My Way of Giving Back...Marketing Online Tips
I joined the warrior forum on 12/17/2006 and although I have not always had the time to be consistently active, I have participated in discussions when I am able. I have learned a heck of a lot and would now like to give back a little.
Marketing was my favorite subject in college and running a writing business online gave me both experience and the opportunity to do research on marketing topics for clients. I would like to give to my fellow warriors a little benefit from what I have learned. Here are some tips that I would like to share about marketing online.
Every business owner online or off needs to use marketing efforts to draw customers in to the business. Online that means drawing them into your Website e-store, or blog. If you are going to make money online as an affiliate marketer, you will need some important tools including your own Website so that you will put forth a professional presence and have a jumping off point for your marketing efforts. This Website should be user-friendly and encourage visitors to click your affiliate links. Understand that visitors are not necessarily landing on your Website to buy, but may be looking for information. Post relevant articles on your Website to fill this need.
Give your visitor incentives such as a free newsletter with beneficial information, a free report on the topic, exclusive services to Website visitors only, free software, other freebies that your visitors may find value in.
In order for your marketing efforts to stand out from all the others trying to make money online you need to be able to:
Absorb knowledge from those who are already doing what you want to do. Become an "action person" willing to go beyond the info gathering stage and propel yourself into the doing stage. Many wannabe Internet marketers fail at this and wonder why they do not make any money.
You must be willing to invest both time and money into your online efforts.
You must be a self-motivator if you are going to succeed online. If you want badly enough to be a success at marketing your product or service you must charge full-steam ahead taking careful aim at your goals, planning your strategy, creating and implementing a marketing plan and sticking to it.
A successful Internet marketer has a positive attitude about the efforts put forth and in the eventual success of his/her business. You must be master of your own destiny by believing in yourself.
Marketing products or services online opens a global customer base to your business, which allows you to take advantage of endless opportunities to succeed.
Utilize all the ways to market your product or service including article marketing, email marketing, blogging, podcasting and using the power of YouTube. Article marketing helps to create your "expert image" that is crucial for marketing success. Article marketing can also create multiple streams of free traffic and we all know that traffic is necessary for sales. Email marketing can help you to achieve your goals, can be cost-effective, is an excellent way to keep your name in-front of your customers and is also an easy way to promote sales and specials. Blog marketing is relatively new but can be a key element in your marketing plan. Use keywords in your title of the blog and in the posts to help visitors find your blog. You can use the same marketing strategies when blogging as you would with your business Website. Podcasting allows you to use audio and informational content to market a product or service to a captive audience because it is a high-powered marketing tool that few have realized the power of yet, you can catch the first waves so to speak. If you run an ad on your podcast you can build a virtual real estate that can assist you in your marketing efforts. Harness the popularity of YouTube and the search engines will love you. YouTube gets millions of views each day and why not get your share of that pie? Make YouTube part of your marketing strategy by first understanding how YouTube works and how to increase your views. By including articles, email, blogging, podcasting and YouTube in your marketing strategy visitors will multiply everyday.
When designing your marketing plan don't forget to plan on getting repeat Web traffic. You get this repeat traffic by frequently updating your Website, offer additional value on your site by placing links to complimentary products or services and ask the owners of the links to reciprocate. Use opt-in forms for special offers or to give free content to visitors. Place a link on your home page that has a script to allow your visitors to "bookmark" or "add your site to their Favorites folder". You can do the same for a "Recommend this site to a Friend". Make sure you have a "contact us" link or page so that visitors can get in touch with you. Create a policy page, about us page, and FAQ page to help your customers to get to know you. People are more comfortable dealing with online companies that seem more "real" to them. Encourage repeat traffic by making sure if they lose your web address or forget to bookmark you that your keywords and appropriate titles will bring them back to you. Always give quality content, services and products and your visitor will have a reason to return.
A marketing plan is just as important as having a business plan. Update your plans on a yearly bases, sooner if you experience a major business change.
The purpose of your marketing plan is to identify marketing programs that when used will help you to achieve your business goals for that year. Strong strategic marketing programs if carefully crafted and implemented can determine a loss or profit for your business.
To realize success in a marketing plan you must be able to measure success or failure of any program used. Measurements also help you to identify and fix problems so they don't sabotage your success.
Always remember the four marketing P's (pricing, place, product and promotion). All four of the P's are important and help to determine the success of your business.
I hope these marketing tips are helpful.
Marketing was my favorite subject in college and running a writing business online gave me both experience and the opportunity to do research on marketing topics for clients. I would like to give to my fellow warriors a little benefit from what I have learned. Here are some tips that I would like to share about marketing online.
Every business owner online or off needs to use marketing efforts to draw customers in to the business. Online that means drawing them into your Website e-store, or blog. If you are going to make money online as an affiliate marketer, you will need some important tools including your own Website so that you will put forth a professional presence and have a jumping off point for your marketing efforts. This Website should be user-friendly and encourage visitors to click your affiliate links. Understand that visitors are not necessarily landing on your Website to buy, but may be looking for information. Post relevant articles on your Website to fill this need.
Give your visitor incentives such as a free newsletter with beneficial information, a free report on the topic, exclusive services to Website visitors only, free software, other freebies that your visitors may find value in.
In order for your marketing efforts to stand out from all the others trying to make money online you need to be able to:
Absorb knowledge from those who are already doing what you want to do. Become an "action person" willing to go beyond the info gathering stage and propel yourself into the doing stage. Many wannabe Internet marketers fail at this and wonder why they do not make any money.
You must be willing to invest both time and money into your online efforts.
You must be a self-motivator if you are going to succeed online. If you want badly enough to be a success at marketing your product or service you must charge full-steam ahead taking careful aim at your goals, planning your strategy, creating and implementing a marketing plan and sticking to it.
A successful Internet marketer has a positive attitude about the efforts put forth and in the eventual success of his/her business. You must be master of your own destiny by believing in yourself.
Marketing products or services online opens a global customer base to your business, which allows you to take advantage of endless opportunities to succeed.
Utilize all the ways to market your product or service including article marketing, email marketing, blogging, podcasting and using the power of YouTube. Article marketing helps to create your "expert image" that is crucial for marketing success. Article marketing can also create multiple streams of free traffic and we all know that traffic is necessary for sales. Email marketing can help you to achieve your goals, can be cost-effective, is an excellent way to keep your name in-front of your customers and is also an easy way to promote sales and specials. Blog marketing is relatively new but can be a key element in your marketing plan. Use keywords in your title of the blog and in the posts to help visitors find your blog. You can use the same marketing strategies when blogging as you would with your business Website. Podcasting allows you to use audio and informational content to market a product or service to a captive audience because it is a high-powered marketing tool that few have realized the power of yet, you can catch the first waves so to speak. If you run an ad on your podcast you can build a virtual real estate that can assist you in your marketing efforts. Harness the popularity of YouTube and the search engines will love you. YouTube gets millions of views each day and why not get your share of that pie? Make YouTube part of your marketing strategy by first understanding how YouTube works and how to increase your views. By including articles, email, blogging, podcasting and YouTube in your marketing strategy visitors will multiply everyday.
When designing your marketing plan don't forget to plan on getting repeat Web traffic. You get this repeat traffic by frequently updating your Website, offer additional value on your site by placing links to complimentary products or services and ask the owners of the links to reciprocate. Use opt-in forms for special offers or to give free content to visitors. Place a link on your home page that has a script to allow your visitors to "bookmark" or "add your site to their Favorites folder". You can do the same for a "Recommend this site to a Friend". Make sure you have a "contact us" link or page so that visitors can get in touch with you. Create a policy page, about us page, and FAQ page to help your customers to get to know you. People are more comfortable dealing with online companies that seem more "real" to them. Encourage repeat traffic by making sure if they lose your web address or forget to bookmark you that your keywords and appropriate titles will bring them back to you. Always give quality content, services and products and your visitor will have a reason to return.
A marketing plan is just as important as having a business plan. Update your plans on a yearly bases, sooner if you experience a major business change.
The purpose of your marketing plan is to identify marketing programs that when used will help you to achieve your business goals for that year. Strong strategic marketing programs if carefully crafted and implemented can determine a loss or profit for your business.
To realize success in a marketing plan you must be able to measure success or failure of any program used. Measurements also help you to identify and fix problems so they don't sabotage your success.
Always remember the four marketing P's (pricing, place, product and promotion). All four of the P's are important and help to determine the success of your business.
I hope these marketing tips are helpful.