Saturday, April 26, 2008

Stepping Stones To Build Your Business Online.

FIND A NEED AND FILL IT

Most marketers make the mistake of finding a product before they have a market. But unless people are actively searching for your product online, you’ll never make a sale. The trick is to find a group of people with a common problem they’re trying to solve and then solve it.

After you’ve done this, use what you’ve learned to create a product for a market that already exists — and do it better than your competitors.

WRITE SALES COPY THAT SELLS

On a website, your copy has to do the selling for you. There’s a proven formula for writing sales copy that’ll take visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive: Arouse interest with a compelling headline, describe the problem your product can solve, show them why you can be trusted to solve the problem, add testimonials from people who’ve used the product, talk about the product and how it benefits the user, make an offer or a guarantee, create urgency and, ask for the sale on a website.

DESIGN AND BUILD AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE

Remember to keep it simple. Your website is your online storefront, so be sure to make it customer friendly. You have less than 10 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention before they’re gone. Keep it simple and direct.

How do you get traffic to a brand-new site? Pay-per-click advertising, which has two advantages: the ads show up on search pages immediately and they allow you to test different keywords, headlines, prices and selling approaches. Not only do you get traffic immediately, but once you’ve figured out what keywords are working best, you can use them throughout your copy and code, which will help your rankings in organic search results.

ESTABLISH AN EXPERT REPUTATION FOR YOURSELF TO DRIVE EVEN MORE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE

People use the Internet to find information. If you provide valuable information for other sites to use — and include a link back to your site — you’ll get more traffic and better search engine rankings. Give away free content, like articles, videos or other useful information, and distribute that content through online article directories and social media sites. Every site that posts your content will link back to yours, and search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings accordingly.

USE THE POWER OF E-MAIL MARKETING

When you build an opt-in list, you’re creating one of the most valuable assets your online business can have—permission to send visitors e-mail. Why is e-mail marketing so valuable? You’re giving potential customers something they’ve asked for. You’re developing lifetime relationships with people in your target market. The response is 100 percent measurable. It’s cheaper and more effective than print, TV or radio advertising because it’s highly targeted. It can be almost entirely automated. Anyone who visits your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead. And there’s no better tool than e-mail to let you effortlessly follow up with those leads.

INCREASE YOUR INCOME THROUGH BACK-END SALES AND UPSELLING

One of the most important Internet marketing guidelines is to develop every customer’s lifetime value. They may come again. Closing the first sale with a customer is by far your most difficult task—not to mention your most expensive one. Offer products that complement their original purchase, send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit and offer related products on your “thank you” page. If you reward customers for being loyal, they’ll become even more loyal to you in return.

START AN AFFILIATE PROGRAMME TO MAXIMISE YOUR SALES AND REVENUE

Once your business is up and running, it’s time to launch your affiliate program. Affiliates are people who promote your products on their sites for a cut of the selling price. Every time they send you a buyer, you pay them a commission.

An affiliate programme is a simple, low-maintenance way to grow your business. Once you get your program set up, all you have to do is share your marketing materials with your affiliates and send out checks when they make sales. Once your business is up and running, it’s time to launch your affiliate programme.

Reference:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/

No comments: