Amid the growing number of e-commerce businesses, those who want to stand out in this market and make money online need to carry out sound strategic planning for their online business. In the end, simply being online is no guarantee of business success.
According to the 2018 E-Commerce Study in Mexico by the Internet MX Association , from 2009 to June 2018, the value of the e-commerce industry rose from 24.50 to 233.66 billion pesos.
Since the start of the pandemic, e-commerce in Mexico has seen a surge in online sales of more than 40% annually .
So, if you also want to overcome the crisis and make money online, now is the right time to develop strategic planning for a virtual business!
What you will read in this content:
How to develop your virtual business planning?
- Start with the business objective
- Study the market and your target audience
- Add marketing strategies
- Benchmark and look for trends
- Use the Canvas model in your business
Make a strategic plan and make money online!
How to develop your virtual business planning?
In this article, we’ll show you how to strategically plan a virtual business so you can gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive market.
1) Start with the business objective
This is one of the most important steps when starting an online business. This is where you’ll determine your goals and, therefore, the purpose of your business. This information should be very clear, as it will serve as a guide for the other strategies the company adopts.
Starting now, break your objectives into clear, realistic goals that you can achieve in the short term. Also, set priorities and gradually refine your actions.
This way, you’ll be able to better exploit the market’s potential while simultaneously adapting to the digital environment without fear of taking risks.
2) Study the market and your target audience
Conducting market research in your niche is essential given the changes in consumer behavior, especially in the last year. Identify latent demands and opportunities, as this will increase your chances of skyrocketing sales and special database making money online.
Also, diagnose your target audience, preferably classifying them into buyer personas—that is, fictional characters that represent your ideal customer.
This type of definition, which involves extensive research, allows you to gain a greater amount of insight into who might be genuinely interested in your brand. With this, you can tailor your communications to be as appealing to them as possible.
3) Add marketing strategies
After creating buyer personas (fictional characters), it’s ideal to design a purchase journey for each profile. This stage of strategic planning for a virtual business is important because it allows you to understand the content formats that can be used to attract potential customers and thus create well-defined marketing strategies .
This way, you can plan your content and use paid traffic tools to your advantage, such as Google Ads. They will help you improve access to your website and boost your business.
This way, you can create targeted and a lead genaration active customers focused campaigns, helping you reach those who truly have the profile to buy from your business.
4) Benchmark and look for trends
Benchmarking means strategically analyzing the best practices adopted by companies operating in your industry.
This competitive analysis is important in the strategic planning of a virtual business because it allows you to identify gaps and/or weaknesses where your business can address them. This way, you can better position yourself and adapt your portfolio.
At this stage, you can use a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to protect your online store while also leveraging other companies’ weaknesses as a competitive advantage.
It’s also important to always stay on top of what’s new so you don’t fall behind. Remember that the website creation process is ongoing, so it’s necessary to stay constantly updated.
5) Use the Canvas model in your business
The Canvas is a collaboration tool that helps entrepreneurs design a business model more clearly. It can be used to fine-tune the processes of an established company or to create a new web project.
Its main objective is precisely to structure an innovative business plan model that provides dynamism in the company’s evaluation and, above all, helps it achieve better results.
The Canvas model is divided into two hemispheres, just like the human brain:
- On the left side are the logical country list information;
- On the right is information related to emotional issues.
It is subdivided into 9 squares, which are actually the factors to be evaluated. They are:
- Segmentation: niche of the virtual store;
- Value proposition: what you will sell to meet market needs and how you will best act to achieve them;
- Customer relationships: how customers relate to niche markets;
- Channels: How customers will learn about your products and/or services, even if it’s only through your online store or also through social media;
- Sources of income: where the money for investments will come from, whether through sales or loans, for example;
- Key resources: These are the main resources for your activity, such as equipment and infrastructure;
- Key Activities: The main activities that need to be performed to run the business, such as contacting suppliers, updating inventory, and creating advertising materials;
- Key partnerships: These are activities or resources that need to be outsourced, such as hiring a site builder and transporting items;
- Cost structure: These are the costs relevant to completing a virtual company’s strategic planning and ultimately putting it into practice.