What is a good Internet Marketing Strategy for newbies?

by Matthew Ng

Are you ready to take advantage of simple, proven methods of web marketing to get more customers and sales in less time? In this article and my future ones, my intention is to pass on tips, advice and sometimes direct lessons that will help you profit on the Internet. To sell, you need to have a web site and use email wisely. If you apply the simple methods outlined in this article and my futures ones, you can grow your business by building your most important asset... We have launched many web sites, from million hit wonders to our local real estate appraiser. The formulas is always the same. Three years of web designing, developing and marketing has brought me to this point. Those web sites are important assets. But my real asset are my clients. The people who keep my business going. Customers are your most important asset. Only they know what they want to buy and when. The funny thing is, most online businesses ignore their customers. Most spend their time looking for new customers when they could build their business around what their steady customers want. (Without working too hard.) Those customers who visit are looking for someone to guide them. We all need experts to solve the problems of business. Of life. And mostly, of time. And it all starts with a plan. Do you have a plan? If you don't, start by putting your plan together now. "Plan your work and work your plan". Become the expert in your field and test your idea. If you do not test, you will have no idea of how you are doing. Now here's my view on survival on the web... Money is lying dormant in web sites now, which you can harvest. The answers are so simple. The best way to succeed is by combining responsible, direct email marketing with selling centered on your web site. Anywhere your target customers are meeting - even in print media - is a place for you to market. I want to give you the facts. I don't want to teach you how to code a web page. Even I don't do that. I get my techies to work on that for me. I will however teach you how to profit from day one and not make mistakes others do. FACT 1 The most important role of web marketing is to center all the attention on the sale and none on the technique of presenting it. When your customer notices the computer, they are not paying attention to your message. Many people believe that big, fancy graphics or Java will help them sell their web site's value. Meanwhile, a visitor waits 30 seconds and leaves before the message is shown. The graphics slow the whole process down. Others email files that require the customer to have a certain type of software, like Adobe Acrobat. Putting conditions on any sale limits success. That is why the simple marketing techniques work, because the majority can read your message and decide whether they want to act - immediately. All the technical tricks in the world will not help you sell. Keep your business on the Internet simple. Create a basic web site with good headlines. Get people to contact you in as many ways as they are comfortable with. Give them your email address, telephone, fax, and order numbers quickly. Email with text-only files (any word processor can save a file as text-only) to insure that everyone can read it quickly, no matter what type of computer or software they have. Respond to them immediately using email autoresponders, which act like "email on demand". At the most, you have 30 seconds for them to decide whether to read your email, or explore your web site. That is why a headline is important. If they do read/explore, you have about 7 minutes to sell them. Create marketing that does not exclude anyone. This will save you tremendous amounts of time and money. Keep it simple. FACT 2 There are two types of businesses online those who test, and those who lose money. Success online is simple. Those who test their marketing, measuring how much they actually sell from a web site, how many leads they generate, and how long it takes for them to convert those leads into sales...they succeed. In fact, most do not limit their sales to the Internet. Sales by telephone, fax, or personal meeting are an excellent idea to set up outside of the Internet (especially for someone starting new). Who cares where they buy? Online experts talk about e-commerce. To succeed as someone new, you will focus on: A) How to use the Internet as a business tool, making it part of your entire sales process and virtually eliminating overhead cost. B) How to sell online and offline by pinpointing where they want to buy, and using the Internet to help them get there quickly. C) Building customer relationships. Creating long term customers. Those who spend all their money on a web site and do not test it, lose money. They can not measure success or failure of marketing. This is the "Magic Dust" approach to the Internet. The result is a beautiful, utterly worthless web site with no results. Focus on one task at a time. Sell one product. Sell it well. Give all your focus to that product. Then bring another product online. Another service. Another limited time run of retail items. Test what works. Even if you have thousands of products and services to sell, you need to build your own sales process. No one can teach you the exact strategy. But you can be guided to your own solution, which is making it easy for your customers to work with you. It is simple. Learn how to measure your own success, and measure it! No matter where you market, this is the best way. Test. Then test again. FACT 3 While the Internet may change every day, people don't. Mark Twain had a great saying during the last economic revolution, the Industrial version: "It is not the progress I mind, it is the change I hate." People surfing the Internet see change every where. When they come online, big business tells them they are virtual. When they go to web sites, they are forced to download odd collections of software just to see a message. Assume that people contacting you have limited time. They do not care about what you are selling, just what it will do for them. Show them how your product or service fits into what they want. Contacting you at a web site or via email should be like walking into a storefront in a village. Greet them, keep the dialogue friendly but not informal, and point them towards what they are looking for. One more thing reward them for contacting you. A free report, offer, coupon, or sample is essential to marketing online. Create direct response with this offer. The only change they should notice is a bonus they did not have before meeting you. Here's how I would recommend you take your first baby steps online... Follow precedent of successful web sites. The articles I write are based on many successful Internet businesses in the past and present. Past performance is never an indicator of what's to come, but they bring some insight into the question of how to profit. Adapt them to your own budget, to your own measure of success. Forget all the opinions, cyber-theories, and pundits screaming about the Information Superhighway. The Internet is a marketplace. There are no final products on the Internet, just marketing in progress. Tested. Measured. Compared to what you expected. Marketing built on ... 1) Testing small and cheaply. Test email, create a simple web site, and use other media (telephone, fax, direct mail, etc.) to find a good sales process. 2) Building on what works. Once you find what is selling, then commit your money. Take the next step in testing. Expand your reach. 3) Comparing results to expectations. As you test, you will discover many places (and different media) where your customers are meeting. You may find your expectations are not accurate. Adapt so you can generate the results you want. If you find it is a dead end, give it up. Try something different, or try again. Let me get straight into the lessons for newbie's. Here are three most important lessons you will learn from my future articles... 1) You will need a web site and email to effectively market and test. The web site is a contact point, while email is where you do your selling. Measure the web site investment in terms of time and money. Many people waste incredible amounts of time. You can not get back lost marketing time. Production time on a web site will detract from email marketing. This could spell the ruin of your effort within six months. A good web site should be up and running within two months... maximum (or if possible, in just 2 days... ask us at IITIS Pty Ltd how we can offer you a special pre-built e-business suited to your personality launched for you in that time frame). It is worth it to pay someone to do it right at first. Answer your email and search for customers to target with your message. 2) The Internet often involves multi-step marketing. Inquiries are important and must be followed up promptly to generate sales. Follow up does not have to happen online. People still like to use telephones, faxes, and the mail. Contact them wherever they are comfortable. 3) My knowledge is the result of years of research. Tested methods of marketing online, of running a web site (I currently run 30+ of my own ones), and contacting prospects via email are presented from actual success stories online. Technical particulars of web design and development won't be taught to you because they don't make you money (that my web design company and our team's bread and butter anyway). Instead, you will learn how to sell effectively, how to use headlines, test advertising, and build a customer list. Marketing to customers on the Internet is more like a marathon than a sprint. If you target your Web marketing to interested customers, you can win in the long run. About the author: Matthew Ng is CEO of IITIS Pty Ltd "A trusted web design company for an on-time workable Internet marketing strategy." Matthew Ng is also Founder of MOPS (MyOwnProfitSite.com), a home based business opportunity program to help work at home individuals start their own web site busin

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