Strategic, efficient, and effective marketing strategies are key to expanding your brand, getting your business noticed, and building a following of raving fans.

Simply put, marketing is a collection of actions taken to make sure the people who want and need your products, programs, and services know that you exist and can find you quickly and effortlessly… because even the most incredible, meticulously developed brand will fail if no one knows that the business exists.

Your customers will make their decision to purchase when they are ready, not when you are ready. That means your marketing efforts must be diverse, consistent, deliberate, and compelling.

READ MORE

Let me share a quick story with you…

You just got back from an absolutely amazing workshop or conference. You are pumped because the $3,000 you spent to attend was totally worth all the great networking and fantastic content you received.

You experienced a couple breakthroughs and ah-ha moments at the event and you feel great. You’ve got a lot of ideas that you want to implement, like new services, products, continuity programs. You also learned about some cool new tools you want to add to your business toolbox.

READ MORE

This is a difficult question and it is one that I tend to spend a lot of time on with my clients.

When it comes to Internet marketing implementation and choosing the tools and strategies you are going to use, the key is to do your homework. Research the different tools you are thinking about using, ask current users what they think about the tool and ask people who have switched to another tool why they did so. They key is to ask a lot of questions and think about how you want to use it in the future and if it can grow with your business as it grows.

Here are just some of the questions that you need to ask before committing to adding another Internet marketing strategy or online marketing tool to your business marketing mix:

READ MORE

No! In fact trying to do and implement every Internet marketing strategy as once is not just difficult, it is a recipe for overwhelm, frustration, and disaster!

Like the well-known phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none,” if you try to add too many new marketing methods and strategies to your business all at the same time, you risk not doing any of the as well as they need to be done and you risk confusing your audience.

Instead, you need to make a list of everything you want to implement in your business. Then you need to prioritize them in three different ways: difficulty, profit, and value.

READ MORE

Implementation is the GET IT DONE part of the marketing equation.

Simply put, Internet marketing implementation is taking action on your big ideas and using the tools available on the Internet to bring those ideas to life and market them to your audience. It is deciding which tools and strategies are the best fit for you and your business, creating an online marketing plan outlining how they will be used, and then putting your marketing plan into play and getting it done.

As the expert, you need to focus your time and effort on:

READ MORE

What is Internet Marketing?

The Internet isn’t magic. It may seem magical sometimes, but ultimately it is just a tool.

• It is a place to put your marketing materials – Your domain name houses your website or blog files.
• It is a place to communicate with other people – Email and instant messaging allows you to talk electronically with anyone in the world.
• It is a place to exchange material – Shopping carts and e-commerce allow you to buy, sell, or trade information, services, products, and ideas.
• It is a place to interact with other people – Social networking sites and blogs create communities and groups of like-minded people who engage in conversation.
• It is a place to share, learn, and teach – Free information shared in reports, ebooks, audios, videos, blogs, ezines, and websites to help other people.

READ MORE

A better question would be how can Internet marketing not help your business?

There is so much noise online from online affiliate and information marketers that sometimes what is really at the core of Internet Marketing gets lost. You know who I am talking about – those people who promise that you can make a million dollars in record time just like they did if you buy their $247, $197, $147, $77, $27 product. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably tired of that same sales letter that you see over and over and are just ready for someone to give it to you straight.

READ MORE

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but I am going to say it again.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

But what does that mean? It’s simple really. It means that you need to stop talking about yourself and stop writing what you want to hear said about you and your business.

Instead, focus on what your audience wants to hear, what they want to learn, and what information they need. Then you need to focus on getting it to them as quickly as possible.

Think of it this way, when someone is searching for something online, they more than likely aren’t just browsing with endless amounts of time. Usually they are searching for a specific piece of information, answer to their questions, or solution to their problem – and they are turning to the Internet to find what they need fast.

Your job as a website owner is to research your target market, find out that they want, need, and desire, learn how you can help them, and then deliver it.

READ MORE

Here are three quick tips to improve your landing page and help you convert more prospects into customers:

1. Know Your Target Market

Don’t just throw up a landing page and hope the right people see it and like what you have to say. You need to spend some time doing research on your target market. Find out what they want, what they need, what problems they have that you can solve, and what would make their life easier, etc. Look at what your ideal client’s income is, where they live, what their hobbies are, what they dream about, what values they hold, and where they shop, etc.

Once you know the answers to these questions and you truly understand your ideal customer, you can tailor your landing page design and content to speak directly to them. By focusing in on your target market, you have more power and impact on creating interest, evoking emotion, and compelling action.

READ MORE

As a website designer and online marketer, I have seen quite a few bad domain names come across my desk – and that is putting it nicely. Some domains are down right horrible like the domain for the promotional product company Pen Island (www.penisland.com).

Sometimes my best advice for clients who have a bad domain name is to get a new one. Some of those clients have taken my advice and changed their domain name and some have not. But no matter what, every time the topic comes up I get asked the same two questions…

“Why is my domain name bad?” and
“How do I pick a good domain name?”

READ MORE

Whether you have a product, service, program, or combination of the three, if you’re in business, I can pretty much guarantee that you need to sell something. With budgets tightening and consumers becoming more discerning on what they spend their money on, many entrepreneurs and business owners are finding that they need to try a little harder than they had to before to make a sale.

Here are seven tips to increase online sales and get your prospects and customers to take action:

1. Offer money back guarantee.
Your guarantee can be a 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, year-long, or lifetime guarantee. The longer the guarantee you extend your guarantee, the more successful it will be.

2. Give away bonuses and free stuff.
When your customers purchase something or take a specific action, reward them with a free gift or some extra bonuses of value. Sweeten the deal to catch more conversions.

READ MORE

Your business plan defines what your business is about, what you do, and what you don’t do. Your marketing plan outlines how you’re going to get your customers to buy your products, invest in your services, and join your programs and the actions needed to achieve your marketing objectives.

Over time, the approach to creating and maintaining a marketing plan has drastically changed:

• The OLD SCHOOL Marketing Plan: A really long (think 30+ pages and more!), incredibly detailed plan that sets in stone all marketing actions big and small for your business for anywhere from one year to five years and limits what new ideas can be implemented. This usually ends up on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere and is only referenced and updated once a year.
• The NEW AGE Marketing Plan: A flexible tool that helps you decide what strategies are the best fit for you and your business, that changes and flexes as your business changes and grows, that defines the reasoning and logic behind the marketing actions. It can be one page to 10 pages and is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

READ MORE