In case you haven’t noticed, there are more than a few entrepreneurs online daily talking and marketing the same kind of business, and offering the same services. You log onto social media and you see many of your entrepreneur friends that sell podcast services, build funnels, run ads, can teach you how to use live video, teach you how to create a profitable blog, and the list goes on. Building an online business isn’t easy, and there are some hard realities that you need to realize.

Stop imitating other entrepreneurs: Customers buy from someone they know, like and trust. They don’t buy from strangers. If you are the clone of some other and/or famous entrepreneur, they’ll never get to know the real you. When they want to buy, they will buy from the entrepreneur you are imitating. Use frameworks that work, but don’t be a clone. Model success but don’t imitate it. Let your voice come through, and build a business that’s yours.

Be clear about who your core audience is: If you try to reach the whole world, you’ll end up reaching no one because your efforts to reach customers will be disorganised. You won’t be able to reach people where they are if you’re not speaking to a specific target audience. The more specific you can get with your target audience, the easier time you’ll have marketing, which is what ultimately grows your business. When you do, you will be focused on your strategies. Your branding and messaging should be very clear.

Keep it simple: Keep your website simple and clean. Even though WordPress has a variety of options for widgets and plugins, you don’t need all of them. When someone visits your website, it shouldn’t confuse them. When it comes to your business, keep it simple, too. Build traffic to your website. Learn the biggest struggles your target audience is facing. Create products and services that help solve those problems. Rinse and repeat. Yes, it can be that simple to create a solid foundation.

Don’t rely exclusively social media: While you can’t ignore social media, don’t make it your number one strategy for traffic and leads. New York Times best-selling author, Crystal Paine, clearly illustrated this. The bottom line is that you want to build your business on your platform, not someone else’s. You want people to sign up to your email list, and interact with you personally, not just on social media.

Culled from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/301097