How to launch an Online Business with no coding knowledge

Launching your business online has become much easier than it was years ago thanks to the no-coding trend. There’s no need to take a course in CSS or struggle with the intricacies of HTML. No need to waste hours and hundreds of dollars on manpower.

Below, we’ll explain how you can take your business online, all without having to write a single line of code.

Get a domain

Your first course of action should be to find a place for your website to live. Your domain will form the URL of your site: this is what an internet user will type into their navigation bar in order to land on your website.

If you’re hosting via a site builder (more on this later), then this step probably won’t be necessary, as your domain will be included in your subscription package.

However, we do recommend manually sourcing your own domain provider because, if you ever decide to switch hosts in the future, it’ll be a far simpler process to transfer your domain to your new provider.

Tools to register your website domain

Hostgator and GoDaddy are two popular choices, but be sure to shop around to get the best deal for your business.

Build your website

Now comes the fun part of building your very own website! It’s an exciting and creative process, and there are lots of ways to do it. However, if you are going to launch an eCommerce business, you should focus also on eCommerce website architecture to make sure your website delivers a seamless user experience and drives optimal performance.

Use a WYSIWYG editor

While it may not roll off the tongue, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor is one of the easiest ways to create a website from scratch.

A WYSIWYG editor allows even the most web-averse to generate and edit elements of their website in real time. Previews are refreshed automatically and building a website is accomplished through an intuitive user interface.

No code WYSIWYG editors for websites

Popular editors like Wix or Squarespace are incredibly powerful and negate the need to spend hours on complicated CSS styling.

Building a website is now a simple affair of dropping and dragging. And better yet, you can use one of the premade website templates that will save you hours (or days) on creative brainstorming.

However, these editors aren’t cost-free. While they may offer significant savings over hiring full-stack developers to create bespoke sites, they’re certainly not cheap.

Regardless of which tool you pick, you’re likely to face a significant monthly fee with extra charges if you require additional features. If you want to heavily feature video content on your website, for instance, you may need to pay quite a bit extra for the storage.

Use WordPress

If you want a more hands-on approach, WordPress might be your best bet. WordPress is a powerful yet 100%-free CMS (content management system) allowing you to create a store from scratch using a variety of plugins and extensions.

WordPress requires more technical knowledge to set up its content architecture. However, even the most technically-inexperienced user should be able to learn WordPress reasonably quickly.

WordPress doesn’t have the intuitive interface of a simple website builder. But it’s affordable, fairly flexible, and has a huge community that makes it a fantastic choice.

If you decide to use WordPress, make sure to choose a suitable host, based on your website’s purpose.

If you’re in online retail, you’ll need serious performance, so strongly consider investing in a cloud-based hosting service from a provider like Cloudways.

Be wary of false claims, though. It’s easy for a provider to boast about having the fastest WordPress hosting or claim to have the lowest pricing, but the only way to be sure is to use a comparison site like CodeinWP to gain a complete picture of the market.

Useful WordPress plugins

If you want to spice up your WordPress website design, you can use the Elementor plugin. It’s a very popular plugin, used on more than 7% of the websites out there. Elementor is an intuitive drag and drop builder that also allows you to set up forms and pop-ups inside your website.

If you’re looking to launch an eCommerce website, a free plugin like WooCommerce can turn your site into a fully-featured online store.

Perhaps you’d like to review detailed analyses of your site’s visitors: if so, you can use MonsterInsights, a plugin designed to help you do just that.

Build your email marketing campaigns

When you first launch your online business, your digital marketing strategy is the pillar of your success. Depending on the type of business you are running and the audience you are targeting, you want to create Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and/or Facebook accounts. You also need to adapt your posts for each social media platform: LinkedIn, for example, is more “serious” than Instagram. And, TikTok is great if you want to share video content with your target audience. Make sure to get verified on TikTok to make your brand more trustworthy. However, hiring a VA who will manage all tasks of your online business and know that it is concrete signs you should do that.

It also depends on the business you are trying to market for. If you have a website that talks about LLCs and you want to help your audience by providing a guide on the best state to form an LLC, you will need to take the help of email marketing to bring in potential customers.

But, regardless of your industry and target audience, email marketing is always going to be a medium you want to invest in. In fact, 80% of marketers said they would rather give up social media than email marketing. 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach their customers. This is because email marketing has time and time again proven itself to be the most reliable means of communication: it is personal and easily personalized. It allows for easy performance tracking and segmentation.

However, your email campaigns won’t bring you any benefits if your emails are broken. Here’s how you can create a perfect email design with no coding.

No code tools for email design

Chamaileon is a WYSIWYG email builder that allows you to create stunning HTML emails with no coding knowledge.

Following the same example of the no code website builders mentioned previously, Chamaileon uses the drag and drop technique to help marketers and business owners create professional-looking emails without any coding.

The email builder provides different email blocks that can be added to the email body easily. Once the email design is completed, an HTML file can be downloaded or exported directly to any ESP (more on ESP in the next section).

Chamaileon also offers hundreds of ready to use email templates that you can edit and make your own, from e-commerce email templates to seasonal email designs.

Choose a no coding ESP

An email service provider is your best option to send out mass email campaigns. ESPs allow you to schedule email campaigns, track each email’s performance by measuring open and click rates, and keep track of your subscriber engagement.

Most ESPs provide a ton of useful features built for segmentation: you can segment your email list based on relevant criteria that you set up (subscriber’s age, gender, location, etc). And then target each list with a personalized email campaign.

No code tools for email marketing

There are hundreds of email service providers out there. We would recommend choosing an email service provider that was made specifically for small businesses. You want your ESP to have the basic features that would allow you to send and track email campaigns, without anything extra you don’t need that will increase the bill.

Mailchimp is the most famous example of ESPs built for smaller businesses.

👉 Find a list of all the ESPs that Chamaileon is connected to!

Build your mobile application

Fancy introducing an app for your customers but having no idea how to build one? No-code app creation solutions enable you to design and configure mobile apps without writing a single line of code. Due to such no-code solutions, mobile app development has become more accessible to individuals and businesses alike, allowing them to bring their ideas to life quickly and efficiently.

They’re ideal for anyone looking to create a mobile app but isn’t familiar with coding. To ensure the integrity of their work, they may consider implementing regression testing in their development process. Additionally, a microservices strategy could be deployed to make things easier and optimize business functionality.

No coding tools for app development

There are many tools available for no-code app development. Most of them, if not all, use the same drag-and-drop method that allows users to put together an app without any coding knowledge.

• Sandbox is a no-code software that anyone can use to design and launch mobile apps on Android or iOS. Using the drag-and-drop builder, you can customize your app and create an on-brand platform in a couple of hours.
• Zoho Creator is a low-code application that allows you to design and run any software your business needs. Although it does require a basic level of coding knowledge, Zoho is a great option as it has hundreds of features from integration creators to BI and analytics creators. When using no-code app development tools like Sandbox or Zoho Creator, integrating mobile app analytics becomes essential. These analytics provide valuable insights into user behavior and app performance, helping you make data-driven decisions to optimize your mobile app’s functionality and user experience.

In summary

Launching an online business was once realistically reserved for those who could code. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case as everyone can find the best types of IT services and have their websites. And while it’s true that traditional web development provides a great degree of flexibility, advancements in no-coding solutions are steadily closing the gap.

If you’re just finding your feet in cyberspace, there’s no harm in using every tool at your disposal to simplify the process.