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Atricle Dump - eMarketing 101-Chapter 2: The Arrows In The eMarketer's Quiver
The internet is considered a god-send by many people all over the globe. Never before has such an opportunity been placed on the table for your taking. Where else could you set up a business transcending borders for fifty dollars a month or less.Opportunities abound everywhere you turn nowadays online, just name it there is a way for you to turn a profit. Newsletters, store fronts, affiliate programs and content sites are just a few examples of the diverse choices our there.At the turn of the millennium when I first got involved on the net there were far fewer websites then. Now there are a vast variety of websites on different topics all vying for attention from web surfers. Because of this growth you can ensure that the competition for traffic is stiff.One very important thing of note is that one’s success is not guaranteed online. Business online should be approached in the same professional manner as one would offline.Since building my first website I have been through countless setbacks, I once lost seven months worth of subscribers in one fatal click. Setbacks are natural though, the important thing is to move ahead through the fog and mist even with uncertainty.Passion is also very important to the success process. My passion initially was to offer the best website about my hometown, not to make money. Profit is just a by-product. That passion has been realized and even though I don’t make money by the bucket loads, I feel fulfilled.Hardwork, perseverance, vision and commitment is required to see you through to the end. Don’t fall for the hype about get rich quick programs, success at these are the exception and not the rule. Buckling up for the long haul would be highly recommended.ience. Customise and tweak your message, then measure and test to see what techniques are most effective for your particular market. Email marketing is about creating, building up, and capitalising on the relationships you build with your clients. Conversion Optimisation You've built a fantastic site. You're bringing in lots of traffic thanks to the highly effective SEO, Email, PPC and WebPR techniques we've discussed.
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have
A short time ago, I had a couple of incredible "breakthroughs" in my understanding of MLM/Networking and Home Based Businesses.I'll share those here with you. Maybe you can learn these lessons earlier than I did, and start having success sooner.Breakthrough #1 "Serious Vs. Interested"There is a HUGE difference between people that seriously want a home based business to work, and people that are just doing it as "hobby" Literally Millions of People around the world are involved in some sort of HBB online, but how many people actually ever make anything of it?One of the things that Brian from traffic wave professes, is that this is a sorting business. Of course this is true. Since it is an easy business to join, it's also just as easy to quit, or do nothing.Less than 5 % of the people that ever join a MLM company will ever sponsor more than one person.. WOW... that statistic blew me away, but my own numbers from my businesses support that. So that means you need to become a sponsoring machine!!We are just going to have to figure out what the formula is for our business, and do it over and over and over again!!Breakthrough #2There is a winning formula that works every time. Success is totally duplicatable. Probably not in the way that you are thinking. There are concepts, ideas, and systems in place today right now, that are creating wealth for those people that know how to work it.You almost have to be a philosopher to understand this, but there is a mindset that creates wealth. Either you have the mindset, you are trying to create the mindset, or you don't have it... Period.I get phone calls and emails all the time asking me questions, and what I say back to them o
Search Engine Marketing - SEM Daily search volumes run into the hundreds of millions and Search Engines drive a huge proportion of all web traffic. Search is usually the first port of call for anyone looking for anything online. Those who seek online, search. Fundamentally, what makes SEM so effective is that you get found by potential customers looking for the service you offer. So, provided you've got your keyword strategy right, you're getting targeted traffic.
Search Engine Marketing is divided into two distinct categories: Paid Search and Organic Search
Talk about Paid Search and you're talking Pay Per Click or PPC. Talk about Organic Search and the focus is Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. They're similar enough to be classified together under SEM but they're different enough to warrant separate explanations.
PPC - Pay Per Click It does just like it says on the tin. You Pay Per Click. Simple. Targeted. Effective. You buy sponsored adverts on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), often displayed either above the normal "organic" listings or across to the right hand side. The beauty of the system is that you're paying purely on a performance basis, that is, when the ad is clicked on. A few points on PPC:
- Advert positioning is based on a bidding system. At its simplest, the highest bidder gets the highest ad placement.
- A PPC campaign is a dynamic strategic process. It needs to be closely monitored and managed to ensure maximum ROI.
- An appropriate keyword strategy is imperative to ensure the clicks you pay for are as targeted as possible. The more targeted your traffic, the greater your conversion rates, and the better your ROI.
SEO - Search Engine Optimisation Why pay for your clicks when you can get them for free? SEO is PPC's roommate in the house of SEM. (I warned you the acronyms would come thick and fast.) Strictly speaking, SEO is about optimising websites to achieve high rankings on the Search Engines for certain selected key phrases. Sometimes called "organic" or "natural" optimisation, SEO involves making changes to the HTML code, content and structure behind your website, making it more accessible for Search Engines, and by extension, easier to find by users. SEO rewards relevant, helpful websites that add value and give visitors what they're looking for.
SEO is an extremely cost effective way of generating new business to your site. Once your site ranks highly on a Search Engine Results Page, you don't pay for any traffic that arrives at your site from that listing. SEO is a continuous process though; both to maintain rankings and improve rankings for other terms that may bring in relevant traffic. Free clicks! Well, not quite. But you're not paying per click, so over time, ROI is excellent. Ideally PPC and SEO work synergistically to maximise Search Engine traffic. Online Advertising Eyeballs. They're a large part of the traditional advertising equation. For brand awareness, you need your brand to be seen.
Online Advertising is strongest on - adverts on websites, email newsletters and other electronic publications and is generally paid for on a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) basis. Unlike some of the other eMarketing techniques we've looked at, online advertising is not biased towards directly measurable ROI. Rather, it provides a means for combining the brand awareness bias of traditional advertising techniques with the immediacy of eMarketing. Affiliate Marketing What if you could combine the performance-based cost element of PPC with the brand awareness potential of Online Advertising?
In a manner of speaking, that's what Affiliate Marketing does. At its simplest, Affiliate Marketing uses affiliate partner websites to display your adverts, and pays them on a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) basis. Advertisers earn a commission on sales generated. So while you're increasing your brand visibility, you are only paying for results. Additionally, you create revenue making opportunities for many other online publishers, helping to grow the eMarketing industry, giving you a warm fuzzy feeling. Viral Marketing
Word-of-mouth is probably the world's oldest form of marketing. Back when humans first started trading the things they traded, they'd likely find out about where to get what they needed from others. Collaboration and information sharing is a basic human trait and perhaps the one, which made us the dominant species. Fast forward to the modern world.
Word of mouth in an electronic context.
Self-replicating distribution techniques.
Exponential growth in campaign reach. Viral Marketinguses the connectedness of the Internet and the social networks characteristic of electronic communication to build brand awareness exponentially. People pass on and share things that provide value, especially when the costs of sharing are low, as is case online. Think funny video clips, interactive flash games, competitions, images, text - in fact, viral marketing is limited only by the creativity of the eMarketer. Anything that truly entertains, informs, amuses or intrigues the recipient is likely to be further distributed. A well-orchestrated viral campaign harnesses this basic fact of human nature for the good of the brand.
ORM - Online Reputation Management More and more, consumers turn to the Internet for information about products, services and the companies that offer them. Buying a new car? Check out reviews online.
Thinking of getting in a new eMarketing agency?
Find out what others have said online about their experiences. Your company's reputation is out there on the web for all to see. Existing and potential customers care about that reputation. And so should you.
People are talking. Good things and bad things. Praise and scorn. Are you listening? ORM means monitoring what's being said about you. Listening to what customers are saying. It also means responding. Let your customers know that you hear them. Earn their trust with honesty and openness. Most importantly, engage them. Make them feel included and important and considered.
By being aware of what's being said about you online, you are able to react and put the necessary damage control strategy in place as soon as bad publicity pops up its fat, stupid, ugly head.
WebPR Business has moved online and Public Relations (PR), that indispensable tool of brand awareness, has followed. Now that most business is conducted on the Internet; the playground of PR has moved online. WebPR allows PR to reach its fullest expression because the potential for getting your brand 'out there' is limitless.
There is an assortment of ways to market your business globally through WebPR. Various online channels like, Article Banks/Directory Sites, industry related sites, as well as local and international News sites are used to distribute content containing some element of your brand. Online press releases must drive traffic to your site (your website is not a fancy brochure; it is a marketing tool that needs visitors to become customers). To achieve this, press releases need to be optimised with the appropriate key phrases and links. The link posted at the end of a press release or feature article is a valuable source of driving internet traffic to your website. Writing interesting, high-quality articles on relevant topics and submitting them to content distribution sites is a great way to effectively promote your website or brand.
Email Marketing Direct marketing via electronic means - email marketing is very powerful. It's also extremely cost effective, highly targeted, customisable, measurable and best of all, takes advantage of the consumer's most prolific touch point with the Internet, their inbox. Email marketing is about building virtual relationships with existing and potential clients and maximising the retention and value of these customers. Push your message out to your audience and let it pull them into contact with your company.
With a correctly built mailing list, you have direct access to a targeted audience. Customise and tweak your message, then measure and test to see what techniques are most effective for your particular market. Email marketing is about creating, building up, and capitalising on the relationships you build with your clients. Conversion Optimisation You've built a fantastic site. You're bringing in lots of traffic thanks to the highly effective SEO, Email, PPC and WebPR techniques we've discussed.
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have a
IntroductionMany internet marketers would have you think you can build a lasting, profitable business simply by implementing the latest and greatest internet marketing strategies. However, in most cases this isn’t true. If you want to pursue a REAL internet business opportunity, read on.Starting any business, be it on the internet or down the street, means you’ve got to think like an entrepreneur not just an “internet marketer.”The founders of Google, Zazzle, Amazon, or IBM didn’t stumble across an e-book or marketing course (with “567 PROVEN marketing secretes”) in order to build their companies. They logically and actively sought out a market, solved a problem, and developed new ideas to better server their customer base. Instead of focusing on email lists, article directories, or link building, they actually set up and grew a company.Don’t let the masses of self proclaimed internet gurus trip you up. If you want to be an entrepreneur, run a home based business, or even build a company, internet marketing strategies aren’t step one, they’re step two or maybe three.So what does it take to start, build and grow a real business online? I’m about to tell you.Step 1: Change or develop your mindsetStop thinking about how you can suck money out from the pockets of internet surfers and start thinking like a business person.What are you going to offer your customers in exchange for their money? Start thinking about what you can provide, not just what you want in return for your work.Step 2: Real businesses, whether brick and mortar or internet based result from a combination of three things.1. A mar
SEO - Search Engine Optimisation Why pay for your clicks when you can get them for free? SEO is PPC's roommate in the house of SEM. (I warned you the acronyms would come thick and fast.) Strictly speaking, SEO is about optimising websites to achieve high rankings on the Search Engines for certain selected key phrases. Sometimes called "organic" or "natural" optimisation, SEO involves making changes to the HTML code, content and structure behind your website, making it more accessible for Search Engines, and by extension, easier to find by users. SEO rewards relevant, helpful websites that add value and give visitors what they're looking for.
SEO is an extremely cost effective way of generating new business to your site. Once your site ranks highly on a Search Engine Results Page, you don't pay for any traffic that arrives at your site from that listing. SEO is a continuous process though; both to maintain rankings and improve rankings for other terms that may bring in relevant traffic. Free clicks! Well, not quite. But you're not paying per click, so over time, ROI is excellent. Ideally PPC and SEO work synergistically to maximise Search Engine traffic. Online Advertising Eyeballs. They're a large part of the traditional advertising equation. For brand awareness, you need your brand to be seen.
Online Advertising is strongest on - adverts on websites, email newsletters and other electronic publications and is generally paid for on a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) basis. Unlike some of the other eMarketing techniques we've looked at, online advertising is not biased towards directly measurable ROI. Rather, it provides a means for combining the brand awareness bias of traditional advertising techniques with the immediacy of eMarketing. Affiliate Marketing What if you could combine the performance-based cost element of PPC with the brand awareness potential of Online Advertising?
In a manner of speaking, that's what Affiliate Marketing does. At its simplest, Affiliate Marketing uses affiliate partner websites to display your adverts, and pays them on a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) basis. Advertisers earn a commission on sales generated. So while you're increasing your brand visibility, you are only paying for results. Additionally, you create revenue making opportunities for many other online publishers, helping to grow the eMarketing industry, giving you a warm fuzzy feeling. Viral Marketing
Word-of-mouth is probably the world's oldest form of marketing. Back when humans first started trading the things they traded, they'd likely find out about where to get what they needed from others. Collaboration and information sharing is a basic human trait and perhaps the one, which made us the dominant species. Fast forward to the modern world.
Word of mouth in an electronic context.
Self-replicating distribution techniques.
Exponential growth in campaign reach. Viral Marketinguses the connectedness of the Internet and the social networks characteristic of electronic communication to build brand awareness exponentially. People pass on and share things that provide value, especially when the costs of sharing are low, as is case online. Think funny video clips, interactive flash games, competitions, images, text - in fact, viral marketing is limited only by the creativity of the eMarketer. Anything that truly entertains, informs, amuses or intrigues the recipient is likely to be further distributed. A well-orchestrated viral campaign harnesses this basic fact of human nature for the good of the brand.
ORM - Online Reputation Management More and more, consumers turn to the Internet for information about products, services and the companies that offer them. Buying a new car? Check out reviews online.
Thinking of getting in a new eMarketing agency?
Find out what others have said online about their experiences. Your company's reputation is out there on the web for all to see. Existing and potential customers care about that reputation. And so should you.
People are talking. Good things and bad things. Praise and scorn. Are you listening? ORM means monitoring what's being said about you. Listening to what customers are saying. It also means responding. Let your customers know that you hear them. Earn their trust with honesty and openness. Most importantly, engage them. Make them feel included and important and considered.
By being aware of what's being said about you online, you are able to react and put the necessary damage control strategy in place as soon as bad publicity pops up its fat, stupid, ugly head.
WebPR Business has moved online and Public Relations (PR), that indispensable tool of brand awareness, has followed. Now that most business is conducted on the Internet; the playground of PR has moved online. WebPR allows PR to reach its fullest expression because the potential for getting your brand 'out there' is limitless.
There is an assortment of ways to market your business globally through WebPR. Various online channels like, Article Banks/Directory Sites, industry related sites, as well as local and international News sites are used to distribute content containing some element of your brand. Online press releases must drive traffic to your site (your website is not a fancy brochure; it is a marketing tool that needs visitors to become customers). To achieve this, press releases need to be optimised with the appropriate key phrases and links. The link posted at the end of a press release or feature article is a valuable source of driving internet traffic to your website. Writing interesting, high-quality articles on relevant topics and submitting them to content distribution sites is a great way to effectively promote your website or brand.
Email Marketing Direct marketing via electronic means - email marketing is very powerful. It's also extremely cost effective, highly targeted, customisable, measurable and best of all, takes advantage of the consumer's most prolific touch point with the Internet, their inbox. Email marketing is about building virtual relationships with existing and potential clients and maximising the retention and value of these customers. Push your message out to your audience and let it pull them into contact with your company.
With a correctly built mailing list, you have direct access to a targeted audience. Customise and tweak your message, then measure and test to see what techniques are most effective for your particular market. Email marketing is about creating, building up, and capitalising on the relationships you build with your clients. Conversion Optimisation You've built a fantastic site. You're bringing in lots of traffic thanks to the highly effective SEO, Email, PPC and WebPR techniques we've discussed.
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have
The explosion of information has led to an explosion of confusion. Confusion as it relates to business is a dangerous thing.Let's put it out there in plain English.Business is the creation, selling and delivery of a product or service for a profit. That's it. Nothing more and nothing less. It doesn't matter if you're running a home based business a small business or IBM, lose focus of the real definition of business and you're going to have problems.If you're planning on starting a small business or if you're struggling with the business you run today, or if you want to grow your existing business you need to keep this definition at the front of your mind. Everything you do should be based on that one simple sentence. If not, you’re not doing business.So how does this translate in to every day business?Small business is hard work, tough decisions and a relentless pursuit of the bottom line. When we let our small business become something other than real business, we're inviting failure.That doesn’t mean we become Machiavelli, but we must stick to the truth in front of us, and make decisions based on the facts. We use our brains to resolve problems and when that resolution is telling us we need a change, we make the change. Too often we get caught up in the trap of what’s fair. Employee A is often fifteen minutes late, he can be contentious with other employees and is a know it all. He also generates three times the what he costs and is our most profitable employee. Employee B is on time, easy to work with, and a really nice guy. But he doesn’t generate any profit for the business and costs the bottom line. Who gets fired? If you said Employee A, or Employee B, both are wro
Word-of-mouth is probably the world's oldest form of marketing. Back when humans first started trading the things they traded, they'd likely find out about where to get what they needed from others. Collaboration and information sharing is a basic human trait and perhaps the one, which made us the dominant species. Fast forward to the modern world.
Word of mouth in an electronic context.
Self-replicating distribution techniques.
Exponential growth in campaign reach. Viral Marketinguses the connectedness of the Internet and the social networks characteristic of electronic communication to build brand awareness exponentially. People pass on and share things that provide value, especially when the costs of sharing are low, as is case online. Think funny video clips, interactive flash games, competitions, images, text - in fact, viral marketing is limited only by the creativity of the eMarketer. Anything that truly entertains, informs, amuses or intrigues the recipient is likely to be further distributed. A well-orchestrated viral campaign harnesses this basic fact of human nature for the good of the brand.
ORM - Online Reputation Management More and more, consumers turn to the Internet for information about products, services and the companies that offer them. Buying a new car? Check out reviews online.
Thinking of getting in a new eMarketing agency?
Find out what others have said online about their experiences. Your company's reputation is out there on the web for all to see. Existing and potential customers care about that reputation. And so should you.
People are talking. Good things and bad things. Praise and scorn. Are you listening? ORM means monitoring what's being said about you. Listening to what customers are saying. It also means responding. Let your customers know that you hear them. Earn their trust with honesty and openness. Most importantly, engage them. Make them feel included and important and considered.
By being aware of what's being said about you online, you are able to react and put the necessary damage control strategy in place as soon as bad publicity pops up its fat, stupid, ugly head.
WebPR Business has moved online and Public Relations (PR), that indispensable tool of brand awareness, has followed. Now that most business is conducted on the Internet; the playground of PR has moved online. WebPR allows PR to reach its fullest expression because the potential for getting your brand 'out there' is limitless.
There is an assortment of ways to market your business globally through WebPR. Various online channels like, Article Banks/Directory Sites, industry related sites, as well as local and international News sites are used to distribute content containing some element of your brand. Online press releases must drive traffic to your site (your website is not a fancy brochure; it is a marketing tool that needs visitors to become customers). To achieve this, press releases need to be optimised with the appropriate key phrases and links. The link posted at the end of a press release or feature article is a valuable source of driving internet traffic to your website. Writing interesting, high-quality articles on relevant topics and submitting them to content distribution sites is a great way to effectively promote your website or brand.
Email Marketing Direct marketing via electronic means - email marketing is very powerful. It's also extremely cost effective, highly targeted, customisable, measurable and best of all, takes advantage of the consumer's most prolific touch point with the Internet, their inbox. Email marketing is about building virtual relationships with existing and potential clients and maximising the retention and value of these customers. Push your message out to your audience and let it pull them into contact with your company.
With a correctly built mailing list, you have direct access to a targeted audience. Customise and tweak your message, then measure and test to see what techniques are most effective for your particular market. Email marketing is about creating, building up, and capitalising on the relationships you build with your clients. Conversion Optimisation You've built a fantastic site. You're bringing in lots of traffic thanks to the highly effective SEO, Email, PPC and WebPR techniques we've discussed.
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have
It's one thing to get customers to purchase your products and another to have customers continue to buy from you. This article is going share with you the top 10 ways to keep your customers coming back for more.1. Offer a freebie with each purchaseOffering something free with each purchase is a great marketing technique and customers love it. It doesn't have to be something expensive either. It could simply be a small token showing your appreciation for them being a valued patron. Depending on the product you offer it's important to keep the free item somewhat related to what you sell in general. It could also be something with your website name on it such as; a pen, small notepad, calendar, key chain, fridge magnet, etc.2. Quality is essentialOffering quality products is truly the only way to go. Regardless whether you buy products wholesale or make your own products such as crafts, it's important that they be of high quality. Offering products that are not of high quality may earn you a first sale from a customer but rarely a second. Customers will return and purchase more products from you if they can tell they are high quality items.3. ValueQuality and value go hand in hand. Every customer is looking to purchase products that are a good value to them. This doesn't mean they have to be dirt cheap by any means. But it does mean that you need to be competitive and offer them a quality product at a reasonable price. Let's say you sell e-books. An e-book of course is a product that consists of no overhead for you and can be resold an infinite number of times. So instead of pricing that e-book at $39.99, offer the e-book for $9.99. Your jaw may have dropped at this point but let me explain why.
By being aware of what's being said about you online, you are able to react and put the necessary damage control strategy in place as soon as bad publicity pops up its fat, stupid, ugly head.
WebPR Business has moved online and Public Relations (PR), that indispensable tool of brand awareness, has followed. Now that most business is conducted on the Internet; the playground of PR has moved online. WebPR allows PR to reach its fullest expression because the potential for getting your brand 'out there' is limitless.
There is an assortment of ways to market your business globally through WebPR. Various online channels like, Article Banks/Directory Sites, industry related sites, as well as local and international News sites are used to distribute content containing some element of your brand. Online press releases must drive traffic to your site (your website is not a fancy brochure; it is a marketing tool that needs visitors to become customers). To achieve this, press releases need to be optimised with the appropriate key phrases and links. The link posted at the end of a press release or feature article is a valuable source of driving internet traffic to your website. Writing interesting, high-quality articles on relevant topics and submitting them to content distribution sites is a great way to effectively promote your website or brand.
Email Marketing Direct marketing via electronic means - email marketing is very powerful. It's also extremely cost effective, highly targeted, customisable, measurable and best of all, takes advantage of the consumer's most prolific touch point with the Internet, their inbox. Email marketing is about building virtual relationships with existing and potential clients and maximising the retention and value of these customers. Push your message out to your audience and let it pull them into contact with your company.
With a correctly built mailing list, you have direct access to a targeted audience. Customise and tweak your message, then measure and test to see what techniques are most effective for your particular market. Email marketing is about creating, building up, and capitalising on the relationships you build with your clients. Conversion Optimisation You've built a fantastic site. You're bringing in lots of traffic thanks to the highly effective SEO, Email, PPC and WebPR techniques we've discussed.
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have
There I was on the stage harmonizing with my band members. With each note I suffered in quiet desperation. I was totally broke. Sucked dry by one too many Multi-Level Marketing membership fees that had hit the old checking account, triggering a slew of charges for insufficient funds.Yes, there I stood “pickin 'n grinnin”, in debt to the bank for several thousand dollars. Eight months prior to this night I thought I had found an MLM sponsor who really cared more about building a good team than making a quick buck.Now, I felt as played as the fat strat Fender knockoff I stood strumming. It was so easy to believe he and my other upline would help me “build a network”. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to fire the boss within 48 hours of sending in an application fee?After all, the folks involved in the MLM opportunity must be doing something right if they can afford the glitzy ads. And what about all those pictures of folks on the beach or standing in front of expensive luxury sports cars?Well, as a matter of fact I happen to live on an island myself. I can go to the beach and walk on the sand any time of day or night. And as for the fancy ride, I once took a snapshot of my office co-worker as she stood grinning ear to ear next to a candy apple red Dodge Viper. I have seen proof on many other occasions that there is no magic to looking like you have a million dollars in assets.Standing there on stage, I quietly committed to quit feeling pitiful and refocus on the one thing that I had actually had success with – online sales of affiliate products.I also made a silent commitment to let other people know about my foolhardiness. Perhaps as you read this you'll consider your own situation. If you're m
Job done? Not quite. To maximise ROI, we need to make sure we turn traffic into customers. This is where Conversion Optimisation comes into play. A Two Phase Process - Before we can optimise, we need to analyse. Analyse First we need analyse the collaborative effect of our entire eMarketing effort, looking at the combined effectiveness of all our tactics.
We need to analyse:
Web usability
Site analytics
The relative ROI of each eMarketing technique used
Split and multivariate testing
Any other available measurable
This kind of analysis allows us to get a better idea for where the inefficiencies are. We've scoped things out. Now we need to... Optimise Simply put, this optimisation process is all about minimising the drop-off rate, and making the most of the traffic we're getting. Conversion is the whole reason the website exists. Based on what we found with our analysis, we make incremental changes to the most inefficient factors. Then we analyse again. And we keep doing so for each of the factors we've identified. By doing this, we're improving the conversion rate of traffic into customers. That means a lower CPA, and a better ROI.
Testing If you want to know if something works, test it. Constant tweaking and testing means we can streamline our eMarketing techniques, fine-tuning them for our specific market. In the long run, we're maximising efficiency by jettisoning the least effective practises and focussing on those that bring the most benefit. Darwin would be proud. It's evolutionary marketing - survival of only the fittest techniques. Ready, Aim, Fire! So there you have it. These are the weapons that you, as the aspiring eMarketer, have available in your arsenal. Of course, it's about more than just the tools. It's also about how they are put to use, and how they work together as part of a "big-picture" campaign vision.
Coming soon: Chapter 3. What should you expect? OK, so now you know what's in the toolbox, it's time to learn how to put them to use. The most common form of citizen media is the weblog or blog as it's more commonly known. In the next chapter, "Blogging - everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?", we look exclusively at blogs. With more than 80 000 new blogs created each day, that's more than the number of books published in the US each year! But what is a blog and how can it be used as part of a highly effective eMarketing strategy? - we'll tell you everything you need to know next fortnight... Other Articles in the eMarketing 101 series:
- What is eMarketing and how is it better than traditional marketing?
- The Arrows in the eMarketer's quiver
- Blogging - everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?
- A focus on natural search (beginner's guide to SEO)
- Case Study
- PPC - you gets what you pays for
- Case Study
- Email marketing - no, not SPAM
- Affiliate marketing - because we all need friends
- WebPR and ORM - blah blah blah conversations
- Case Study
- Viral marketing - linkerbation is a normal, natural thing. Perfectly natural.
- Online advertising - throwing a banner into the works
- Conversion optimisation. Are you closing the deal?
- Case Study
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