Over the time, the trend for shopping online has drastically increased in Pakistan. This has also introduced a new avenue for earning. We see many budding online business owners who eventually fail because they can’t mark a difference in the industry.
There are also a tons of articles, over the internet that shows it is really simple to start your online business in Pakistan. But when someone starts the online business they face many difficulties in setting up the business due to the lack of experience and proper guidance.
This article is going to be the foundation for starting any online business as we have taken golden words from experts and have set up a complete guide to starting your online business in Pakistan. So, let’s get started,
Find a need and fill it
Many people who are interested in starting their online business make the grave mistake of looking for a product first. They look for the most selling products in Pakistan and try to tap in an already saturated market.
In order to be successful in building an online business, the best approach is to first look for a market that has untapped needs.
For instance, people were looking for home food for lunch that they could order from their office. This untapped need was then fulfilled with home cooked food delivery services which is now quite prevalent business.
You can also find a need through various ways such as,
- You can visit online forums, facebook groups and communities to see what are the problems people are facing and what kind of solutions they are looking for.
- Look at the websites of your potential competitors and see what they are doing in order to fill the demand of their target market. Take notes of what you have learned through research and studying consumer behavior. Then develop a product for an audience that is already looking for a solution. This way you will promote your product to a market that already exists.
Study your target audience
Your target audience is going to pay for your bills and expenses only after that you would be able to earn profit.
The best approach to start any online business in Pakistan is to select an audience that has the ability to spend money online. People who are already interested in buying clothes, accessories, organic products or services such as home food delivery, car wash, restaurants delivery services etc. are the ideal audience.
To cater these audience, you can find an unwanted or unexplored need for these people and create a new service or product to target these people directly. Studying your consumer needs is quite important in order to target the market aptly. If you attempt to sell a product that revolves around
Once you have identified your audience, the next step would be to market the business online.
Design and build your website for exposure
Having an attractive and user friendly website gives credibility to your online business. A small-business web design is enough to hook your potential customers. Remember if you have a poorly designed web design, it simply tells that you are not taking your business seriously.
It is easy to build website through a drag and drop website builder such as WordPress, Wix, or Weebly. These website builders make it easy for a non-technical person to create a portfolio website to market his products.
But if you are serious about taking your online business to the next level, it would be wise to invest in a professional business website or an online store. Be selective in choosing the best web designer for your business website. You can hire website developers in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad for a professional designed user-friendly web designs or ecommerce solutions.
Write a copy that covert readers into buyers
When starting your online business in Pakistan, many people doesn’t pay much attention to the ad copy or website copy and that is the reason that they fail.
However, if you pay attention to this aspect of the business then you can attract enormous traffic to your product. Hire a professional copywriting services or you can follow this blueprint to write an attractive ad copy for your product or service.
- Start with a compelling headline
- Describe the problem your product solves
- Establish credibility by telling how your product is designed to solve such problem
- Show testimonials from people who have already used the product
- Speak about the product benefits and features
- Give an offer that they can’t resist
- Include a guarantee to establish strong credibility
- Develop urgency
- Ask to take an action
- Offer upsells after purchase is done
With this blueprint for selling products, you can instigate any buyer to buy your product. You have to develop interest and desire through a ad copy that also develop urgency to take the action.
Use search engines to reach people looking for your online service
We all go to Google when we face any problem and are looking for a solution. This tells how strong role search engine results can play in bringing people to your website when they are searching for a solution of their problems.
Building a website would not bring people to your business. You have to invest in online marketing techniques known as Search engine optimization or Pay per click advertising to attract potential customers to your website. Let’s define these two strategies in detail,
- Search engine optimization (commonly known as SEO)helps your website to be shown on first page when people search for a solution that your product can solve.
Search engine optimization also known as SEO, is a way to bring targeted people to your website by finding and targeting the right keywords related to your product.
- Pay per click advertising (commonly known as PPC) is another online marketing technique in which you pay Google for every click on your website.
Your website is shown on the top of the page hence it gets more visibility and direct paid traffic. PPC campaigns can bring instant traffic to your website but it requires big budget to run PPC campaigns.
These approaches can be technical for a layman to understand but you can always hire a seo company in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad, who can help you to be found on internet by your potential customers. This way your website will be showing up when people will be searching for a problem that your product or service solves.
Pro Tip: With these two online marketing strategies, you can even target people in other countries and offer them your services without having any physical office in the other country.
Turn to social media campaigns
Social media campaigns are also a great way to target people based on their interests, habits, gender, age, life events etc.
Facebook Marketing offers a unique way to promote your products or services to people who would be interested in what you are offering. You can learn Facebook marketing through Facebook Business Platform or you can turn to the services of professional digital marketing company in Pakistan to run the campaigns for you. This again requires a close study of your target audience and a daily or monthly budget to attract the potential customers in the purchase funnel.
Starting an online business from scratch would require investment for promotion if you want to scale your business. These strategies would help you to grow your online business in just 3 to 6 months.
Establishing an online business requires an intensive business plan that has closely studied the demographics and interests of the target market. Nonetheless, getting a professional help from the beginning has always increased the chances of establishing a successful online business.