Everyone and their great-grandmother have heard of the internet. It has so lowered the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs worldwide. Its also leveled the playing field where your target audience can be global rather than regional or local.But do you know some entrepreneurs still dont want to pick up web skills!
Remember,you dont need to be writing huge chunks of programs to be tech savvy. Lets get through a few topics worth studying which will expand your horizons and improve your online presence without the need to become a computer master coder.
Split testing and conversions.
Its crucial to understand A/B testing for conversions. This is naturally important for ecommerce websites but also for any business site where you want visitors to perform certain tasks.
Take a law firm for example. Theywantto encourage visitors to setup a free consultation. You can run split test campaigns to see which colors, written copy or layout designs work best to drive more people to setup an appointment.You can even do this for free with Google. Theres no right or wrong answer because A/B tests rely on several factors like audience and conversion goals.
Managing a blog.
Just the idea of a blog might put off most non-technical entrepreneurs. But theres a lot of value in content marketing if you learn to do it right.
The first step is creating a blog. There are plenty of detailed setup guides you can follow to get a new WordPress blog up andrunning without much effort. In fact, once you understand the setup process, you can have a new blog online within 30 minutes.
Youll spend most of your time managing the blog and creating content. This is where the entrepreneurial value comes in.If you blog frequently and create valuable content, youll slowly rank in Google for certain keywords. And, you are providinginformation to people who need it.
The benefits of content marketing can only be seen by actually doing it. You can read case studiesuntilyoure blue in the face, but you wont see real growth until you setup your own blog, and give it a try. More people have access to the internet now than ever before. And many of those people are looking for information that you can provide to build reputable credibility for your business.
Tracking metrics.
Learn to track the most important visitor metrics through analytics tool like Google Analytics. It is completely free, and it will help you get a picture of how people are accessing your website, what are they clicking and what part are they visiting the most.
Another example can be landing page metrics where you have a specific goal like increasing email signups or increasing sales. The obvious metric to track is a conversion funnel from the landing page to the completed conversion. But also consider metrics like time on page and bounce rate.
Unfortunately its hard to understand these concepts in theory. You really need to toy around to understand what these metrics mean and how they can affect your creative decisions. The good news is that its super easy –and free –to get started, and once you get moving youll learn a lot very quickly.
Two free tools you must have for analytics tracking —Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.
Basic coding for troubleshooting.
I dont believe that every entrepreneur should understand how to write web apps from scratch. But any entrepreneur in the modern age should understand the importance of the internet and websites.Internet product sales are not slowing down. In fact we saw a 15 percentincrease in online sales over 2014 and another 14 percentincrease in 2015. Its also predicted that online sales will reach half a billion dollars annually by 2020.
More customers are transitioning online, and this trend simply cannot be overlooked. Whether you actually sell items online or not, its still vital to have an online presence for your business.
If you dont know anything about web hosting, domainsor basic coding, then youll be at the whim of a tech-savvy webmaster or creative agency for every step of the process. This can be very costly. But you can save a lot by understanding some basic techniques.
So what should you actually learn? Here are my suggestions:
- The basics of HTTP/DNS and how web hosting works –or at least enough knowledge to pay for hosting and get your site online
- The basics of WordPress installation andconfiguration
- If you plan to sell items online, you should learn the fundamentals of SSL certs
- If you want to customize the design of your site, youll also want to learn rudimentary HTML/CSS
The goal isnt to be your own server administrator or your own web developer. But you should know enough to fix basic problems, or at least guide someone else towards fixing the problem for you.
Small issues on your site may only require changing one line of code or installing afree WordPress plugin. If you know how to do this yourself, youll have a much easier time managing your online presence without heavy reliance on a freelancer or agency.In fact, thats exactlythe goal of everything mentioned in this article. The more you understand about business on the internet, the easier itll be for you to conduct your business digitally. With so many consumers already online, this skillset is a huge asset in the modern age.
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