How to Grow Your Online Business in 2024

Starting a business is always exciting, but turning your business endeavor into a success is a whole new ballgame. Are you wondering how to grow your online business in 2024?

Related Read: How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile

It’s no surprise that growing an online business is easier said than done. According to an estimate, most startups and businesses fail and shut down within the first three years. 

You might wonder if some startups took off quite easily while others struggled to barely survive for the next few years. Well, multiple factors come into play that makes any successful business thrive. 

Sometimes, product uniqueness creates a monopolistic market situation for a brand; in some cases, the marketing strategies make all the difference. 

However, the offering makes a huge difference. The consumers would prefer your competitor’s $5 item if you sell pretty much the same product for $10. 

By the end of this article, you’ll surely have something to take away from this piece. So buckle up because I will share many tips on growing your online business with practical examples of successful companies.

What is an Online Business?

Before we go deeper into how to grow your online business, let’s shed some light on the fundamental understanding of an online business.

An online business is a company that uses the internet to sell its products and maximize the online marketing outlets to promote, display, and sell products. 

Whether you’re stepping into an e-commerce business, starting a blog, or setting up a digital marketing agency, you’re entering the online business territory. 

There are no hard and fast rules for starting an online business. All you need is to have self-awareness, command of your niche, mental strength, marketing tactics, and consistency to pull this off. 

Also Read: A Complete Guide On Growth Marketing – Top Tactics & Examples

Why is it Important to Grow Your Online Business?

Growing an online business is every entrepreneur’s dream. Some want to scale their existing business using the Internet, while others may want to start something online and eliminate the brick-and-mortar business model.

Here are four main reasons for most people to grow an online business: 

1. Cash-in on Internet marketing opportunities

Internet marketing is one of the greatest gifts of technology and innovation. It opens so many opportunities for businesses of all sizes. 

Undoubtedly, taking a business online puts the company on an expansion trajectory. New windows of opportunity knock on the door when a business starts to get attention on the internet. 

Since online marketing is a practical way to reach a larger audience, successful brands use digital marketing to reach a global audience. Additionally, it can raise consumer involvement by enticing the audience about new product features and getting them all excited about what’s coming their way.

2. Increase ROI with a little bit of effort

Any business that operates through a physical store could hop on this online marketing and social media bandwagon and start talking about their industry. 

It’s easier to get traction when you have interesting yet effective points of view about cliche things. Once your brand starts getting noticed, it opens a doorway to opportunities. 

One of the reasons why it’s important to pay close attention to growing a business online is that it can boost business ROI with teeny-tiny work because of an inexpensive beginning and low operating costs.

3. Scale the e-commerce side of the business

One of the reasons why physical businesses should consider online business opportunities is “scalability.” 

E-commerce is a rapidly growing business trend. No wonder more entrepreneurs are utilizing this development to expand their businesses online. 

Read Up: Social Media for Ecommerce in 2024

One of the perks of online business is that it is extremely scalable, and if things go in the right direction, online businesses have access to a global market.

4. Add extra income streams 

Setting up an online business could potentially add an extra source of business for individuals and businesses. 

Anyone with internet access, social media awareness, and a small budget could set up an e-commerce business, a niche blog, or just an Instagram store. 

Starting up on Instagram? We’ve got just the thing for you, Instagram for Business: 14 Tips to Grow Your Audience!

Many brick-and-mortar businesses go online to make extra income. Such companies either start taking their social media accounts more seriously or join online marketplaces to sell products. 

How to Grow Your Online Business in 2024

While every business wants to grow, whether online or brick-and-mortar, there is no guarantee that a business will surely take off. 

Often, small efforts or consistent approach makes all the difference in business development.

There are dozens of online business growth hacks that one can try to grow an online business. Therefore, it’s vital to understand what works and what doesn’t for successful brands. 

Let’s discuss some of the tried-and-test business growth methods to try in 2024 and beyond:

1. Launch a company’s website and blog

Every business that wants to grow organic traffic, sales, clickability, and attention must pay close attention to launching a website and publishing the official blog along the way.

The reason why it’s essential to launch a company’s website and set up a blog is because it provides you with real estate on the internet. A website lets you channel your products and services and puts them in front of the audience.

A company’s website is handy when you have to quickly create a landing page or sales page. You also get a destination to direct your visitors through ads. 

SiteBuddy is an affiliate marketing tool for Amazon Associates users. It scans your affiliate marketing website and reports for broken links, out-of-stock Amazon products, and Amazon Associates tags. 

Find Out: How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

Take a look at their website:

Similarly, the blog lets a business educate prospective customers on industry-related questions or product queries.

Since a company’s official blog is a great platform for publishing useful content that helps the audience and prospective customers, it is an excellent marketing channel for most companies.

Above all, a company’s blog is a key tool in the marketing arsenal for social media marketing and search engine marketing. All you need to know is how to figure this out. 

Lasso is an excellent affiliate marketing tool for creating product boxes and tables. Here’s the screenshot of their company’s blog:

Therefore, setting up a company’s website and blog is fundamental to growing your online business. Don’t sleep on that.

2. Optimize your website for SEO Growth

Online business growth isn’t possible without having an impeccable, fine-tuned website. So most people think launching a business website is the ultimate milestone, but it’s not the case. Optimizing for performance and conversion is the real deal.

Once the company’s website is live, the next up is to optimize the website pages and their content for search engines. Website optimization is a process of improving the overall performance and quality of the website design and content to put it on a growth trajectory. 

SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization. Numerous factors determine how good or bad a website is from the SEO standpoint.

However, the SEO optimization steps almost every website owner can take are the following:

• Install a bug-free website theme, whether it’s a bought theme or a custom-made template. It has to be well-coded and beautifully designed. 
• Minimize the website loading speed to improve the user experience. Most website experts suggest removing excess plugins or codes from the website to improve the page-loading speed.
• Use cache plugins to reduce the content retrieval request from the database server. Usually, a cache plugin creates a record of the requested content and presents it to the readers, and it goes on unless changes are made to the content.
• Try compressing the images so that the page loading speed gets better. No one would want readers to wait for your images to get loaded. 
• Avoid using low-quality or AI-generated blog content on the company’s blog. 
• Internally link all your relevant product pages and blog posts so that such internal linking helps improve reader and bot engagement and reduce the bounce rate on the website.

These are some key SEO tips and tricks to apply for any business website. Just ensure you track how these techniques impact your website’s performance.

Quillbot is a powerful grammar checker and paraphrasing tool. It currently ranks number one on Google for the search term “grammar checking tool.”

I guess that they have optimized website pages and sections. They also have SEO-optimized text underneath their grammar and paraphrasing tool sections. 

Plus, they have website segments, such as blogs, knowledge bases, courses, video tutorials, and help centers that provide in-depth assistance to the users. 

All these factors contribute to their search engine rankings. 

3. Publish high-quality content on the blog

One of the secrets that put several online businesses ahead of their competition is publishing high-quality, useful content for prospective customers and existing loyal readers. 

One of the perks of publishing good-quality content on the company’s blog is that it assists companies to get traction through search engines and ease out the SEO process to some extent. 

Good-quality content helps the SEO campaign because it attracts backlinks and increases social media sharing – it all positively impacts the search engine rankings.

Good-quality content helps the SEO campaign because it attracts backlinks and increases social media sharing – it all positively impacts the search engine rankings.

The team at ContentStudio knows this growth hack. No wonder they have been actively publishing high-quality content on their official blog for years. 

Furthermore, companies and entrepreneurs that produce high-quality blog content can always repurpose their content for more attention and growth. Here’s how they do it:

• A well-written article could be converted into a video for YouTube, Reels, and TikTok
• An existing article could be published on Medium and LinkedIn
• The audio from a YouTube video could be uploaded as an audio podcast
• The gist of a blog post could be used to create Pinterest and Instagram posts 
• A blog post could be mentioned in a podcast transcript

So these were some of the content repurposing options available to everyone.

The takeaway from this step is to polish your writing skills or train many content writers to capitalize on the content marketing opportunities available. It’ll surely help you grow your online business. 

4. Set up social media channels for engagement

Social media is inevitable for business growth in today’s world. Most business owners don’t know the basics of digital marketing, but they somehow manage to use social media to their advantage. And that’s the beauty of social media. 

Social media channels for online business growth – it’s like a match made in heaven. Any online business ignoring social media platforms is making a big mistake because social media platforms could bring a lot of attention to a business. 

The reason is that social media platforms have become good at understanding the likes and dislikes of the audience, and they recommend content to every user based on the individual’s interests and behavior. 

So, set up your social media profiles on at least two platforms, but you should never try to hop on every major social media platform at once. Always choose your battles when cashing in on social media.

Remember that you’re joining these social media platforms to grow your online business, not to watch cat videos or share memes all day long.

Therefore, choose your social media platforms wisely and build a content plan so you don’t lose focus going forward.

Restream is a live streaming platform that provides a multi-platform streaming service to social media users.

They have chosen fewer social media channels to focus on, which is a fantastic strategy to get bigger on all major social media platforms.

5. Build an email list to send out newsletters

It’s one of the most underestimated online business growth hacks. Many website portals, blogs, entrepreneurs, and brands miss out on email marketing opportunities just by not building an email list.

What’s an email list? Some of you might wonder. The answer is that an email list is your newsletter subscribers base that opt-in to receive your email updates or newsletter. 

Companies and bloggers that understand the power of email marketing always build email lists. However, they may have different agendas behind putting their effort into this. 

For example, a SAAS company might want to increase its user base, so they offer a free trial to the users. This way, they would not only increase their user base, but they would also build their email list.

On the other hand, a blog also builds an email list, but the purpose behind this building is to engage with the readers on a personal level and communicate with them via email. 

Undoubtedly, email list building is considered one of the ways to drive website traffic to a blog or website.

Here’s a quick example:

Moment is a well-known e-commerce platform for buying camera gear. The team at Moment knows how important it is to build and grow an email list. 

Not only do they have an opt-in form on the website footer, but they also use pop-ups to grow their email subscribers.

Moreover, an online business must maximize its email list-building opportunities to grow its business. 

6. Use social publishing platforms

Platforms like Quora, LinkedIn, and Medium aren’t just social interaction platforms that allow users to post notes/articles. 

Social publishing platforms are highly underutilized by marketers, bloggers, and businesses. Since the majority of people find social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter more appealing, they tend to focus on these platforms instead. But being prepared is always a good idea; go through the top 8 social media challenges for marketers in 2022.

Brands and influencers could build an audience on the above-mentioned platforms by publishing niche articles related to their industry. 

Related Read: How to Find Influencers to Promote Your Small Business in 2024

Let me elaborate if you’re wondering how publishing articles on LinkedIn and Medium would help an online business grow. 

The idea behind hopping on any social media platform is to cash in on the attention of a like-minded audience. Here are a few perks of publishing articles on LinkedIn, Medium, and other publishing platforms:

• Social publishing gives you brand recognition when new readers find out about you
• Users could attract backlinks and social media mentions by posting useful content
• Marketers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs can earn followers on these platforms
• Attention to such platforms could lead to building new connections
• Marketing experts use Medium and LinkedIn articles for generating leads

It’s one of those growth hacking strategies that online businesses can easily try, as they might be familiar with blog writing and SEO. 

Microsoft Design uses the Medium platform to share updates, product news, and the latest developments. This example validates my point of view on the importance of social publishing platforms.

7. Capitalize social media ad platforms

Social media advertising has become a mainstream advertising platform where top brands, multinational organizations, entrepreneurs, and startups advertise regularly.

Marketers and brands prefer social media ads over traditional advertising because of the higher reach compared to other mediums, such as newspaper ads, billboard signs, pamphlets, local cable ads, etc. 

Every social media platform has a different type of consumer; for instance, TikTok is best for targeting younger audiences. LinkedIn is more of a professional social media platform, Instagram is for creative experts, and YouTube is for video lovers – the same is true with Facebook and Pinterest.

To grow any type of SAAS business, website portal, blog, company website, or startup, opting for the most suitable social media ad platform is best. 

Brands are looking beyond Facebook and YouTube ads – they want to try LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok for advertising.

Here’s an example:

Atlassian is an Australian software company that has developed several top-notch software solutions and managed to attract customers around the globe.

They run LinkedIn ads, and it seems like they’re pushing hard on LinkedIn. They know how important it is to explore new social media marketing opportunities.

Also Read: Why Do Brands Need a Social Media Monitoring Strategy?

8. Test out influencer marketing

One of the easiest ways to get the attention of a niche audience is to collaborate with relevant social media influencers. The best part about working with social media influencers is that they have followers’ trust and loyalty. 

However, it’s not necessarily true that every influencer marketing campaign works the same. So try out this influencer marketing thing with an open mind. 

The important bit for succeeding in your influencer marketing campaign is identifying the KPI (key performance indicator) beforehand and successfully tracking it along the way.

Influencer marketing is worth trying for growing an online business because the audience won’t struggle to understand the message or find more information about the advertised brand. 

Influencers usually direct the audience to check the link in the description or display a promo code to use on an app or website. 

Here’s an example:

Alfie Deyes is a popular YouTuber and vlogger from the UK. He often makes sponsored videos like any other YouTube content creator.

Brands and companies from the US and Europe collaborate with him from time to time. 

5 Best Examples of Successful Online Businesses

Let’s take a look at some of the best examples of successful online businesses across different categories:

1. ContentStudio

ContentStudio is an all-in-one social media management tool with over 100,000+ satisfied users across the globe. It’s hands-down one of the easiest, most affordable, and most efficient social media dashboard tools. 

It helps brands, agencies, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and marketers streamline their social media content publishing, scheduling, and content curation. 

The key features of ContentStudio include:

• Publishing/scheduling across all major social media platforms
• Publishing/scheduling on blogging platforms
• Social media content analytics  
• Social media content calendar
• Influencer research through discovery feature
• Team collaborations for effective communication
• Workflows designing for an approval system
• Seamless automation for speedy publishing

It’s safe to say that it’s a top-notch social media management tool for digital marketers, bloggers, and small businesses. ContentStudio offers a 14-day free trial. Try it!

2. Loom

Loom is a powerful screen recording software allowing users to create presentations, tutorials, and demo videos. 

It’s one of the successful online businesses in the screen recording and screen sharing software categories. 

3. LogoMakr

LogoMakr is an online logo designing tool for graphics designers, brands, and individuals who want to design great logos for their clients or personal projects.

The best thing about an online logo maker is that it makes the logo designing process faster than ever. LogoMakr is surely one of the most successful online businesses in its genre.

4. WPS

WPS Office is an excellent alternative to MS Office, providing a complete suite of several software, such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.

WPS has managed to grab a large portion of the audience that look out for MS Office alternative. The value proposition of WPS Office is that it’s a free office suite. However, users can upgrade to paid plans as per requirements.

Undoubtedly, it’s one of the successful online businesses in the word processing or office software niche. 

5. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is a well-known website statistics and traffic analysis software. It helps website owners, SEOs, digital marketers, and affiliate bloggers analyze website performance. 

SimilarWeb has popped up as an alternative to giant competitors like Semrush and ahrefs. However, it may not be as popular as its competitors, but it’s still ahead of many other similar software. 

It’s yet another successful online business that anyone can check out for more details.

Conclusion

It’s the age of technology, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce. Most businesses try to capture online real estate by hopping on social media platforms, establishing their e-commerce sites, and running online ads. 

The purpose of this write-up is to emphasize growing online business through several channels. More importantly, it’s important to convince brands, entrepreneurs, and retailers (who aren’t capitalizing on digital marketing platforms) to pay attention to online business options.

Furthermore, I shared a bunch of steps to get started with growing an online business so that anyone who wants to grow a startup or online store must know where to begin to get outstanding results.

FAQs About Growing an Online Business

Let’s shed some light on the popular questions in the online business space:

How can I increase my business online?

This article uncovers several online business growth hacks. However, if I were to tell you the nitty-gritty of this article, then pay attention to the company’s branding, build a strong fan base on social media, learn how to advertise on social media platforms, and build an email list.

How can I grow my business fast? 

There is no magic bullet for growing a business fast. It always comes down to learning from mistakes, understanding consumer pain, and providing solutions to the right market. When a company plays most of these correctly, chances are, it’s going to succeed fast. 

What are the 7 stages of business growth?

Here are the seven stages of business growth are:

1. Seed: It’s the initial stage where the business idea is conceived and the business creation process begins.
2. Launch phase: It’s the time when the business is launched and the team focuses on finding the customers, establishing a brand identity, and generating revenues.
3. Survival duration: It’s the stage where a new business faces a lot of challenges in terms of competition, expenditures, and growth. 
4. Growth stage: Within two or three years, the growth stage arrives. Now the business has established itself in the market and is ready to grow rapidly.
5. Expansion time: At this point, the business gets even better and the company expands its operations and diversifies into other product categories.
6. Maturity stage: This is the time when the business reaches its peak and focuses on maintaining its market share and maximizing profits.
7. Exit stage: It’s the time when the owner decides to exit the business. Usually, this happens by selling the company to an interested party.