What Does it Really Take to Market Online?
The following post is going to be an ongoing weekly series to get up and running full steam with online marketing!
How many people have gotten excited about marketing online and then were not able to figure it out or just plain got frustrated by the whole thing? A lot! I don’t know what the exact statistics are but I’m guessing upwards of 80% probably quit before the first full month is out. Sometimes before the first week is over! Many just move onto another product or service trying to find that Silver Bullet!
In fact a lot of the online “Guru’s” are counting on you doing just that. Buy the miracle product once and then only a few stick around long enough to see it though, then they end up buying another one and another and so on. Some Will…Some Wont…Next! Along with that many depend on selling a lot of the low $$ items so that you don’t even bother asking for a refund. Great racket huh?
Well there you, got a complete turn off to online marketing right? That does tend to be the mind set of a consumer and to be successful in any business online or off you have to have the mind set of a business owner or seller. No you do not want to take on a greedy attitude of taking advantage of people but, you are in business and you need to sell your product or service…Right?
So, the first step in developing a successful online marketing program is developing a product or service that has real value. Will this product truly do what it says it will. Now should somebody purchase it and then decide not to use it as it was designed to be used well that’s not something you control.
Second Step is developing a true Business Plan to market the product. This tends to be the dull mundane numbers and planning parts of the business that many fail to accomplish. This is the grind it out part where yo have to track your results test and test again so you figure out what works best for this paticular product. Everything has to be looked at and written down. Your budget and how much time you really have factor in along with what will be the price point and ROI.
Take the time to work the business plan out and don’t be afraid to ask for help if your a newbie. This is a crucial step that when skipped will put you into a quick tailspin of buying the next big deal and being disappointed over and over again. Get a plan, stick to it but be flexible enough to know when something isn’t working and it’s time to tweak it a bit here and there.
Now you have a product and a the start of a plan but there are all these options out there for marketing online – How do I choose what’s best. And what he flip is all this SEO, OPT IN, PPC, MLM stuff ??? Well lets take a sec and sort some of it out.
You can go to Google for just about any info these days so don’t be afraid to take a few minutes and just read. Now to get a few things sorted out you have to find what works best for you through the business plan and testing the waters. If you try to use all the services available at one time you will be overwhelmed and washed out in just a day or two. The overload of information along with distractions are numerous and unrelenting!
As you build your plan a place to start is the actual website or sales page. Is it a site already up and running for you or do you need to have one built? Having one built means you will need hosting services and a domain name along with what ever fees to actually build the site. (Side note: You always want a domain regardless of replicated site or self hosted.)
After the primary web page is decided on we need to look at bringing traffic to it and that is where a large part of your business plan will come into play..How do I advertise and what kind of budget should I expect? Social Media has become the billboard of the Internet these days and for the most part it is FREE so take the time to learn about the following :
Face Book, Twitter, Linked IN, Stumble Upon, RYZE, Digg and The Warrior Forum – And this is just scratching the surface! Think about how a targeted marketing plan can tie all of these together so your message stays consistent and we will dive into more on this next week!
Learn to Earn!
