Marketing an Online Business
What is your key to success marketing an online business? In my opinion, your key to success boils down to your marketing plan. So let’s take a moment to discuss what marketing is. I define marketing as the process of meeting someone, getting them to like you and trust you, getting them to do business with you and finally getting them to become a loyal customer.Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process that requires meticulous attention and a solid game plan. I once heard that the average person needs to see a message 20-30 times before they will purchase your product or service. So if you only get them to visit your website once, you probably won’t generate a sale. Does that make sense? That’s why you need to have a marketing plan in place. You need to have a systematic plan to walk your prospect through the entire sales process. Your marketing plan is your written marketing strategy that covers the following six topics: 1) Your Target Market 2) The Best Way to Reach Your Target Market 3) Your Unique Selling Proposition 4) How you will Advertise 5) Your Sales Funnel 6) Testing We will cover each topic in more detail below. 1. Target Market: Your target market is another word for your ideal customer. This is the type of person you want to do business with. If you spend some time evaluating your current customer base, you will notice trends. It might be gender based, income based, religious based, age based, demographic based, or any other factors. This is normally determined by the type of product or service that you sell. If you already have an established clientele, review this information. Who are your best customers? What do they have in common? Make a list of things they have in common. And then find out what websites they visit, where they hang out, what they read, etc. On the other hand, if you don’t already have an existing customer base, you should spend some time deciding who you think would be your best type of customer. As you build your business and establish a client base, you can follow the advice listed above. 2. The Best Way to Reach Your Target Market: To achieve success marketing an online business, you need to advertise exclusively to your target market. But before you start advertising, you need to find out the best way to reach your target market. If you do your research properly, you will find the best way to reach your ideal customer. Personally, I recommend pay-per-click advertising or direct mail. With these methods, you advertise exclusively to your target market. 3. Your Unique Selling Proposition: This is a simple two to three sentence statement that tells people why they should do business with you. For example, my unique selling proposition for this website is: “What separates me from my competitors is that I am in this industry for the long-haul. I am a professional network marketer who wants to educate, to inspire and to help other network marketers, regardless of whether they join my business opportunity or not. People will do business with me because they like me, respect me and trust me.” Spend some time and complete this exercise. If you can’t think of any good reasons why your customer should do business with you and only you, the customers will feel the same way. 4. How You Will Advertise: Once you know your ideal customer and unique selling proposition, you need to pick an advertising method. You can use pay-per-click, newspaper ads, joint ventures, ezines, video marketing, article marketing and several other methods. You can do this yourself or outsource it to an advertising agency. I recommend you start out doing this by yourself, with one method at a time. That way you can learn the ropes and figure out what works and what doesn’t. If you want to become proficient at marketing an online business, it is up to you! Learn how market your business should be your top priority. 5. Your Sales Funnel: If you want to succeed marketing an online business, you need a sales funnel. One of your biggest mistakes is thinking people will purchase something from you the first time they learn about you. Think of your sales funnel as an inverted pyramid with the large part of the top. You want to get people in your funnel and send them through a series of small steps. You can use an auto-responder to build your list and online funnel. Here is an example sales funnel: 1. Put an opt-in form on your website 2. Offer a free e-course about your area of expertise, and give it away free, in exchange for someone's name and email 3. Send a weekly email newsletter 4. Offer a low cost product in $10 to 20 range 5. Offer a higher cost product in $20 to $50 range 6. Offer a high cost product in $100 to $200 range 7. Send newsletter once per week and keep people coming back to your website Think of your sales funnel as a process. If you keep in contact with your leads often, you will build a relationship with them. As they begin to like you and trust you, you can recommend different products and services. And in all emails, you can provide a link to send people back to your website to review your latest offer. 6. Testing: Obviously, you must test everything you do. You must have a thorough understanding of your key metrics. This includes cost per lead, conversion rates, life time value of a lead, etc. Sometimes small changes to your advertising strategy (or ad) can land you big results. And if you don’t test, you will never know what is working and what isn't working. Final Thoughts about Marketing an Online Business By following the advice listed in this article, you will have great results marketing an online business. And it doesn’t matter if your business is a blog, an online store, online auctions, network marketing, affiliate marketing or any other business model. Simply put, the key to marketing an online business is to have a marketing plan and to spend time and money working your plan. You might make some mistakes in the beginning, and go through a learning curve, but eventually you will become a master marketer! Learn More about Marketing an Online Business in this Great eBook Best Online Business Idea MLM Resource Center Home Page New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below. Copyright 2010-12 MLM Resource Center / All Rights Reserved. All trademarks and copyrights are held by their respective owners FTC Disclaimer: I do earn commissions from some of the products I recommend This site is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as business, legal or financial advice |
