peer without centralized authority and run using crypto token economies.
This also builds data infrastructure and analytics to empower game studios to recognize gamer activities accurately, capture an insight-driven understanding of the user base, and effectively reach the desired group of users.
CARV is continuously building the gaming space with partners to kick off gaming tournaments and game night campaigns backed by talks, in-game hunts, and rewards to bring engagement to its product.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
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Irrespective of how exquisite the product or service is, it might not sustain itself in the market for long if the makers or providers are not aware of the reasons behind the success of their product or service. It’s crucial for any business to understand their customers – thoroughly get into the minds of consumers – to sustain and thrive in this world of stiff competition.
We human beings generally have the same mental forces that drive us to take certain actions. For a business to be successful it is highly recommended that it identifies those driving forces and utilize them as part of their marketing strategies. This is because our minds work in strange ways, leading us to take actions that we ourselves are not even fully aware of.
The three questions that all businesses should ask themselves regularly are; what do we know about our customers? What makes our customer buy a certain thing from us over everything else and everyone else in the market? What impact will your product or service have on the lives of your customers?
What Do We Know about our Customers?
Having knowledge of the very basic things, such as name, age, gender, etc, to having in-depth knowledge of demographic, psycho-graphic, and socio-economic factors provides a multi-dimensional view of your customers’ choices.
It allows businesses to strategically analyze these insights and find patterns to anticipate the current and future needs of their customers.
Whether it’s a B2B, B2C, or any other kind of business, knowing your customers – their likes and dislikes, interests and disinterest, cravings and distaste -is imperative before striking a deal. It’s actually quite simple, knowing about your customers will make things easy for you as well as them.
Here you’ll implement a crucial cognitive rule; less is more. We do tend to opt for the shortest ways to achieve the fastest results. By using words like: easy, convenient, fast, and systematic in marketing campaigns businesses implicitly, as well as explicitly, gives out a vivid message that they are the simplest solution providers to individuals’ problem.
This ensures success in generating current and well as future sales. Even simple transactions, such as ordering a pizza or buying clothes, if the organization will already have insights about the previous orders that the customer placed, they can easily make customized suggestions to that customer. They can also skip taking the basic details about their home address, phone number, etc, and most importantly they can ensure an optimum level of satisfaction from the customers’ side.
What makes our customers buy a certain thing from us over everything else and everyone else in the market?
Think of this as someone choosing a life partner; what possible reasons they could have to choose you over anyone else, and what possible reasons could they have to break-up with you and move on to your competitor.
Looking on the bright side, businesses can easily find answers to these questions, as compared to individuals. Fortunately, businesses can be divided into multiple characteristics, from service, price, magnitude, and recognition to customers’ experiences, product range, and accessibility – to name a few – to access their current and future progress.
It is worthwhile to find that the reasons behind the choices that your customers make helps you discover your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your USP is the gist of this answer; it determines why your customers show a certain level of interest in you over your competitors. Your USP can (and in my view should) change with changing market trends and you can even have different USPs for different customers.
Businesses should always have the big picture in mind that with this one transaction they are making way to many more. One way of achieving this is by providing customized product or service. This will make your customers feel important and you will let them know that you actually care about their needs.
Don’t give them a reason to be back, but make sure that they have a choice that if they do, their query will be the most important duty you have to perform. Furthermore, it is even more fruitful to have your USP constantly in-check because if your competition has adopted your USP, then it is not unique anymore, and your customer can easily switch to your competitors.
Moreover, we as homo-sapiens have a tendency to grow indifferent toward monotonous things. Hence, it is advisable that products, marketing campaigns, packaging, and other elements associated with selling a product or service, are revised after every few months or so.
This creates a sense of novelty and it is scientifically proven that experiencing something new releases dopamine in the human brain that plays a vital role in motivating behavior, thus driving more sales.
What impact will your product or service have on the lives of your customers?
A business’ duty does not end after ensuring successful sales of their product; on the contrary, it starts from there. Businesses would want to ensure that customers have a great experience using their product or services to not only make a long-lasting relationship with that one customer, but also to exponentially increase sales through the referral of all the satisfied customers.
Did you know that consumers are two times more inclined to share their bad customer service experience as compared to a positive one! Moreover, it costs 5 times more to engage a new customer as compared to sustaining an existing one.
We as individuals would know this very well that we tend to love taking advice – whether in business or in our personal matters – consultation has always been that one thing which gives us a sense of assurance and guides us to a specific path or thing. Likewise, that is the power of referrals.
Businesses can ask their customers to refer them and let individuals know that their references are highly appreciated or they can utilize the most powerful cognitive tool to ensure their attention toward the product that is – memory. By associating products or services with top celebrities in a marketing campaign, it not only triggers a memory whenever the consumer spots the product, but subconsciously they are already drawn toward that particular product or service.
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Gravitics a Seattle, WA-based developer of aerospace stations designed to form the building blocks for human life in space. The company manufactures space station modules with interfacing options, space armor, and shipyard-style fabrication, enabling clients to execute their outer aerospace missions.
Gravitics was funded $20 million conducted by Type One Ventures, with other participants from Draper Associates, FJ Labs, The Venture Collective, Giant Step Capital, Helios Capital, angel investors in Gaingels, Spectre, Manhattan West, and Mana Ventures. The company plans to use funds to expand operations and its development efforts.
The company founded in 2021 and headed by CEO Colin Doughan. Gravitics is developing the StarMax™, a flexible-use aerospace station module. The StarMax module delivers up to 400 cubic meters of functional habitable volume – nearly half the significance of the International Space Station in one module. StarMax’s lineage of modules is consistent with launching on any of the following generation takeoff vehicles, including ULA’s Vulcan, and SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
From an investor perspective, Tarek Waked, Type One founding partner and Gravitics board member, said his company noticed numerous underlying trends supporting the company’s future vision.
The exact margin that Gravitics is making is not as a space station operator. Rather than compete with other companies, Gravitics wants to be their core supplier. Gravitics is seeking to complete the ongoing needs of these stations once they are operational. Also, meeting organic demand that the company is betting on will emerge as costs for launching cargo and crew drop.
The company has already begun assembly of its first StarMax prototype. It is equipped to operate module pressure tests in early 2023, with projects for an upcoming orbital test mission to be announced soon.
By: K. Tagura
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Irrespective of your business size, your business’ marketing budget is a precious resource. It is your investment, which can help you grow your company’s business and stock value. So you surely want it to give results for the growth of your business.
Large-scale businesses usually have high marketing budgets as compared to small-scale businesses. Small companies normally allocate a small budget for marketing due to their limited resources. It means that if you are a small business owner you do not have the finances to put to waste.
As a small business owner, you need to ask yourself these questions:
“Are you spending your budget on the right tactics?” “Are you making effective and optimal use of your budget?” “Is it working for your business?”
To put in simple words, are you wasting away your marketing budget?
Adobe researched how effectively companies spend their marketing budgets. It was not a surprise that most of those companies were not doing a good job.
Do you feel that you also fall in the category of these small businesses that are not spending their marketing budgets the right way?
Then you should continue reading to know the silly ways in which you might be wasting your marketing budget and how to fix them.
Use of social media for building following:
Undoubtedly, social media is a great tool for small businesses to use for their marketing. But most businesses start their marketing on social media without a proper strategy.
Gone are the times when Facebook marketing was free and reach was high. Now you need to invest money and efforts in Facebook marketing thanks to its evolving algorithm. Small businesses need to spend on the paid advertising to make their business ads visible and get their content seen by the target audience.
How to fix this?
The price of Facebook ads is not too high but due to increased competition, it is likely to get higher shortly. This means you may need to spend more money to make your content visible to your followers. Presently, what you can do is use your social media investment to build an email list of your followers. This will allow you to have direct communication with them. Give incentives to your followers for sharing their email addresses.
Expecting instant and high-end results:
Many small businesses begin with a strong ambition, but most of them fail within a few months. The problem lies in their unrealistically high expectations. They want to see results in just a few months following their launch. And when they fail in getting those results, they back out.
How to Fix this?
As a small business owner, you should expect a ramp-up period of two years. If this looks impossible to you, smartly create a marketing strategy to keep your marketing engine fueling and running. Then, create as much influential and informative content as you can afford to create to promote your business.
Inability to understand your target audience:
To grab the attention of your audience, you must understand the behaviors and attitudes of your potential customers. Otherwise, you are just making your marketing budget go down the drain.
A Fix:
KNOW your target audience, their behaviors, and attitudes before you even create a content strategy. Then figure out ways to communicate with them effectively.
Not realizing how you succeeded in attracting your valuable customers:
You can refer to them as your loyal customers or valuable customers who come back to you again and again. You should know what marketing techniques and content brought those invaluable customers to your business. These top 20% of customers may give you nearly half of your business revenue.
Spending a significant portion of your advertising campaign: You can find lots of marketing tactics to give a try. Some of these may perform great, but in most cases, they may not work for you especially when you have a limited budget to give a one-time shot. Small businesses should avoid diving into big-time five-figure spending on marketing campaigns.
What is the Fix?
You need to adopt a test and trial method before investing big. First, invest in $1000 or less. If that particular marketing tactic does not work at an investment of $1000, it is highly likely that it will not work on $1500 or more.
You are not keeping proper track of your marketing investments and efforts:
Many small businesses set up a Google Analytics account, but don’t use it. In case, some are using it they don’t know how to make optimal use of it and get the benefit. Same is the case with Google AdWords for PPC. You may buy the space for ad campaigns, but end up wasting a lot of money without analyzing how those ads performed.
An Easy Fix!
You can easily learn Google Analytics tracking and AdWords through free online courses on Google. Setup conversion tracking for your advertising campaigns in Google analytics. This enables you to effectively see and analyze the activity of your potential customers on your website. If you haven’t done this yet, do it right away!
You are trying to be the jack of all trades:
Small business owners with limited resources often try to manage multiple things alone. You cannot afford to hire a complete marketing staff, but just one or two people for it. You cannot manage the entire marketing strategy all alone.
A simple solution!
Keep your focus on understanding your audience, on which platform you can mostly find them and which marketing tools and content they like.
You are following the same marketing strategy for years:
This is the biggest mistake because the marketing landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, nowadays. While focusing on the above-mentioned things, it is also recommended that you try a few new techniques every year.
The solution:
With the evolution of marketing tactics, you need to evolve as well! Always remain on the lookout for the latest marketing techniques that fit your low budget.
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If you think you cannot market a product with a small budget, then you are mistaken. To run a successful business, whether it is small or big, you need to implement top-notch marketing ideas strategies. So, it is essential to take the time and plan effective ways to market your product or service. Take note not that every marketing technique requires a hefty budget.
Therefore, you can find budget-friendly ways to target an audience. In the light of this, here are five outside of the box marketing ideas for your small business.
Develop a Loyalty Program
Loyalty program ideas are simple. They create interest based on top of a brand’s value. So, if you love buying a particular brand, and if you’re offered something extra, such as 30% on your next purchase, you will most likely take advantage of the opportunity. Hence, announcing 50% flat off, coupons or different consumer-friendly offers can provide the limelight to your business that it needs. Moreover, consumers love going to the same brand if it sells high-quality products. One of the best ways to develop a loyalty program is to provide better quality so that consumers come back for more. As a small business owner, you need to retain existing consumers along with attracting new customers. This step is crucial to growing your small business further. When you reward your existing consumers, they will likely return and purchase more.
Plus, if a customer returns to your store more often, it will increase sales, brand image, and brand loyalty at the same time. Therefore, opt for customer loyalty programs as they work as a marketing tool as well. If your existing and satisfied customers recommend your brand, it will help you reach a wide market, influence your customer base, and of course benefit your startup in an excellent way.
Promote Customer Engagement
Sometimes a simple tactic like talking to your customer casually can feel engaging to them. You might ask; ‘would you like to see more items in this range?’ A positive response to this is an open invitation to talk to them, ask for their feedback, their thoughts, and how you could probably make things better for them. You can also use social media to boost your customer engagement. Social media profiles allow you to interact with a wider audience in a short time.
You can always use social media profiles to ask for suggestion and answer queries using direct messaging. Moreover, asking your customers to review your official page on Facebook is another quick way to give your small business a boost.
Moreover, when launching a product go live on your Instagram and Facebook profiles and keep your audience engaged. When you stay active and interactive on public profiles, it will let people know about your business ideas. Apart from this, using social media in the right way can benefit your business in numerous ways. For instance, you can engage the audience by starting a selfie campaign, which also encourages them to share or post more. You should customize hashtags and encourage the audience to use them in their post along with tagging. This is also an effective way to target a new audience.
Personalized Incentive
Customers love to be treated well, and this is for those customers that have value. For example, one valuable customer might be a regular one at your outlet, and another might buy bulk items from you periodically. Both types of customers could be justified recipients of personalized gifts from your brand. You can add complimentary items or products in their orders. It will show that you value and cherish your regular customers. Moreover, organizing a giveaway is another fun way to treat your consumers, especially if they are outside the country. You can arrange a giveaway in partnership with another small business to reach new people.
Host a Webinar
Hosting a webinar shows your expertise in your niche. Engaging experts in this webinar will show how connected you are. Also, the more people you successfully invite as participants will also demonstrate how much people already follow you and trust your expertise. Moreover, a webinar can do wonders for your business. According to a survey, 58% of marketers prefer to use webinars for promotion. Many successful marketing strategists even think that marketing on a webinar is great to reach a wider audience.
Data from different surveys have revealed that up to 40% people become qualified leads after attending a webinar as it provides the information they need. In fact, webinars retain 30-40% more attention so there is a chance that attendees will make a purchase.
Elevate content distribution
Content production and distribution go hand-in-hand, and your content is only as good as your distribution mechanism. Leveraging major social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube is crucial. This technique is ideal to share valuable, relevant, and constant content on your social media.
It helps in two ways that are significant for any small business. First, it helps attract or target your audience. Second, it will help them turn into potential leads. Make sure your content provides information and resonates with the audience.
You should use blogs and social media posts to distribute your message. Also, the content you share should not be the typical advertisement that forces people to make a purchase. It should speak to them on personal level so they trust you and your brand.
Concluding Lines
Marketing a small business may seem a hassle at the beginning. But, if you opt for outside the box marketing strategies, you will get the desired outcome even on a shoe-string budget. For marketing, you only need to develop and leverage top-notch social media platforms and keep them updated. Other strategies like casual interaction are a smart way to identify your shortcomings and work on them to take your small business a step ahead. If you or are planning to launch a small business, try these ideas and make a difference.
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Starting up a business is an easy job to do, but making it successful is challenging, especially when you’re competing against several business rivals. In that case, targeting a niche market is perhaps the most successful idea you can work on.
To succeed in your business, you first need to determine the market and identify the customers you’re going to target. This is what all the businessmen do. Usually, they target a large group of people with various demographics.
However, a niche market is a defined group of people that have ‘particular’ needs. By keeping in view those specific needs, you operate your business to render the products or services that meet their demands. You deal in those special products or services which mainstream businesses have overlooked.
For instance, many shoe brands provide a vast variety of shoes. But, if your business deals in providing shoes for people with plantar fasciitis, you are targeting a niche; a specific segment of the market. This is what a niche market is.
Coming to the niche business marketing, it is specializing in one area of business while targeting a specific segment of the market.
You Must Know Your Target Niche Market Inside Out
Determining your niche market is crucial for operating your business. It not only helps you to set and expand your marketing budget but also give you a clear insight into where to advertise. Further, it makes you stand out above your competitors.
For selecting a niche, you need to think about what you are best at. So, you will have enough knowledge regarding the product or service you will be dealing in. To make it clearer, let’s take some ideas you can work on to run your niche business.
Today, many people demand diet foods such as gluten-free, low-calorie, organic or vegans. However, they rarely find it in eateries. If they find their diet food online, they prefer to buy it online rather than preparing it at home. This is because it is more convenient for them.
Similarly, certain people hardly get their size in apparel stores. Therefore, offering plus-sized and petite clothing to these potential customers will not be a bad idea for your niche business.
Niche Marketing
Before getting down to the nitty-gritty of niche marketing, let’s talk about some businesses dealing in niche markets. Lefty’s, based in San Francisco, is a store that sells school stationery, gardening tools, kitchen goods and a lot more. What’s the best part? All their products are specialized for left-handers! Furthermore, they also offer customized gifts for the lefties in your life.
Furthermore, Vermont Wooden Toys are known to offer their specialty; handcrafted toys. Based in the Green Mountain State, the business is owned by a proprietor Ron Voake. People buy his products because of certain values- dedication, love, and craftsmanship. They place their orders on the website or over phone calls.
In the same way, you need to practice several marketing strategies to make the best use of your business. Take a look for a few niche business marketing tips here.
User-Generated Content
The era when company ads would persuade people to buy a product is long gone. Today, they usually look for experiences. They go online and search for user-generated content before purchasing a particular product.
User-generated content works in two ways; advertises your brand for free, and increases your credibility. And what’s more? It brings new customers to you. To have a better understanding, you can study previous success stories of other brands that implemented the UGC strategy.
Advertising Platforms You Need To Leverage
As niche marketing isn’t regular marketing, you need to pinpoint specific platforms for advertising your product. Promoting your niche business on social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter isn’t a bad idea. However, the thing is these platforms are already over-populated with other business rivals hence leading to high-competition.
In that case, you can limit your promotion and brand visibility to specific demographics on these platforms to reach out to your targeted customers. No matter what tactic you choose, make sure to reach your niche market cost-effectively.
Partnering With Other Services
To reach out your business goals, develop a kind of service that not only offers a great product to your customers but also give them a fantastic experience. You can do this by providing additional services such as product delivery.
However, niche businesses are small, and therefore it can be costly for you to offer extra services to your customers. For this, you can team up with other service providers to cater to your customers in a better way.
Marketing Offline
It is crucial to determine your customers’ preferences and priorities to run your business. Well, you are required to market your product offline for two reasons. First, your targeted segment may not be tech-savvy enough to leverage internet access. Second, your customers might want to make their orders offline, depending on your product nature.
Furthermore, there are many ideas to market your product offline while adopting cost-effective methods. For instance, you can distribute your brand’s promotional materials such as business cards, coupons or pamphlets in any local events. This will boost the physical connection between potential customers and your brand.
Leveraging Influencers
To operate a niche business, you must first figure out your customers’ niche interests. Once you are done with it, look for the Instagram influencers who appeal your target segment and have a large number of followers. Approach them. Send a few of your products for free and ask for a shoutout in return. This won’t only help you in increasing your audience but also builds trust about your brand.
Segmented Marketing
Well, targeting a specific segment of the market for your niche business isn’t enough. You’ll have to gather and evaluate data on their demographics, values, and interests. Then, you further segment it and approach each group within your targeted niche. In this way, you’re able to engage with your niche market. Doing so will help you to maximize your business.
Conclusion
As compared to other businesses that target a wide audience with unspecific interests, a niche business focuses on the particular needs of a determined group of people. However, if you want your business to be flourished, you need to identify your niche market first.
While focusing on your specific customers, there are plenty of strategies you can adopt to achieve your business goals. By implementing the tactics mentioned above, you’ll be able to maintain your budgets and maximize your business.
In addition to that, you can also employ other strategies or new ways to promote your business. No matter what strategies you’re working in with, the main thing you have to keep in focus is your customers’ interests. It will surely help you adopt the right tactics for your business, increase profits and raise brand awareness.
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Yes Hearing is an NYC-based hearing aid device provider intended to improve access to hearing aids for the elderly. The company’s platform offers a wide range of hearing aid products for hearing problems, enabling users to access healthcare and hearing technologies through home visit treatment and home care.
Yes Hearing was funded $10 million led by Blue Heron Capital, and other participants in the round include Ensemble Innovation Ventures, Primetime Partners, Maccabee Ventures, and angel investors of Gaingels. The new investment round will help the company scale its direct-to-consumer operations, speed up the development of its home care platform, and strengthen its market, service, and product offerings.
The company was founded in 2019 by CEO Sam Shear. The company’s patient-centered delivery model has combined audiologist-led telehealth with hands-on professional hearing care at home to increase the adoption, usage, and ongoing care for individuals with hearing loss. As a result, the company provides prescription hearing aids at upwards of 40% less than the cost in a typical clinic setting.
Gordon Crenshaw, Principal at Blue Heron Capital, said, Yes Hearing is solving the nearly $20B annual hearing loss market with a novel and disruptive platform, meeting consumers and patients with hearing loss where they want to be met: in the home. In addition, the company’s expansive network of audiologists gives Yes Hearing unparalleled reach to meet the demands of the millions of individuals in the country who are suffering from hearing loss.
Yes Hearing’s solution has a meaningful, positive impact on the grade of life for older adults. Hearing loss can be managed and treated, but millions of people don’t receive the care they often need because of the stigma and cost associated with maintenance.
The FDA’s recent decision to allow over-the-counter sales is excellent for hearing aid awareness and access. They are very excited for more people to get the hearing aids they need, but hearing care is so much more than that. Yes Hearing offers an in-home service that provides the knowledge and counseling required to increase the actual usage of hearing aids. In addition, it leads to long-term health benefits beyond listening, including communication, mobility, dementia prevention, and more.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
Cruz Foam is a Santa Cruz, CA-based developer of foam plastic materials designed to power up the packaging industry to be a catalyst for a cleaner environment. The company’s materials are produced by transforming chitin. A biopolymer found in shrimp shells, into structural foams to replace petroleum-based foams with an environmentally friendly process, enabling companies to tackle the problem of the plastic pollution epidemic by creating a biodegradable packaging replacement for single-use plastics.
Cruz Foam was funded $18 million led by Helena, with support from One Small Planet, Regeneration.VC, At One Ventures, SoundWaves, and strategic angel investors. The company plans to use the new budget to accelerate and scale the commercialization of its circular materials to respond to market demand.
The company was established in 2017 by John Felts, CEO, and Marco Rolandi, CSO, mission to replace single-use, petroleum-based plastics. It is forming substitutes for EPS and EPE and driving into new spaces such as cold chains and plain packaging for consumer-packaged goods. Cruz Foam is a proactive solution that answers that call and accelerates the pace of change by preventing new plastic from entering the waste stream by design. Derived from all naturally occurring food waste materials, Cruz Foam was developed to provide protection and performance without adverse environmental impacts.
The necessity to prototype and test these possibilities is one reason the company is growing such a considerably sized round. In addition, they just purchased a new extruder (foam like this is essentially printed using specialized equipment) and have been testing with all kinds of new form factors caused by partners and potential partners across many industries.
Felts said that Helena is highly aligned with their mission and values. They are excited to collaborate with their team and other partners to deliver proactive solutions to address the preventable environmental crisis of plastic pollution. Further, their conversion to a Benefit Corporation underscores their core values and commitment to this mission.
By: K. Tagura
Author statement:
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
When it comes to the topic of starting a new online business, most entrepreneurs think that trial and error is the way to go but this isn’t so. A number of experienced business people can give you details as to what went right during their venture into the world of startups, and what went horribly wrong. Based on these assessments, there are certain combinations of practices that, if done right, can result in starting a successful business. Here’s what most online business owners swear by.
Analyzing the Market
Nowadays, the market is somewhat similar across the world so it doesn’t take much time for a certain need to go global. That’s why you’ll need to look into your market for shortages before you can think of a product and assess whether it has an unfulfilled demand in the market. Scour the internet to find answers to your questions.
Have a look at common online forums like Quora and Reddit for people’s questions about the availability of a certain service and product to solve a particular problem. Look for keywords that have a high number of queries but much fewer valuable results. This will be an indication of a market that doesn’t have enough solutions.
Of course, you will have a few competitors in the field so it’s best to examine their marketing strategies and products before you start working on your own versions. This will help you create something innovative that adds more value for the consumer.
Post Good Content
Are you worried about how you’ll convince customers through an online sales call? Here’s what you need to explain so they go through with the entire process, up until the final purchase.
Give headings that pique consumer interest
Address the problem that your brand can solve
Ensure your reliability by giving details of your experience and the people on your team
Provide testimonials of happy customers
Make a good offer
Provide them with a guarantee so they feel reassured
Make it a matter of urgency so they can’t refuse
Make the sale
While walking your customer through the website, make sure that you’re focusing on their need and how you’re helping them.
Deliver a Proper Website
For a business that operates solely online, a website serves as a headquarters and you sure as heck can’t compromise on the quality of yours. Take it from online selling pros, most retail brands keep their websites fairly simple; they know that they have less than 15 seconds to capture consumer attention, which means a smaller business like your has less than 10. So remember:
No funky colors or fonts; clear, dark fonts on white works well enough
Make it simple to navigate to and from pages
Grasp consumer attention on every page with interesting images and videos
Collect e-mail addresses from visiting traffic to give updates on sales
Shorten the number of clicks it takes to confirm a transaction; one to add card details and one to confirm
Optimize it for mobile devices
Search Engine Help
Operating a business online requires that you be on good terms with the search engines, especially reigning power, Google. Using a PPC (pay per click) scheme to advertise your new business is effective at drawing more traffic towards your website. This will work much quicker than waiting for organic traffic to trickle in.
Advertising through Google AdWords’ Network Display strategies gives the benefit of your brand’s banners being up within a matter of hours. Moreover, utilizing such a system offers the benefit of letting you test how effective other keywords are for driving more traffic.
Once you’ve determined which keywords work best, you can then incorporate them into your advertisements, social media posts and most importantly, your website. This will boost your rankings on SERPs.
Be a Leading Authority in Your Niche
Aside from being your source of income, the internet serves as the population’s largest source of authentic information in a hundred different forms. If you appeal to the people looking for information, and not just those who set out to make a purchase, you end up building traction among a larger group of people.
Hence, lure in information-seekers by giving your expertise-based articles on different websites. You can create other forms of content, such as videos, info graphics, and images that are sure to make an impact on readers who might end up making a purchase later on. On every informative piece, add the option for them to share it with their friends.
Be active on the very platforms where your target audience asks questions relating to your field, and answer them. After all, what’s more, appealing than a CEO who actively answers questions on the internet?
Leverage Email Marketing
When you give visiting traffic the option to submit their email addresses, you get a valuable list of potential customers who have opened the doors to their inboxes for you. Essentially, it indicates that they have developed an interest in your brand, are willing to form a long-term relationship with your brand.
Individuals who visit your website and leave their email address are basically giving you permission to contact them. They are potential customers and email marketing is the best way to follow up with leads.
Enhance Customer Loyalty
Customers look for value wherever they go and that’s what you need to offer. It’s quite possible that over a quarter of people who made a purchase from your website would be willing to do it again if you contact them again with a good deal.
The first sale you make is the most crucial but it’s also expensive. Hence, you’ll need to offer them related items that go well with their purchase and send redeemable coupons to ensure that they return. If you reward them with incentives to buy again, your customers are sure to be loyal to your brand.
Even though the online-world is faced paced and dynamic, it isn’t the case for markets and businesses that are operating through the internet. The basic aspects of starting a profitable online business are still the same as before.
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Lots of talk on what position lenders take when offering SBA programs. Lots of different banks that are approved for SBA programs have different criteria. This is based on the risk level the bank wants to take. The SBA generally guarantees about 50% of the bank funds. This makes it attractive for banks to offer better incentives to businesses. Start-up businesses are also welcome and can sometimes qualify on lower FICO scores for what SBA calls Micro Loans. Usually, SBA minimums are around 620-640+ with a good Business Plan and a $50 max amount. Here are other Minimums broken down for existing businesses:
SBA 7(a) 650+
SBA 7(a) Express Loans 650+
SBA CDC/504 Loans 680+
SBA CAPLines Program 660+
SBA Export Loans 660+
SBA Microloans 620-640+
SBA 7(a) Loans
These are the most common SBA loans and generally what people think of when they think of an SBA loan. It’s a general loan that businesses can use for almost any purpose. Unfortunately, they’re also among the toughest to qualify for, with an estimated SBA loan credit score minimum of 650.
SBA 7(a) Express Loan
Designed for small businesses that need a smaller amount of cash (up to $1 million until Sept. 30, 2021, then $500,000 after that) in a faster amount of time, the SBA Express loan is not much easier to qualify for and has similar qualification requirements to the regular SBA 7(a) loan.
SBA CDC/504 Loan
SBA CDC/504 Loan is designed to help businesses buy owner-occupied commercial real estate or heavy equipment. Most people who qualify have a 680+ credit score minimum and require a 10% down payment on the purchase.
SBA CAPLines Program
This is essentially an SBA line of credit designed to meet short-term or seasonal working capital needs. You can generally qualify with a credit score of 660 or higher with short-term collateral such as unpaid invoices, receivables, or other collateral.
SBA Export Loans
SBA Export loans are designed to help small businesses fund new exporting operations with cash flow solutions that allow more flexible terms to international customers. By proving a viable export operation, you can qualify for this loan with a credit score minimum of 660.
SBA Microloans
Microloans are small loans (up to $50,000) with softer credit score requirements (a minimum of around 620-640) than other SBA loans. You’ll also need to provide some collateral that could cover the loan amount and a sound business plan.
SBA can be a powerful alternative for financing and raising capital. Funded.com has a Lender Match program to match startups and existing businesses with SBA programs and conventional lenders. You can sign up for a free trial and get matched.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
You can review our featured partners to help your success with your business or project.
