Building a startup from the ground up is not an easy task. You need the information to understand what needs to be done, know the details you need to pay attention to and have the right mindset that will allow you to adapt to the demands of building your business.
If you have yet to research these factors and possess these qualities, then the journey towards establishing a successful startup will be rough and bumpy, which could discourage you from pursuing your dreams for it.
Luckily, the internet has made it easy to get almost all the information you need to succeed in any venture. The real challenge is figuring out who is credible and worth paying attention to.
I have put together a list of the necessary resources from reliable sources that I believe will help you build a successful start-up site.
#1. Google Analytics Goal Types That Are Critical To Your Business
You cannot effectively optimize your site for better conversions or sales if you do not know what visitors are doing on your site.
It is important that you track the actions visitors are taking on your site. It is even more important that you track the key metrics that move the needle in your business and not just superficial metrics like traffic numbers and page views.
This Kissmetrics guide will help you track leads, eBook downloads, newsletter signups, trial signups, leads, account creations and other conversion goals you might want to set up for your site.
The guide will help you set up the following objectives in your Google Analytics:
- URL destination goals: this goal helps you track how many visitors click to a given URL on your site. You can track download pages, PDFs, confirmation pages, and thank you pages, among others.
- Visit duration goals: visit duration goals allow you to track visitors that stay on your site for or below a given amount of time.
- Pages/visit goals: this goal will help you see how many pages are viewed by a visitor before they exit your site.
- Event goals: event goals will allow you to track various actions visitors are taking on your site.
#2. Small Business Starter Kit
This resource from 99designs is very comprehensive. It has most of the information you’ll need to get your startup from the idea phase to a running business.
The guide covers:
- Choosing a business structure: should your business be a C Corporation or an LLC? This guide will help you figure this out.
- Writing a business plan: planning is essential if you want to be successful in business and life. The planning process is more important than the plan itself as it allows you to think through every facet of your startup carefully before you start. 99designs’ LivePlan will help you put together a good business plan for your startup.
- Looking for capital: Getting funds for your business can be a challenging and stressful affair. This guide will make it less stressful by presenting you with the best options available, so you make an informed decision on what route to take.
Other topics discussed include:
- How to build your brand
- How to ensure your business
- Creating a company culture
- How to calculate sales tax
- Setting up the payroll
- How to configure and optimize landing pages
- Complying with various laws and regulations
- Starting a blog
- How to process international transactions/payments
#3. The Ultimate Guide To Successful Email Marketing
You’ve heard it said that the money is in the list. This statement is very true. Of all the marketing channels available to an internet marketer right now, there isn’t one that yields the kind of ROI that email marketing does.
Being able to run excellent email marketing campaigns will help you build several raving fans for your startup quickly and will help you grow your revenue too.
This guide from Getvero will give you the framework for building email marketing campaigns from scratch and how to optimize them for better performance over time.
The guide covers:
- How to setup email marketing
- How to get subscribers
- Crafting a winning strategy for your first email marketing campaign
- How to create great content
- How to track your results
- How to optimize your campaigns
- A bonus section with cool tips and tricks
#4. The Simplified Guide to Social Media for Small Businesses
Social media usage has blown up over the last few years. More and more people are using social media, and some of these people fit the perfect description of your ideal customer.
Every small business should tap into the power of social media for customer acquisition, growth and to connect with current and prospective clients.
There are many social media sites now: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Blogs, to name a few. You might get overwhelmed using them all. That is why you need a guide to help you decipher what is important so you do not waste time on campaigns that won’t yield any results.
This guide from Blog Tyrant will help you:
- Understand social media better in relation to your business
- Help you determine which social media sites to use for your startup
- Give you tools and strategies to employ in social media marketing
- Provide detailed case studies to help you learn what the best performers are doing
#5. Firstsiteguide.com
This site is dedicated to those who want help building their first site. The resources are very helpful. There are guides on how to make a website, how to start a blog and a guide to help you understand web hosting.
The Webmaster Toolkit will recommend the tools that your startup needs to build a successful site.
The site also has blog articles related to digital marketing that any startup will find useful. The articles cover topics like
Conclusion
Keep in mind that the resources featured above are not the be-all-end-all for building your startup. Over time, once you have push through with your plans and established your startup in your industry, you will find much more comprehensive guides that will answer to your specific needs.
However, in the meantime, the resources above will help you understand the process you need to undergo and overcome in order to make the most out of your business while starting out.
Images: ” Author’s Own /Man start his startup business. Startup word sketched by man. /Shutterstock.com““
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