There is some overlapping of tools that online businesses and off-line businesses use today
. However, online businesseshave some advantage in that they do not need employees, an office away from home, large advertising budgets, and so on.
However there are four tools that every online business must use if they expect to compete in the competitive arena of the World Wide Web.
1. First of all you need a website to market your products on. There are ways around this such as doing affiliate marketing or network marketing where your website is provided for you.
However, even in these business models the owners have learned that creating their own website gives them advantages that other online business owners might not have. The main thing is you are in control when you have your own website.
2. You should use a quality auto responder and build a mailing list for future follow up. As you drive traffic to your website people are going to leave and most of them will not have purchased anything from you.
A mailing list is a valuable tool that can pay you back many times over in the future. However the only way to benefit from it is to give your visitors a reason to supply their name and email address to you. Learning how to properly utilize your auto responder will be paramount to your online business success.
3. Search engines love blogs and this is something you should add to your website too. These are great way to add fresh content and to drive traffic at the same time.
Plus having a blog can be fun and a great way to interact with your visitors. Blogs make your business come to life thanks to social media tools such as video, audio, comments, and online polls.
4. You will need to use a quality payment processing tool to collect money when you make a sale. The most popular payment processor on the Internet today is PayPal.
They are very easy to use and you can implement pay buttons directly onto any web page by just adding a small amount of code. PayPal also offers a way for people to pay if they do not currently have an account with them by paying through Visa and MasterCard and other credit cards.
This is 4 tools every online business must use to be successful. They are all easy to implement and when used correctly can play a large role in your over all success.