Marketing in 2024: Why Every Small Business Owner Needs to Learn Online Sales
Twenty years ago, marketing looked very different. Traditional retail strategies, in-store promotions, and word-of-mouth were enough to sustain many businesses. Fast forward to today, and everything has shifted online, with e-commerce sales growing at an average of 20% per year. As a business owner of a certain age, adapting to this change was a major learning curve for me. Social media, Shopify, Klaviyo, Google Ads—OMG, my brain used to hurt just thinking about it!
For years, I avoided diving deep into online marketing, sticking mainly to occasional social media posts. But four months ago, I had an epiphany: if I wanted to grow Domo Tea’s online presence, I needed to stop avoiding digital marketing and start mastering it. So, I signed up for a course and hired a 17-year-old ‘tech expert’ (because let’s be real—anyone under 30 is basically a tech expert in my eyes). What seemed like an overwhelming world of algorithms, ads, and email automation turned out to be far more manageable than I had imagined.
And let me tell you—I want to shout this from the rooftops: If you sell a product online, you NEED to take a marketing course! Hiring an advertising agency is expensive (many overcharge and don’t even move the needle). Domo Tea has always done well in stores, but I knew we needed to pivot and boost online sales. The big question was: How do I reach people who don’t yet know how awesome Domo Tea is?
Well, it turns out, online marketing isn’t rocket science! We doubled our online sales in the FIRST month of the course.
One of the most intimidating parts? The course required us to build a whole new website. My initial reaction: There’s no way we can do that! I even got a quote from a web designer—$10,000. That price tag quickly brought me back to reality, and I decided we had to figure it out ourselves. And guess what? We did it! The process had a few bumps, but I’m beyond proud of what we accomplished. I had no idea how much I would actually enjoy it, and it turns out, we’re pretty good at it too!
Now, we’re moving into the really exciting parts of the course—diving into Klaviyo, newsletters, ads, and next-level marketing strategies. The first two months were all about building a solid foundation, and now, it’s time to scale.
So, if you’re a small to medium business owner still hesitating to learn online marketing, take my advice: Go take a course! You will be amazed at how much you can pick up, how much money you’ll save, and most importantly, how much your business will grow. If I can do it, so can you!