How to Grow Your Business Online: 6 Steps That Work
TL;DR - Summary
- What does it mean to grow your business online? - Growing your business online means building a digital presence through a website, search visibility and social channels that bring in customers, leads or clients from beyond your local area.
- What are the 6 steps that work for building an online presence? - The 6 steps for building an online presence are creating a professional website, optimising for search, publishing useful content, setting up social media profiles, using relevant marketplaces or directories, and collecting customer reviews.
- Which digital marketing channels give Indian businesses the best results? - The digital marketing channels that can help Indian businesses reach customers include social media, video marketing, WhatsApp, influencer marketing, email, paid advertising, and SEO-led content marketing.
- How do you land international clients through your online presence and collect that money without losing it to fees? - You can land international clients by publishing a portfolio on global platforms with English keywords. You can then use Skydo to collect overseas payments through a local currency virtual account with transparent fees, zero hidden costs and zero FX (foreign exchange) charges.
What Does It Actually Mean to Grow Your Business Online?
Growing a business online means using digital platforms to attract new customers, build demand, and generate sales or enquiries beyond your existing network. This can include a business website, search engines, social media, online marketplaces, and other digital channels.
For an Indian business, online growth can expand its reach beyond its city or state and make it easier to serve customers in other parts of India or overseas. Instead of depending mainly on physical footfall or word-of-mouth referrals, a business can use its online presence to become discoverable to people who are actively looking for its products or services.
For example, a graphic designer based in Bengaluru could use LinkedIn to create a solid online portfolio, thereby showcasing their work to potential clients worldwide. This way, a strong digital presence could help them receive an enquiry from a global setup, say a UK business, and turn that enquiry into a recurring international client.
Steps to Build a Strong Online Foundation for Your Business
Building a strong online foundation begins with establishing the necessary digital touchpoints customers use to discover, evaluate, and contact your business. Additionally, before investing in any paid advertising or influencer campaigns, make sure your website, search presence, content, and customer-facing profiles are credible and consistent. Alongside this, try to:
- Step 1: Build a Professional Website: Treat your website as the central destination for your online presence. Make sure it loads quickly, works well on mobile devices, explains your products or services clearly, and gives visitors an easy way to get in touch or submit an enquiry.
- Step 2: Optimise for Search (SEO): Identify the search terms your potential customers use and incorporate them naturally into relevant page titles, headings, and content. If you serve a specific location, create and maintain a Google Business Profile so local customers can discover your business in search and Maps. This is known as search engine optimisation (SEO).
- Step 3: Create Useful Content: Add a blog or resource section that addresses common customer questions, discusses your offerings, or provides practical information related to your industry. Useful content can demonstrate expertise while helping your website attract relevant organic traffic over time.
- Step 4: Set Up Social Media Profiles: Focus on one or two platforms that your target customers actually use rather than trying to maintain a presence everywhere. Complete your profiles, publish consistently, and direct interested users to your website or relevant product and service pages.
- Step 5: List on Relevant Marketplaces or Directories: Industry-specific platforms can put your business in front of people who are already searching for products or services like yours. Here, depending on your business model, platforms such as IndiaMART, Amazon, Upwork, or Behance may provide an additional discovery channel. If you are a business looking to reach international customers, make sure you understand the broader process of selling overseas and the ins and outs of starting an export business in India.
- Step 6: Collect and Display Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to share genuine feedback and reviews on Google or all the other relevant platforms your business is present. Visible reviews can provide social proof and help prospective customers feel more confident about choosing your business.
These 6 steps give your business a reliable base for future digital marketing efforts. Once these fundamentals are in place, paid campaigns and other promotional activities have stronger destinations to drive potential customers towards.
✅ PRO TIP
Set up a Google Business Profile even if you primarily sell services online. A complete profile can strengthen your business's credibility and improve its visibility for branded and local searches, including relevant "near me" queries.
Which Digital Marketing Channels Work Best for Indian Businesses?
The best digital marketing channels for Indian businesses include social media, video content, WhatsApp, influencer partnerships, email, paid advertising, and SEO. Either way, the right combination depends on your target audience, business model, and whether you sell to consumers or other businesses.
- Social Media Marketing: Instagram and Facebook can help B2C businesses build awareness, display products, and reach potential customers through organic posts and targeted ads. For B2B and service-based businesses, LinkedIn can be more effective for connecting with professionals and decision-makers.
- Video Content: Short-form videos on platforms such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts can help businesses capture attention and explain their offerings quickly. Tutorials, product demonstrations, stories, narratives, customer experiences, and behind-the-scenes content are useful formats to test.
- WhatsApp Marketing: WhatsApp Business can help businesses communicate directly with interested customers, share product information or catalogues, answer questions, and follow up with leads. However, note that this approach works particularly well when a customer has already shown interest rather than as a cold outreach channel.
- Influencer Marketing: Working with relevant micro-influencers can introduce your products to niche audiences that already trust the creator. For smaller businesses, this can be a practical and an excellent way to test influencer marketing without committing to the cost of a large celebrity partnership.
- Email Marketing: Building an opted-in email list gives businesses a direct way to stay connected with existing and potential customers. Regular newsletters, product updates, personalised offers, and educational content can support repeated purchases along with customer retention.
- Paid Ads (Google and Meta): Paid advertising can put your business in front of people based on factors such as search intent, interests, demographics, and online behaviour. Start with a controlled budget, measure conversions, and increase spending on campaigns that consistently generate results.
- Content Marketing and SEO: Publishing useful articles, guides, and other resources around topics your customers search for can bring relevant organic traffic to your website. Unlike a paid campaign, well-optimised content can continue attracting visitors long after it is published, making SEO a useful long-term channel.
For most small Indian businesses, a practical approach is to establish an organic presence first, build useful content and search visibility, and then introduce paid advertising once the website and conversion journey are ready. Businesses that sell internationally can also explore suitable payment infrastructure, such as an online payment gateway service provider (OPGSP), to make receiving overseas payments easier.
How Do You Land International Clients Through Your Online Presence?
You can land international clients by making your business easy for overseas buyers to discover, trust, and contact. A strong portfolio, relevant global platforms, clear English-language positioning, and proof of previous work can help turn online visibility into international enquiries.
- Use Platforms Where International Buyers Search: Choose platforms that match your profession and where overseas clients are already looking. Designers can use Behance or Dribbble, freelancers can explore Upwork or Toptal, developers can showcase their work on GitHub, and service businesses can use LinkedIn to connect with potential clients.
- Optimise Your Profile for International Searches: Use the terms and service descriptions that overseas customers are likely to search for on your website and LinkedIn profile. For example, a UK business may search for a "brand identity designer" rather than use terminology commonly used by Indian clients.
- Show the Results of Your Work: Do not rely only on portfolio images or descriptions of what you delivered. Wherever possible, make sure to include measurable outcomes such as higher conversions, increased traffic, or improved engagement. This clearly demonstrates the value you can provide.
- Display International Testimonials: Reviews from clients in markets such as the US, UK, or Australia hold extreme weight and can provide solid social proof for other global prospects. Make sure to include relevant testimonials alongside the projects or services they relate to.
- Respond Promptly to Enquiries: International prospects may be contacting businesses across several time zones and comparing multiple providers. A prompt and professional response can help keep the conversation moving and reduce the chances of losing a qualified lead.
- Make International Pricing Easy to Understand: Quoting in a commonly used currency such as USD or GBP can make pricing easier for overseas clients to evaluate. Make sure you clearly state what is included in the quoted price and all/any applicable payment terms.
Here on, once an international client agrees to work with you, the next step involves understanding all the relevant documentation involved in receiving overseas payments. One such important part involves how to get a FIRC certificate online when dealing with foreign inward remittances.
How Does Skydo Help Indian Businesses Collect International Revenue?
Once your online presence starts bringing in international clients, getting paid without any hassles becomes just as important. Traditional banks and payment platforms can charge transaction fees, intermediary charges, and hidden fees. Additionally, currency conversion markups eventually reduce the amount you actually receive. For example, PayPal's fees and currency conversion charges can add up to around 5% to 8% of the transaction value, depending on the payment and conversion involved.
Skydo helps Indian businesses here to collect international payments with local receiving accounts, transparent flat fees, fast settlement, and built-in documentation for foreign inward remittances. This makes it easier to get paid by overseas clients without dealing with complicated banking processes or high currency conversion costs.
Unlike other cross-border payment platforms, Skydo uses a flat-fee model:
- $19 for payments up to $2,000
- $29 for payments above $2,000 and up to $10,000
- 0.3% for payments above $10,000
There are no monthly fees, and Skydo does not add an FX markup to the exchange rate. Besides this:
- Receive Payments Through Local Currency Accounts: Skydo provides virtual receiving accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, AUD, and CAD. You can share these account details with overseas clients so they can pay using local banking details instead of sending a traditional international wire transfer.
- Get Your Money Quickly: Once the payment reaches your Skydo account, the funds can be settled into your Indian bank account within one working day, thereby reducing the uncertainty that can come with correspondent banking and manual bank follow-ups.
- Get Instant FIRA Without Chasing Paperwork: Each eligible transaction comes with a free, instant, automatic FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) that you can access digitally. This gives you a record of the foreign payment and makes it easier to maintain your remittance documentation.
- Simplify eBRC Processing: Exporters can connect their DGFT account and use Skydo's eBRC workflow to upload shipping bills, map them to relevant IRMs, and generate eBRCs more efficiently. This can reduce the manual work involved in closing export proceeds.
You can complete the Skydo account setup online within 5 minutes and generate your receiving details without having to open a foreign bank account or repeatedly coordinate with a bank relationship manager.
For example, say a graphic designer in Pune starts attracting clients through Behance and LinkedIn and lands a UK client paying £800 per month. Here, she can provide the client with her Skydo GBP receiving details, which will further allow the client to pay through local UK banking details. If the payment falls within the applicable $19 fee tier, she knows the transaction cost upfront rather than having to estimate the impact of multiple bank and currency-conversion charges.
✅ PRO TIP
Create your international receiving account before pitching to overseas clients. Having your payment details ready means you can send them as soon as a client agrees to work with you, rather than introducing payment-related delays at the final stage.
How can I grow my business online fast without a big budget?
To grow your business online fast without a big budget, start with free channels. Optimise your Google Business Profile if you are eligible, post consistently on one or two social platforms and publish content that answers questions your buyers already search for. Putting steady effort on SEO, LinkedIn and WhatsApp compounds over time can outperform paid ads for businesses with tight budgets.
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