Making Internet Marketing Work For Your Business

I. Know What Your Primary Marketing Goal(s) Are, And Make It Easy For Your Visitors.
In the online marketing world everything is goal oriented. This is because unlike traditional marketing, such as radio, television or print media where it is difficult, if not impossible to determine precisely where a lead came from. In online marketing, you can determine exactly the source that created a lead, or sale.

Know what your goals are: What are your trying to get the web visitor to do? Fill out a form? Subscribe to your newsletter? Buy your product? Then develop a strategy that guides, or funnels as they say in the online world to do precisely what you want you want them to do.

II. Leverage Existing Products And Services To Quickly Advance Your Objectives
All successful business people are good on one thing, they know what they don't know! These people are successful because they find experts to fill those gaps. Even the smartest business person is not an expert on everything.

Successful business people know their strengths, and more importantly, the areas that don't have expertise. In these areas they seek out the skills of other people who are experts. That is why business consultants are popular and so well paid. In a few hours, a true expert can teach a business person what would otherwise take many years of painful and costly trial and error. In the same way, don't assume because you are an expert at traditional marketing, that this will also be true of online marketing.

III. Refine Your Advertising Message - The USP
Do you know what makes your product or service stand out from all of your competitors? The USP or Unique Selling Proposition is what makes your product or service the best choice out of all the others on the market. Does your laundry soap make colors brighter? Or does your toothpaste make breath fresher and teeth whiter?

Think about the message that is portrayed by the major corporations about their products on television... It is all about the USP. These companies spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars each year testing and advertising. They would not focus on the USP if it were not so vitally important.

IV. If Necessary, Update Your Product Offerings To Meet Market Demand.
Now that you have determined your product or service USP, refine your marketing message to promote this advantage. If you can't determine what your products USP is, neither will your potential customers! Then it is advisable to refine your products so that they accentuate a particular benefit over competitors. Make your product the best at something, or lower the price. You need to find some major reason why people should buy your product, or they just wont buy it!

V. Market Only Through Channels Known To Be Successful, And Test!
There are a lot of ways you can perform marketing on the Internet, some are much more successful that others. Many marketers spend endless hours doing repetitive tasks that are really not very effective.

A smart marketer takes advantage of powerful existing products that have proven effectiveness, such as PPC marketing. PPC has been proven to be successful for many businesses. Analytical testing is also crucial to success. If these topics are Greek to you, then teach yourself about them, or get the help of experts. Otherwise you are just wasting precious money and time.

VI. Every Lead Is Precious, Don't Let Any Get Away.
You spend a lot of time and money getting people to visit your site. The great majority of them will not buy your product during that visit. A good rate of conversion online is 5 percent. That means that 95 out of 100 visitors will not buy your product. This does not mean that you can't establish a relationship with these visitors. You can (and should) come up with a way to keep the conversation going with these people, even if they are not interested in buying at that time. Perhaps they will make a decision 6 months form now, or they have a customer or associate that may be interested in your product. Or perhaps they offer a newsletter to their customers, and are looking for good products to recommend to them.

Figure out some way to capture as many of these leads as you can. Whether it is through a "tell a friend" or "email this page" service, or a free report or newsletter, or an affiliate program. The more of these non-buyers you get on your list, the more successful your business will ultimately be.