The 4-Step Marketing Plan to Start Your Online Business

Staying home may be the new norm for the time being, but that doesn’t mean you need to put your dreams on hold.

Whether you’re looking to grow or launch your online business, now’s the perfect time to set yourself up for success. 


Make the most of this extra time at home by following these 4 steps:

1. Build a landing page.

You don’t need a website to begin collecting email subscribers. With AWeber’s new Landing Page Builder, you can easily create a landing page that gets your business online fast. 

When creating your landing page, use a lead magnet to convince more visitors to subscribe to your content. 

Related: This Zumba Instructor Increased Profitability by 200% with Landing Pages

Bonus tip: Tag subscribers who complete your landing page sign up form so you can identify which subscribers filled out each landing page. You’ll also be able to send personalized, automated emails to subscribers based on the tags they have. (We’ll get to that in step 4.)

2. Create a branded email template. 

A consistent brand look and feel in your emails creates a sense of familiarity. Your subscribers will quickly know who sent the email — allowing them to focus on your email content. 

Include your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Consider using call-to-action buttons and bold featured images to make emails more scannable and appealing to the eye.  

Bonus tip: Email template design doesn’t have to be complicated. Try out the AWeber Smart Designer. It will create branded email templates for you in seconds using your website or social media profiles.

3. Write a welcome email.

A welcome email is your chance to leave an awesome first impression on your new subscribers. Introduce yourself, and make sure you deliver whatever you promised subscribers on your landing page — like your lead magnet or incentive. 

Bonus tip: Writing your welcome email is simple. We put together a checklist to help you get started.

4. Set up an automated email series.

With an automated email series, you can deliver customized messages to the right people at the right time. Plus, you can save time in the long run. 

Bonus tip: Trigger an automated campaign when a new subscriber joins your list or when a tag is applied to your subscribers. For instance, if you tagged subscribers that joined your list via the landing page form in step 1, set up an automated campaign that delivers content that’s relevant to your landing page or lead magnet.

Launch your business this week.

Take advantage of any extra downtime you may have right now and build your online presence. 

Start your free trial of AWeber and get access to AWeber’s Landing Page Builder, unlimited emails, automated campaigns and 24/7 customer solutions. 

7 Comments

  1. Randall Magwood

    3/31/2020 7:56 pm

    After completing step 4, the next step is to generate traffic. You will want to send the traffic to the landing page that you created in step 1. Using the high quality Aweber landing page (that is sure to be accepted everywhere), you can put your leads into a sequence where sales conversion rates can become predictable. You will want to see how many leads out of every 100 you get turn into buyers. From there you can increase or lower your product price to get the best chance of breaking even – or profiting on the frontend.

  2. Jon Weberg

    4/1/2020 11:24 pm

    After sending traffic and leads through your funnel as Randall pointed out, then comes the long term game.

    Of split testing, and optimizing your traffic source, and your funnel.

    Because in order to scale any business, and for any business to be increasingly profitable. You need to reduce costs, and increase profits per dollar you’re spending on ads.

    I highly recommend for every 100 leads that run through your funnels.

    You #1. Make 1 change to your advertising to see if you can increase your opt-in percentage.

    You #2. Make one change to your opt-in or landing page so see if you can increase your opt-in percentage.

    You #3. Make one change to your funnel, and see if you can raise your sales percentage.

    From their, keep doing this test for every 100 leads. Each time making different changes, and keeping the changes that increase sales or opt-in percentages.

    Lets rock 2020 everyone!!

  3. Noor Haji-Munye

    4/3/2020 12:43 am

    Hello team I need to create small website as per your4 steps and wondering where to start. Is your team able to build it for me especially the landing page, products listings and the email marketing aspects of it?.
    Please let me know by email respond .
    Thanks
    Noor

  4. Brandon Olson

    4/3/2020 9:48 am

    Hi Noor! We have an awesome network of AWeber Certified Experts who could help with that: https://www.aweber.com/certified-experts.htm. Our team can help answer questions and guide you through the process, but if you need someone to do the work for you, I recommend contacting one of our certified experts.

  5. Kelly Tiel

    4/8/2020 1:16 pm

    Thank you for the tips you have provided! This 4 step program seems great and applicable to anyone

  6. Dennis Kelly

    4/13/2020 4:50 pm

    This looks to be an excellent 4 step process but what concerns me is when my Landing Page is complete, who hosts it and what sources, resources are available to me to drive traffic to my Landing Page?

    I have similar A Weber sign up forms already on my website, and an e-mail series as a lead magnet as well as other free and paid-for documents for prospective clients. But none of these wonderful elements help me with traffic and sign-ups or downloads.
    If I complete a Landing Page, does A Weber host this for me or if I don’t add it to my website and treat it as a stand-alone then WHERE does it stand.

    Forgive me if I’m thick on this but as dynamic as this Landing Page strategy is….where is it being seen and how do I get prospects to see it?

    Many thanks. Appreciated. Be well.

  7. Brandon Olson

    4/14/2020 10:29 am

    Hi Dennis. To answer your question, AWeber hosts the landing page as a standalone page with its own unique URL. You wouldn’t add it to your website, unless you were to link to it from your website.

    There are many ways to drive traffic to your lead magnets, whether on your website or landing page. The easiest way is to promote it your existing network of connections through one-to-one emails, social media posts, etc. You can also collaborate with others in your industry, contribute guest blog posts to their site, be a guest on their podcast or webinar, or co-create a piece content you can co-promote to your audiences.

    Here are a few articles we’ve previously published with more ideas:

        https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/5-tips-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog-today.htm
        https://blog.aweber.com/digital-marketing-2/6-ways-to-get-more-website-traffic.htm
        https://blog.aweber.com/articles-tips/increase-website-traffic-to-grow-email-list.htm