| $5 submissions |
03-16-2004 05:18 AM |
Applying Internet/Online Marketing Principles for Webmasters
Sometimes, when program owners ask me how they can make their online businesses succeed, I point them to the basics below which I've customized to their needs.
Pls feel more than free to add to the following tips and guidelines.
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Research and emulate what your competitors are doing.
There's a big difference between merely copying and emulating. Many of your competitors seem to do the same things because they have found a method/process that works for them. However, instead of just merely copying what they are doing, make sure to understand the THEORY and REASONS behind the process and CUSTOMIZE it to your niche/promotion channels/ and existing methods.
Create a marketing/content strategy and EXECUTE IT.
Most businesses fail since they start only with the DESIRE of the business owner to "make it rich." Start from your desired outcome and backtrack-laying down concrete steps along the way. Critique these steps. Is it realistic? What are the costs and time involved? Research whether the steps are already being executed by somebody else. Analyze their model. Ask around.
You are selling an experience--BE the surfer.
Whether you make your money through TGPs/MGPs/Link Lists/Gallery Submissions/Bulk Mailing you are selling an experience. Put yourself in the shoes of your surfer without any preconceptions. Be bold and take risks with starting from zero. Recreate their experience with your materials. Is the message you are trying to convey clear? Is the content you are presenting consistent with what you are trying to sell? Is the layout/text helping you make a decision whether to buy or enter your email address? Finally, right down a "holistic" feeling that you get navigating through your site. Compare this with a friend's impression and use these observations as blueprints in reinventing your site/message strategy.
Be sure your website presents a UNIFIED feel.
There is nothing that kills a sale more than a jumbled and disjointed message. While you can put differing interactive elements in your site or teaser text on your pages, the end goal must be solitary. Make sure all the elements lead to that goal....which is a sale, email signup, or download.
Tell a story instead of dictating to the reader.
Selling is the art of seduction. The difference between seduction and brute force is the delivery of the message and the willing participation of the recipient of the action. Tell a story that reverberates with your surfer. Have them be part of the process that leads to the sale. How do you do this? Interactivity and teasing. Use text that asks questions and opens the user up to the possibility of taking the next step.
Who are your users?
Find out more about your users' clicking habits and replicate this throughout your site once you find which of your textual cues they respond to the most.
(We did this with webmasterlabor.com and saw sales expand by 120%)
Customer Service lets you be the shepherd instead of the sheep led to slaughter.
The key to successful sales is the skill of LISTENING to your clients. Surfers make it loud and clear what their preferences are by clicking out of your site. Study their clicking patterns. Ask for their interaction in reviewing your content. Ask them to rate your materials. Use this information to recalibrate your text and content. (Webmasterlabor.com changed some sections and service offerings resulting in bigger bulk packages)
Make your site an information resource for its target markets. Becoming a trusted resource of high quality information for your customers is of tremendous value to your business, in addition, it can help win your company free press and word-of-mouth/mouse.
Face it, many surfers today go to free sites/tgps/email cluster groups to look at FREE content. Give them this content but create a holistic experience where they equate a quality experience with your site. After you have loyalty, add on "fresh site reviews" and other advertising materials that leverage your user credibility to translate into sales.
(WebmasterLabor.Com enhances its affiliate page with tips on how to market our services thereby providing webmaster visitors with concrete promotion methods. Beats just giving them a linking code.)
Test. Test. Test.
Just like in life, most things aren't done 100% right the first get go. Expect to change your site frequently. Remember, it is not what YOU think is right that counts, it is what your MARKET thinks is right. So pay attention to your traffic patterns. If certain pages are too deep and are not getting hit, play with your architecture and be ready to drop them if it still does not get traffic.
Ask. Ask. Ask.
Put contact information in your pages. Listen to your users. Their comments are your blueprint to making more money.
Outsource your manual labor.
The tasks above require your abilities as a MANAGER. You cannot fully plan out and execute strategies that will eventually earn you more money if you get bogged down in day to day tasks that have peaked out in terms of income. Think in terms of opportunity costs. You can focus only on whats 2 feet ahead of you and muddle along making the same amount of money or you can take the long view and invent/pioneer/plan your way to a higher level of business. Outsourcing companies like WebmasterLabor.Com help make this possible by doing daily tasks for cents on the dollar while you plan and make the deals needed to take your business to the next level.
I hope you enjoyed this article and feel free to duplicate it and forward to your friends or paste to your webmaster resource sites.
(c) WebmasterLabor.Com Open license--feel free to distribute in original, unedited form!
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