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How to Start SEO, Social Media or an Online Marketing Company

Whether you are an SEO specialist, a Social Media geek, or have expertise in multiple areas of Online Marketing, starting your own business is way more rewarding than sticking to a 9 to 6 job. Yes, for some people financials may be the issue, but starting it as part time business and then gradually shifting to a full-time commitment works best in such cases.

This article will focus on starting your own SEO, Social Media, or Complete Online Marketing company. Let’s start:

1- Be Ready; Just like any other business, setting up a successful online marketing business won’t happen overnight, regardless of your level of expertise and mastery over SEO, Social Media, and other skills. Better is to write a one-page business plan to clear things out.

2- Define Your Target Market; Be specific about what services you are going to provide and who will be the buyer. For instance, if you are going to set up an SEO-only company, you must target a broader audience, while if you are looking to establish an Online Marketing company, targeting local businesses within your city sounds a good option. Again, these are just examples, you have to define your market according to your experience and goals.

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3- Name Your Online Marketing Company; Whatever you name it, make sure the following;

  • It’s simple and easy to remember
  • Domain name is available
  • Relevant Social Media User Names are Available
  • Your Business Name is not replicating a popular business name.

Related Content; Naming a Business

4- Company Registration & Licensing; In many cases, you might want to skip this step, but when it comes to get big clients being registered matters. Besides that, you may have to face legal complications depending upon your country laws, so better is to fix this issue right in the beginning.

5- Create & Optimize Your Own Company Website; Being an online marketing service provider you must have your own business website properly optimized for clients, search engines and social media.

Related Content;
How to create an SEO & Social Media optimized business website quickly

6- Take Care of the Financials; Step 4 and 5 will definitely require investment. Although it’s not that big investment and can easily be met with your savings if you have. Alternatively, you may look for funding depending upon the size of business you plan.

Related Content;
How and When to Ask Your Friends & Family to Fund Your Business
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Find Investors For Your Startup Through Merar.com
Find a Co-Founder for Your Startup with CoFoundersLab

 7- Optimize Your company Social Media Profiles; Let it be Facebook page of your business, Linkedin Company Page, Twitter Profile or Google Plus Page you must have all of them filled with the right content. Use targeted keywords to describe your company here. Also share relevant content which is engaging too.

Related Content;
How to Optimize Your Linkedin Profile for Business
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8- Market Your SEO/Social Media/Online Marketing Company; Of course this is the most crucial step as this is going to get you the business. Doing SEO and Social Media Optimization doesn’t guarantee business so focus on Lead Generation. Below is our step by step procedure for online marketing professionals to generate business;

a- Must have your business card;
b- Have one page flyer
c- Attend business events like conferences, exhibitions, and trade shows etc where you can exchange business cards and distribute your flyers.
d- Generate Business from Linkedin
e- Get projects from Freelancing websites
f-  Be a speaker in targeted business events
g- Let Your Startup Grow with EFactor.com
h- Market Your Startup & Personal Brand Locally via Meetup.com

 9- Do Not Forget Strategic Partnerships; With a business plan in hand you will be clear about the people you need, i.e. content writers, designers, and developers. Since, we are focusing on SEO and Social Media business setup on a smaller scale, we are not considering hiring such people.

So strategic partnerships might work best in such case, i.e. you forward all the content writing work to the relevant people keeping your %. Just writing down names of these people with profit sharing in the business plan will work perfectly.

Concluding the details:
The above guide is based on a generic concept of setting up a home based online marketing firm and you may need to tweak the procedure to a bit, i.e. if you are planning a physical setup and want to hire a team. For any questions and queries, write in the comments section and we will get back to you with answers.

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