How to Build an Empire with a Content Management System
When a business owner starts up their business, they generally have grand ideas about what they can achieve. Something that can help you to achieve those plans is a content management system. So here is a little tongue in cheek piece about how to build an empire with a content management system…
Step 1: Have an idea
All great business empires start with a great idea. Whether it is to mow people’s lawns or to create a business application that revolutionises how people interact with their clients. So to start your empire, sit down and have a think. Find something that is needed in your local area. If you find something, do a little market research and find out if people would pay for it.
The odds are that if you find something that is needed and people are willing to pay for in your small area, there will be a wider need for that same something leaving you with room to grow.
Step 2: Get started
Now that you have your idea, start up your business. Get the gear that you need, build the app, put all that groundwork in place. If you need partners, find them and sign them up. Put together that business plan. All the little odds and sods that you need to run a business.
Step 3: Build a website with a content management system
Now that you have an actual business that can offer its services to the wider population – it is time to get a web presence. The best way to do this is with a content management system of some kind.
Why, do you ask?
Because a content management system is easily editable and, if developed properly, is easily scalable.
So what should you consider when choosing this all important content management system for your website?
The system should be easy to use so that you can manage the website or hand over the content management to someone else. You do not want to constantly be paying a website developer to make content changes or upload your blogs and new products or services.
The system should be scalable and have a number of plugins or extensions that already do what you want. This would include things like Google maps, contact forms, eCommerce and any other bits and pieces that you need for your initial website.
Customisability is also important in a content management system. You want to be able to make your website do anything. You don’t want your website operations restricted by the platform it is built on.
Step 4: Market that website
Once your website is built, you need to start getting people to that website so that you can start getting leads and making money. You have a lot of costs that you need to recoup by now. The best way to do that is through internet marketing.
You should definitely invest in some pay per click marketing, be it on Google Adwords, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or some other platform that is popular with your potential market. The thing about PPC is that it brings in a faster return on investment than other options of internet marketing.
Once your PPC is bringing in some money, then you can expand your efforts to include email marketing (you need to build a list first) and search engine optimisation.
Step 5: Expand your business to have more branches
So your website is bringing in plenty of leads – it is time to expand your business. Start up a branch or two in areas that are just outside your current reach. Find reliable people to run them and give your staff the training that they need to make sure that the branches succeed.
Step 6: Expand your website to accommodate those branches
Of course, each branch is going to have its own set of services to some extent and will definitely have different contact details. Now your nifty content management system is going to need to expand to accommodate this. You can either have a separate page or mini site per branch if they are very different or you can integrate their contact details into your existing website.
Step 7: Move into other countries
Once you have conquered your country and have branches servicing every possible avenue there, start to look international. Start with countries that speak the same language you do and start with one branch at a time – just like you started in the beginning.
Step 8: Expand your website to accommodate other languages
Now that you are in different countries, your content management system is going to need to expand yet again. You will want to have websites for each country that look the same but have different content and appropriate descriptions of your services and products.
A website on each of the top level domains for each country you are in is a great idea. Just make sure that you have different content on each so that you avoid the Google duplicate content penalty.
A good content management system should be able to allow you to manage the content for the entire empire from a single login. You should be able to have multiple websites in a single hosting environment and just point the various domains to the right set of URLs.
Step 9: Sit back and view your empire
By now, you are tired of working, so retire and watch your empire grow and prosper. And to think... you did it all with a single idea, hard work and a great content management system.