Working from home (home office) almost daily, being your own boss, earning money with content production and also taking the risk of going viral and gaining a certain fame/presence online -line looks like the perfect world, doesn't it? Living and working on the internet has been the dream of many people.
We live in the age of "influencers" and many end up getting carried away by a life in which it seems easy to have an online business or simply earn a living by publishing posts for big brands, isn't it?
But not everything is as simple as it seems! Making money on the internet by producing content such as an influencer, virtual store, online courses or simply putting your business online to gain visibility is not that simple.
Indeed, the internet is a blue ocean of possibilities. A good Inbound Marketing strategy linked to the stages of funnel sales can be the "game changer" to take your business from point A to point B faster than working only offline media. This is undeniable! Not being positioned on the internet these days is literally "losing money".
Another point that stands out when we think about starting this journey of opening a business is that the internet is the easiest way to do this. Often, getting a permit or authorization to be physically in a place turns out to be time-consuming, expensive, and difficult. In this scenario, the digital medium ends up being more practical and faster.
But make no mistake! This "ease" in entering the digital world does not mean that it is so easy to stay in this environment and get results. It's not just about putting a post on Instagram or any other social network in a disorderly way, without any strategy (this is a very common mistake in many small businesses, especially).
Regardless of the size of your business, being on the internet requires knowledge, practice, investment (time, money and study) and KPI analysis like any other type of business!
To obtain results with Digital Marketing, it is necessary to have a strategy, from the moment you decide to open a business until the moment you actually start work (and for as long as your company lives).
And to help you in this endeavor of starting an online business, we decided to bring you some super important tips that will help you get started the right way!
How to start an online business in practice
Starting an online business goes far beyond posting on social media or copying influencers. To get real results, you must align dream and reality: choose a type of business that makes sense for you, take the project seriously from day one, plan the capital you need, study the market and audience, define a consistent marketing strategy, and select the right platforms to position yourself. All this demands knowledge, time, investment and ongoing KPI analysis, just like any other business.
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Map your interests and define the right business type for you.
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Take your business seriously from the beginning, regardless of its size.
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Plan investments in structure, marketing, people and accounting.
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Study market, niche, persona and relationship opportunities.
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Connect social media, Inbound Marketing and CRM to achieve results.
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What you will see in today’s content
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The difference between the dream of working online and the reality of running a business.
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How to define the ideal type of business for your profile and interests.
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The importance of taking your business seriously from day one.
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Which capital investments to consider when starting an online business.
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How to study market, niche, audience and persona to validate your idea.
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How to build a digital marketing strategy focused on acquisition and retention.
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The role of major social networks within your strategy.
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How to integrate Inbound Marketing, CRM and data to enhance results.
Come on?
Define your type of business
As the song says (which was trending on Reels a few days ago) "First things first" - would be something like "first things first".
If you want to start a project, you need to define what. Our suggestion is that you map your areas of interest, things you like, what you imagine yourself doing and in which you have the initial capital to invest (whether low or high).
This step is essential, do you know why? For a long time, your business will depend directly on you, your time, your investment and your actions.
It's important that you enjoy doing it. Thinking only about profit may not give you the right direction and, over time, you may get discouraged.
This discouragement is, in fact, one of the things that make many people want to leave CLT and work with their own business. Working just to receive the money at the end of the month makes many feel that they are "working for work", that they are far from their life purpose.
It's increasingly difficult to find people who can work with what they love, so here's the tip: if you're going to start your own business, try to get out of the box, go against the stats and choose something you really like, okay?
Read too:
- Inbound Marketing: 7 metrics to track and optimize
- How to capture qualified leads in a digital marketing campaign
- The 8 essential tips to improve your CRM
Take your business seriously
Once you've chosen what you want to work with, the first thing you need to understand is: take your business seriously.
Many think that because they have a CNPJ MEI or CNPJ of smaller companies, they don't need to invest so much or that they should just start thinking about certain strategies, such as customer experience management and even processes that directly impact the capture of new leads (such as email marketing), when the company is bigger. But this is not true.
You must take your business seriously from the first day you understand what you want to do.
Assess the capital you will need to invest
When we talk about capital investment, we are talking about everything:
- Investment in raw materials to start the business;
- Investment in visual identity and stationery to personalize your products (naming, logo, colors, typography, cards, email signatures…);
- Marketing: website, social networks, photography, product filming, email marketing, etc.;
- Stakeholders (who they will be, what impact they have on your business, how much money will be needed…);
- Will you already have people working with you? How many? What will be the salary and benefits?;
- Accounting part: what is the type of CNPJ? What are the fees involved in issuing an invoice?
Having an internet business can be cheaper than you think, but that's not why you shouldn't plan your steps on this journey. So, it is very important that you start the right way and that you can already include your investment in digital marketing in this financial planning.
Image: Before launching your online business, take time to carefully review all the investments you’ll need to make.
Study your market and your audience
This step is extremely important. To define a good marketing strategy, it is important to understand who you are going to talk to, if there is an audience for your business and define your niche.
It's no use having an idea and only you consider it amazing. A business needs profit to survive!
This marketing mapping will allow you to understand if there really is an interested audience for your business, the ideal customer profile that makes up this interested audience (subsidy to create your persona), your niche and, consequently, that you can make a relationship management with your client.
Define Your Marketing Strategy
This step is as important as any other. Promoting a product the right way is one of the keys to success.
When we talk about having a good marketing strategy, we are talking about dissemination, that is: a strategy for attracting new customers.
But that's not all, within marketing, we also encompass customer retention strategies (post-purchase actions), which are the actions you must create to have a customer relationship.
At this stage, it is important to know who you are, the qualities of your product/service, your differentials, those things that differentiate you from the competition, you know? Being able to put the value of your product into action for the right audience is essential to getting results.
Within marketing, there are some things you can choose to use in your on and off strategy:
- Social networks – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.;
- E-commerce or Institutional website;
- blogs;
- Product landing pages;
- Email marketing ruler;
- Personalized WhatsApp and SMS messages (maybe you want to use Telegram too);
- Invest in paid ads on Google Ads and/or Facebook Ads;
- Hire digital influencers to promote your product;
- Conduct online or face-to-face events for dissemination;
- Partnerships with other brands that serve your niche;
- Off Media (flyers, business cards, etc.);
- Others.
You can even hire a specialized agency to help you choose the best strategies according to your audience and goals.
To find out what you need to do and where you need to be, take a deep look at the data you collected in #4. And why is this so important? Simple: if your persona is 17 years old, the language and marketing strategy you should use to reach them are very different from the strategies for talking to a 50-year-old person. Do you agree?
This takes us to the next step!
Choose the platforms you will use
We decided to put an item just for Social Networks, because, currently, they are the "superior" of digital marketing. They don't work alone, nor will they promote results if you don't use them strategically, being a key communication channel to get your business digital.
Each social network has a different purpose and different connections, lo, here is a brief summary of the focus of some social networks to guide you better:
- YouTube
One of the most enduring online platforms, YouTube still connects businesses with highly diverse audiences. According to up-to-date YouTube statistics, the platform now reaches billions of monthly active users and has become one of the most important spaces for video consumption worldwide.
In the age of influence, that means more opportunities for both creators and infoproducers. Educational content, tutorials and classes — including YouTube Edu — can become powerful channels to generate demand, capture qualified leads and build your brand authority.
Short videos or long videos, it doesn't matter! As long as you have a good camera and good acoustics to make a clear, clean, quality video and use strategic titles and descriptions with good copy when posting, it's worth investing.
A very nice thing about the platform is that you can also mix the size of your videos between short and long, since YT is also a platform for people who seek to learn more, that is, who are willing to watch longer videos.
- Instagram
With more than 3 billion monthly active users, Instagram is no longer just a photo app; it’s a full ecosystem of images, videos, Reels, Stories, Highlights and DMs. For businesses, that means multiple formats to nurture relationships and drive conversions along the customer journey.
According to current Instagram data, Brazil remains one of the platform’s largest markets, with tens of millions of users. Recent research shows that over 90% of respondents access the app every day and most say Instagram helps bring people and brands closer together — a huge opportunity for companies that communicate well on the platform.
- Facebook
As Instagram’s predecessor, Facebook is still one of the largest social networks in the world. According to recent Facebook statistics, the platform has around 3 billion monthly active users and continues to generate tens of billions of dollars in ad revenue every quarter.
In practice, that means sales groups, communities and business pages can still perform very well — as long as your audience is there and you build content and campaigns that match how people actually use the platform.
- LinkedIn
Focused on companies, IN is a business network. It's a social network, but it's not that kind of social network where you have to post your daily step by step or the "look of the day". It's a network for professional content, searching for professionals and things like that. In it, you can share news from the business world, prospect potential people to buy your product/service, generate relevant content and even write short articles for sharing. - Tik Tok
Even though it’s no longer brand-new, TikTok remains one of the fastest-growing and most influential platforms, especially among younger audiences. The app has already surpassed 1 billion monthly users worldwide, and Brazil ranks among its three largest markets, with around 100 million adult users.
According to up-to-date TikTok data for Brazil, the country concentrates a very strong base of users and creators, which makes the platform highly strategic for brands that want to grow their reach quickly. The real challenge is turning that reach into relevant, fun content that stays aligned with your value proposition — not every product needs to follow dance trends.
Choose where you should be and get your hands dirty!
To finish our list, it's time to choose the networks you want to be in and link each of them to your Inbound Marketing strategy.
Within your inbound strategy, it is important to keep in mind strategies, such as email marketing (which we talked about above). A suggestion that we give here is to use a CRM like HubSpot to help you fully control the results of the online strategies and campaigns you are going to do.
This CRM will help you to launch campaigns, analyze KPIs and define strategies based on the behavior data of your leads and customers, and this data provided by the platform will also allow you to work in a predictive way.
And if your business is small, don't worry, you can also use the free version of the platform, and the features are amazing.
As we said before, you need to use resources wisely and strategically, in fact, regardless of the size of your business, you can use intelligence in your favor from the beginning, you know?
If you are interested in learning more about it, check out this post from our blog: trivia about the CRM cycle and artificial intelligence. It will certainly help you learn more to start working on the internet with more assertiveness!
Frequently asked questions about starting an online business and digital marketing
Is working on the internet as easy as it looks when we see influencers?
No, working on the internet is not as simple as it seems when we look at influencers’ lives. Although home office, autonomy and the possibility of earning money with content are attractive, turning that into a sustainable business requires strategy, dedication and a long-term view. Earning money as an influencer, with an online store, online courses or just by putting your business on the internet involves planning, study, well-structured marketing and consistency, not just showing up online or doing occasional sponsored posts.
Why should I define my business type before starting an online project?
Defining your business type beforehand is crucial because, for quite some time, the results will depend directly on you, your time, your investment and your actions. By mapping your interests, what you enjoy doing and what you can invest in, you choose something more aligned with your purpose. If you focus only on profit, it becomes easier to lose motivation when challenges arise. Choosing a business model you genuinely like increases your chances of keeping consistency and energy in the long run.
What does it mean to take my digital business seriously from day one?
Taking your digital business seriously from day one means not treating it as a side hustle or something “less important” just because it is small or started as a MEI-type company. It means understanding that processes, customer experience management, lead generation, e-mail marketing and other strategic fronts are not exclusive to big companies. The sooner you treat your project as a real business, with planning, goals and clear responsibilities, the sooner you will have a solid base to grow and stand out in the market.
What kinds of investments should I consider when starting an online business?
When starting an online business, you must consider investments in several areas. This includes the raw materials needed to start, visual identity (naming, logo, colors, typography, stationery) and the whole marketing structure, such as website, social media, photography, filming, e-mail marketing and ads. It is also important to think about stakeholders, possible team members, salaries, benefits and accounting costs, including the company type and invoicing fees. Even though running an online business is often cheaper than a physical one, it still requires careful financial planning.
Why do I need to study the market, niche and audience before launching my business?
Studying market, niche and audience is essential to understand whether there is real demand for what you want to offer. This mapping helps identify if there are people interested in your product or service, who your ideal client is and what their characteristics and needs are, serving as a base to create your persona. From there, you can better define your niche and, especially, structure a more strategic customer relationship management, with more assertive communication and offers that make sense and generate profit.
What is a good digital marketing strategy for an online business?
A good digital marketing strategy involves both acquiring new customers and retaining those who have already purchased from you. This means thinking about promotion, channels and formats that make sense for your audience, but also about after-sales actions to keep the relationship alive. It is about showing who you are, what differentiates your product or service and how you stand out from competitors. The strategy may include social networks, website, blog, landing pages, e-mail marketing, paid campaigns, partnerships, events and even offline media, always guided by data and clear goals.
How do I choose the right social networks and platforms for my business?
Choosing the right networks depends on understanding who your persona is and how they behave. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok have different purposes and audiences. For example, YouTube is strong in educational videos and tutorials; Instagram brings multiple formats for relationship building; Facebook is still relevant for groups and communities; LinkedIn focuses on business and careers; and TikTok is very strong among younger audiences. More important than “being everywhere” is being where your audience is, acting with consistency and strategy.
What is the role of Inbound Marketing and CRM in my digital strategy?
Inbound Marketing helps attract, nurture and convert leads through relevant content and relationship across the sales funnel. When connected to digital channels, it can be the game changer that moves your business from point A to point B faster. A CRM, such as HubSpot, organizes contacts, campaigns and behavioral data, allowing you to launch campaigns, analyze KPIs and define actions based on real information about leads and customers. Together, Inbound and CRM make it easier to work in a predictive and intelligent way, even in smaller businesses.
Can a small business also benefit from tools like CRM and HubSpot’s free version?
Yes, small businesses can definitely use a CRM and benefit from it. HubSpot itself offers a free version with helpful features to start organizing contacts, recording interactions, tracking campaigns and analyzing results. Even for small companies, using these tools from the beginning helps create a data-driven culture, better understand the customer journey and plan marketing and sales actions with more accuracy, instead of relying only on guesswork or the entrepreneur’s memory.
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