Tag: marketing

    Digital Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Pros and Cons

    digital marketing

    The Digital Product vs. Affiliate Business Method

     

    Which Business Model will fit into your Lifestyle?

     

    When starting an online business, many newbies can’t decide on the business model which will fit their lifestyle while making them revenue. When starting a business, the decision often boils down to two options – promoting other’s products or selling their own products.

     

    There are definite pros and cons to each one, and some of that is based on your own personal skills and preferences. But other aspects of your decision will be based on things like profit potential, ease of implementation, and even the speed with which you can earn.

     

    There are some new things that have changed in the marketplace in recent years making it easier than ever for people to choose either of these methods for their business – or, combine them into one lucrative option!

     

    Below, we’re going to go over some things that might sway your mind to select one over another, and help you start off on a path that will not only be profitable, but personally fulfilling as well.

     

    How Fast You Can Get Your Money

     

    There’s a big difference between how fast you can earn money and how fast that money is deposited in your bank account. We’re starting off with this point, because for many (if not most) people, the desperation they feel in needing to get paid is palpable.

     

    In order to calculate the speed with which you can earn, several factors come into play. For example, as a digital vendor of products like eBooks or video courses, you have to factor in the product creation time and whatever amount of time you want to spend recruiting affiliates.

     

    This is going to vary for everyone because it takes some people months to create products and others a few hours. It’s feasible for some people to come up with a product idea, create it in a day, tell affiliates about it and start having money in their PayPal or Stipe account within 24 hours.

     

    But that’s not usual for everyone. Most people take at least a few weeks. Once it’s live, though, you will only have to check to see how fast your payment processor is in depositing the funds to your bank.

     

    Affiliates’ payments also vary by many factors. Each platform may have their own unique payment system. For example, ClickBank is going to pay affiliates on Fridays, two days after the end of the pay period and if you’re going direct deposit, you can get paid weekly.

     

    But on Amazon, you’re not getting paid until 60 days after you earn, and the payments are once a month. On Warrior Plus, you will have your affiliate earnings going into a site wallet, and the speed with which you can get those funds varies, too – from a few days to an entire month.

     

    How Much Money You Can Earn

     

    Now let’s dig into how much you can earn through each of the two business models. This is going to have variations as well. For example, as an affiliate, you have a myriad of options available that will impact the amount you earn.

     

    You might promote digital products, which have a low-price front end but an entire funnel of upsells and downsells that contribute to higher profits (not to mention some affiliate contests you can earn from, too).

     

    You might be promoting recurring income items that build your profits like a snowball, or you may choose one-time commission items instead. Even if you promote tangible products, there will be high ticket items that are harder to convert but pay more – and low ticket items that convert easily, but pay less.

     

    As a digital vendor, your earnings are going to be impacted by several factors. The first is the speed with which you release new products. Then there’s the matter of how many upgrades you have to add more profits to your bottom line.

     

    You also need to take into consideration whether or not you are going to spend time split testing your sales letter for improved conversions and recruit the top affiliates for your launches.

     

    There’s also the matter of control. You can earn as a digital vendor because you’re in control of your process. But as an affiliate, you’re at the mercy of the product creators and platforms, hoping you get approval to promote.

     

    There are some affiliates and vendors who only earn three figures each month because they’re slow or they just aren’t very good at what they do. Then there are seven and eight figure earners online, with many five and six figure earners as well.

     

    Basically, there’s no crystal ball that will tell you how much you can earn because everyone is unique and their process will vary from others’ processes, even if they try to copy someone else verbatim.

     

    What It Requires to Get Started

     

    The requirements include a mix of skill, tools and money. For some, it doesn’t require any money upfront. For others, it may require minimal investment – but nothing big or insurmountable for either business model.

     

    Let’s look at the cost of getting started first. If your plan is to launch products as a digital vendor, you pretty much need a domain and hosting. It is possible to set up a store on Etsy or elsewhere, but most people want control over their business, and if you’ll be creating sales pages, JV (joint venture) pages for affiliates and download pages, you’ll need to get a domain of your own.

     

    Look up GoDaddy coupon code and find a $0.99 dot com domain and then pay for a small hosting plan that should not cost more than $5-10 per month. From there, you can use WordPress themes for free.

     

    But if you want to, you can invest in a page building tool that will help you create   professional pages made from templates. The platforms (like Warrior Plus) won’t cost anything up front to sell on – but they’ll take a small fee from each sale as their cut.

     

    If you’re operating as an affiliate marketer, you definitely want to have your own site eventually, but it’s not a requirement up front. You can get started, though using social media platforms instead.

     

    You can promote products on YouTube, Facebook and other places that allow your links without having to buy a domain and hosting until you feel you can afford it. The only other investment you may want to make from time to time is of a product you’re reviewing, but that’s not a necessity.

     

    Now let’s look at the tools you may need to learn. In addition to WordPress or page builders, you’ll likely want a good keyword tool. This can be a free or paid tool, but it can tell you what the needs of your customers are and help you craft products and reviews.

     

    Graphics creators are another type of tool that will come in handy. But luckily, you can pair a free stock photo site with a tool like Canva (the free version) and use the built-in templates to create what you need.

     

    Last, let’s consider the skills you need to succeed with these business models. As a digital product creator, you have to know how to write well or how to record your course, depending on your preferences and those of your customers.

     

    You’ll also need to know how to create listings on platforms like Warrior Plus, JVZoo, ClickBank or an individual platform like Thrivecart, depending on how you want to set it up.

     

    There’s also the matter of customer service. As a digital product vendor, you’re going to need to deal with people directly. But as an affiliate, you’ll simply be the bridge between the vendor and customer, so the vendor will handle any customer service issues that arise.

     

    As an affiliate, you’re also going to need to know how to write or record your product reviews. Plus, you want your reviews to get found easily, so you have to learn more about search engine optimization than if you were a digital vendor getting traffic through a launch.

     

    For both business models, you’ll need to have good research skills. The good news is, there are tools that can help you with content creation, SEO and even customer service.

     

    Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can spiff up your content, it can conduct research on your behalf, engage in social listening and predictive analysis to help you create something your audience craves and more.

     

    How You’ll Get Customers

     

    This is one aspect that’s very different between the two business models – the way in which you’ll get customers. As a digital product vendor, if you have a launch coming up, you’ll want to recruit affiliates to promote for you.

     

    If you were to optimize your own site and promote it, you could also get customers that way, but it’s far more time-intensive than recruiting the right affiliates. They will send a recommendation of your product to their list of subscribers on your behalf.

     

    So in order to make sure you achieve this goal, you have to first ensure the quality of your product and that it’s something that will be in demand. Then price it so that it gives value to the buyers, with an upsell funnel that caters to the commission needs of your affiliates.

     

    The more you can do to entice affiliates onboard, the better. That means creating an informative JV page with readymade swipe files they can use, hosting a cash prize contest, and giving them advance notice so they can create a bonus (or give them a bonus to use instead).

     

    Traffic as an affiliate is a bit different. You’re going to need to optimize your content - whether it’s on social media or Google and other search engines. That means learning the algorithms and hashtags, which thumbnails will grab the attention of users and more.

     

    Knowledge You’ll Need to Have

     

    This brings us to the knowledge you need. In addition to what’s already been covered about research, tools and SEO, you will have other knowledge needs. For example, if you are a digital vendor, you are going to be immersed in a continual learning cycle.

     

    You must constantly pay attention to trends and research within your niche so that you can teach what your audience needs to know. But in addition to niche-based learning, you also have to stay on top of the marketing aspect have your business.

     

    There will always be new evolutions in marketing strategies, so you're going to have to learn how to sell in a way that allows you to be competitive. There also will be new ways of developing products.

     

    For example, webinars and video products were not always an option in the early days, where people had to teach from text only. Anytime a new strategy emerges that consumers embrace fully, you want to be aware of it so you can use it in your business.

     

    As an affiliate marketer, you're going to have to stay on top of different trends and marketing methods that are used on social media and elsewhere. But you also have to pay attention to different products that are being released within your niche.

     

    It's not just an affiliate’s job to present the product and tell people about the features and pricing. You have to know enough about the niche itself, such as the problems and pain points you are audiences having as well as the new technology or strategies that are being released so that you can select the right products to review.

     

    Time Benefits and Obstacles

     

    Lastly, you want to compare the time benefits and drawbacks of both business models. Many people avoid being a digital vendor because it's more demanding than affiliate marketing.

     

    If you decide to have an info product launch, you are going to be setting a date for the release of that product that your affiliates are going to expect you to abide by. That means you will need to put yourself on a schedule with boundaries in place to ensure your launch goes live at that date and time.

     

    It can be a bit more pressure filled than working as an affiliate, where you are on your own timetable discussing products that are already released, unless you are getting ready for a vendor’s product launch and trying to create a bonus or review for it.

     

    As a digital vendor, you're also going to be restricted by time when it comes to providing support to your customers. If you have an inbox filled with customer service requests, you need to make sure you are replying to them in a timely manner rather than letting them go unaddressed.

     

    With affiliate marketing, there's more pressure to scale your business so that you can continue bringing in profits, so you must be consistent with your reviews. As a digital product creator, depending on how well your post launch sales go, you may be able to take your foot off the gas a bit and slow down in the development of your next launch.

     

    With both options, you'll be able to scale your business into something bigger, but it's going to require you to invest more time and effort so that you can continue serving your audience well and even expand your audience base.

     

    There are definite benefits and drawbacks to both business models, but that’s true of every option you have available to you. The key is to find what you enjoy and pursue it vigorously so that you build a thriving online empire – even if that means combining them into one!

     

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Word of Mouth Marketing is easy and effective way to promote your business

    How Word-of-Mouth Marketing Makes You the Go-To Expert in Your Market 

    Do you want to become the go-to source of expertise for your audience in your niche? There are many marketing strategies you can employ to do this, but the most effective and efficient is word-of-mouth marketing.

    Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is, at its most basic definition, free advertising that happens when a customer having a great experience with your company. The happy customer is so delighted, they can’t help singing your praises to anyone who will listen.

    lt is that new people hear about how amazing you or your company are from a trusted friend, not an advertisement. This subset of social proof is a highly powerful way to make sales. You can use word-of-mouth marketing to grow your customer base, make sales, and boost your business’s brand.

    If you can harness the power of WOMM, you can get more out of your marketing efforts and grow your reputation using the oldest method of advertising known to mankind.

    How Word-of-Mouth Marketing Works

    The reason WOMM is so powerful is that people have gotten used to advertising hype. They’re savvier than ever before and they know online marketing when they see it. As a result, they’re less likely to listen when they see your promotional content online.

    But with word of mouth, the message comes from friends who are giving an honest recommendation. According to marketing research, people are much more likely to make purchase decisions based on what their friends say, rather than advertisements.

    When was the last time you tried something because of a friend told you about it? If you think back on your own experiences, it’s easy to see how word-of-mouth marketing works.

    Organic vs. Accelerated Word of Mouth

    Word-of-mouth marketing is nothing new at all. People have been spreading information about products and services for as long as language has existed. One person tells two friends, they each in turn tell two more, and so on. It’s the pre-internet version of viral marketing.

    This is also called “organic” WOMM. It’s organic because it happens naturally, with no action taken on your part. But you don’t have to rely on the hope that people will talk about you. Instead, you can make it happen by using “accelerated” word-of-mouth marketing. This is when you launch a campaign and employ tactics specifically designed to encourage word of mouth.

    The idea behind accelerated WOMM is to create a buzz that gets people talking. Businesses create products and content with shareability in mind. They leverage influencers and brand advocates to help spread the word and may even offer incentives to their audience members for telling others.

    There are strategies you can use that are guaranteed to get people talking and give them the nudge necessary to spread the word. All it takes is a little planning and effort.

    Word-of-Mouth Marketing Examples

    There are many ways businesses are using WOMM to spread awareness.

    In our business with my husband, we don’t need to advertise or market because we get word of mouth marketing working for us for the last 15 years. Once you get good recommendations from your clients, the word of mouth spreads and grows!

    One example would be to run a contest or challenge where customers make videos highlighting original, unusual, or funny uses of your products. You choose the best ones and give them awards, sharing all the submissions with your audience.

    Another example would be a coffee company that creates content teaching its audience about its ethically sourced beans and how it supports local communities and causes. The company’s customers support the business not only for the coffee, but also for the core values they share. This gets people talking and telling others about the coffee that everyone should be drinking.

    Another simple WOMM idea is to gather reviews and comments from your customers and post them on your website.

    Best Practices for Harnessing the Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

    Offer Expert Advice and Information. Create and share content that helps your audience solve problems they’re facing. Offer this help free with no strings attached. If your content is unique and offers value, people will be much more likely to tell their friends about it.

    Excellent Products and Services. Offer excellent products and services with stellar customer service. If you offer the highest quality possible, people will tell others, especially if they get results from using them.

    Learn How to Build Buzz. Since WOMM works best when people are talking, take the proactive steps to get them talking. Make everything shareable. Create events that will get talked about. Take advantage of current and upcoming trends.

    Do One Thing Really Well. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Focus on one thing and do it really well. If you can do one thing better than anyone else, you’ll get to be known for that specialty. You’ll gain an edge over the competition and word will spread.

    Exceed Expectations and Wow People. Go above and beyond what people expect of you. Give them unexpected surprises that will create a wow moment. These experiences are memorable and build buzz. The easiest way to wow people is to make promises and overdeliver on them.

    Tell a Good Story. Learn to tell stories well. If you share stories that connect with your audience through the core values you share, this will build a great relationship. People will buy from you because of your story, and then they’ll spread the word.

    Create an Experience. Don’t just create a product or service. Create an experience. Think about the journey your customer takes from initial contact to becoming a repeat purchaser and brand advocate. Make each step as engaging, helpful, personal, and enjoyable for your customer as possible. Seek ways to add value at every step along the way.

    Stay in Touch with Your Audience. Good communication with your customers is the key to making WOMM work. You need to know what problems they face and why they buy from you. You should have a plan for consistently gathering both positive and negative feedback that you can take action on, continually creating an even better experience.

    Ready to Make Word-of-Mouth Marketing Work for You?

    Ready to get started? The first step is to identify some strategies you can use to get people talking about you. If you know your audience well, you can easily find some ways to build buzz over your products and services. Go ahead and pick from some of the ideas and examples in this article to start with. Then let your own creativity kick in.

    Implement and refine, and soon you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get your customers talking about you and telling others.

    For more ideas and creating a word of mouth marketing strategy , you can check out the word of mouth marketing course in The Business of At Home Business Membership.

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

    Recruiting New Subscribers Based on Your Reputation to Serve

    Once you start a list, it will be your job to grow the number of subscribers that you have over time. While it may seem meager at first, with subscribers only trickling in, it will pick up steam when you put more effort into it.

    Word-of-mouth is a powerful indicator of who to follow and who is trustworthy in any niche online.

    When you can generate positive word-of-mouth and recommendations as a niche leader, you will see your subscriber numbers soar.

    You do this by maintaining your ethics and showcasing a true desire to step up and help people. There are many of your competitors who are only in it for the money, and when you can set yourself apart from them as someone who truly cares, you will find that people naturally flock to you.

    You want to be open and honest about your own journey in the niche. Whether it’s online success or weight loss, telling the story of how you overcame obstacles and succeeded will resonate with your readers. They will want to share your stories with the people they care about – such as friends and family members.

    Some people try to position themselves as guru marketers who have never made a mistake. And while these individuals do develop a following of like-minded people, it’s more ethical and honest to be transparent about your journey.

    If you want to develop a reputation as someone who consistently shows up to serve your audience, then you’ll want to invite people to contact you. You can have a contact form or give out your direct email address.

    Make sure you respond to emails and contact in a timely fashion. If your audience grows to a level where you can’t handle all of the communication on your own, then you might want to host a webinar where your people can frequently interact with you or hire a virtual assistant to help you maintain communication flawlessly.

    While many marketers focus on their responsibility to provide good information to their audience, keep in mind that it’s also your responsibility to protect your followers from bad information.

    When you turn down opportunities to make fast cash by only recommending quality products as opposed to anything and everything, word will spread of your morals and subscriber numbers will increase.

    Make sure you’re strategic about growing your subscriber base. Whether you participate in giveaway events, create valuable content to be shared by others, or simply develop friendships with competitors who will sing your praises, you can’t rest on your laurels and expect people to flock to you for no reason.

     

    There is free training on setting up AWEBER and MAILCHIMP at HOME BUSINESS STARTUP TOOLKIT.

    If you want help with setting up an email subscriber service you can check out the HOME BUSINESS STARTUP TOOLKIT set of FREE Trainings here 

    Categories: blogging, Grow a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , ,

    Guerilla Marketing to Grow Your Business

    It’s about growing your own home business by using some offline tactics to do your marketing that are traditional but have been working for ever. So for those of you who have never tried to grow your home business, there are three point six billion people online. So remember to get your Web site up there like I mentioned on Thursday so that you connect with those people.

    If you want at first start connecting with your local community. Believe it or not,  yes, Yellow Pages is a great way to start. Get your advertising info into Yellow Pages and that does cost money but that will last you a lifetime in order of “word of mouth.” Once people start to get to know that you’re in the Yellow Pages in the directory, they can look you up easily and get your phone number and your address also maybe depending on the Yellow Pages. And of course, it is put up in the Yellow Pages on the Internet. And once they have your web site, you have a Web site up and an address. You can put that Web site and your phone number and e-mail and your mobile phone on business cards. On your Web site, have a contact form to “contact us” form as they say on your Web site that they could fill in and contact you for more information about your business.

    You can actually pay for the domain and pay for the hosting for a web site and it is certainly less than a hundred dollars You could easily learn WordPress. I know you don’t want to but obviously you could and that would be also free. Once you have that, you could put up a few blog posts and you have a Web site or you could hire someone to do that or get a free Web site as long as they allow you to attach a email auto-responder that will make a list of the people who contact you. Once they get onto your e-mail address list then you are in business with possible customers because that’s a very simple way for you to start your business growing is by getting on the Internet.

    But anyway, for those of you who are local businesses, you have to do some marketing for your business. There are still direct mailers out there depending on your community they could be reasonable. Send out a press release saying that you’re in town and available or you could do some ads in your local paper.

    You could also network out there in your community. There’s a lot of business networking groups. I’m not sure if they’re free to join in your community. The Chamber of Commerce in our community you pay a yearly fee but you have a lot of free networking by being in the chamber. Go out and volunteer in your community at a local food bank or any local business entrepreneurial type group. Go to a Meetup networking event. Meetups are free and create your own Meetup where you provide information and people can come and learn about your business or service depending on what you actually do and you could actually be there and meet up with others who are in business. Those are just a few of the ways that you have to be able to get out into the community so people get to know about you as you have to network.

    You have to market your business. So obviously you could also do a press release send it to your local newspapers saying that you’re in business. They’re always interested in profiling new businesses this community. Those are some of the traditional ways that Jay Levinson of the Guerilla Marketing book series has for you and let me just get his Web site because of course everybody has a Web site now and you can go and get some more guerilla marketing hacks for your local business that you don’t have to cost too much money to spend to get them.

    Gmarketing.com or his book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson.

    But anyway , so guerrilla marketing is a great way to save money in order to grow your business when you’re offline. Obviously there is some cost to be an offline business in people finding you in your local community. Tell all your family and friends that’s an inexpensive way. Hand out cards to your family and friends note cards to anyone you know. So for our offline business it’s now of course you can get online and get more business from the Internet. That’s why you need a web site. So as I mentioned get your Web site up there. Then you’re going to have to go and participate in social media.It doesn’t cost money to get on to social media and just chat and add your social media pages.  So that’s another hack is to get your Web site up and then get connected on some of the social media that might be of interest to you.

    So we’ll be talking about some of them that we’ve talked about in season one like Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest  and  Twitter .  Then you can see that it is possible even if you have a shipping company to be successful on his Instagram or even of course company like Ikea it can be very successful on Facebook. So hopefully you’ve got a few ideas today and I’ll give you some more when I get Guerrilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson out!

    Categories: Networking, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , , ,

    When NOT to Use Marketing Automation

    When NOT to Use Marketing Automation

    Marketing automation is wonderful and can really make a difference for your use of time in building your business. Not everything needs to be drip fed, though. Sometimes it is better to do things yourself or have a virtual assistant do them.

    No matter how sophisticated a Word Press plug in, or a piece of software is, it is still basically a computer program. There will be bugs, there will be updates, there will be times when customers want to talk to a human to address their issues.

    Have you ever had a problem with a company such as your internet provider or cell phone provider and when you called them, you got an automated customer service system? How frustrated did you get when you were trying to get your question answered, or trying to reach a human because you knew your problem did not fit their four selection choices? Often because they are rather large business with little or no competition in the area, they can do that to their customers. You might not want to do that though because there is probably far more competition for your customers.

    So customer service is a major area where you would not want to have a lot of marketing automation. Basic issues can be addressed by tools such as emailing a new password when someone clicks the forgot password button. If a person needs more than can be handled simply, you need to have a way for them to connect with a person. It can be you, or someone you hire to help you, but that person needs to be able to listen to the customer and figure out how to solve the problem, no matter how odd the problem is.

    Another area where you will want to have at least some human presence is in your social media. If you just rely on marketing automation to handle your social media, you will short change yourself and your customers. In some cases, you may end up getting banned from groups if you only use drip fed posts. The line between automation and spamming can be quite thin.

    An additional area where automation does not work well is in producing content. Once the content is created, you can use the tools to get the content out there, but the actual making of it needs a personal touch. Many people have tried to make software that writes well, and failed at it. Creativity is not hardwired into computers the way it is in human beings. So if you want something written, or a video made, or graphics designed, you need to do it yourself or outsource to a person, not try to use automation tools to create the content.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags: ,

    12 Ways to Use Market Research for Your Business

    Market research is the best way to ensure longevity of your business. Many small business owners often overlook market research – to their detriment. Market research is an essential and ongoing component of all successful businesses. Here are twelve ways to use market research for your business.

    1. Discover Your Target Market – Many people make products, and then try to find a market for them. However, the truth is that you should first find the market you want to work with, then create products for it. But, even if you skipped that, you can now find your target audience so that you can get your marketing materials right.

    2. Get to Know Your Potential Customers – The market research that you conduct will allow you to get to know your potential customers better. When you know them better, you’ll be able to create customer personas that help with creating content and marketing which really gets results.

    3. Develop New Products and/or Services – When you know what is going on in the marketplace you’ll get more ideas about products and services that your audience needs. You may get the ideas from reading industry news or from what the competition is doing.

    4. Refresh Your Marketing Efforts – Sometimes marketing becomes stale and even though your audience doesn’t change who they are, they do change how they feel about things. For example, what was acceptable marketing for companies in the 1960s isn’t acceptable today. You need to refresh your marketing as needed.

    5. Determine Who Your Competitors Are – It’s important to identify your competitors so that you can keep an eye on them and what they are doing. Sign up for their lists and purchase some of their products. Don’t copy them, but do use them as a standard bearer so you can be better.

    6. Educate Yourself to Become an Expert – The more information you learn about your industry and the market for your products and/or services, the closer you’ll become to being an expert. Reading as much as possible keeps you up-to-date and knowledgeable.

    7. Confirm Your Ideas – It’s important that when you have an idea or assumption about anything to do with your business, you do the research to determine if it’s right. Sometimes anecdotal stories are wrong; sometimes a result is an outlier and not true. Only market research can help determine what is genuinely right and wrong.

    8. Learn New Opinions – During the market research you’ll also learn totally new ideas and opinions you never considered. You may find during your research that they are wrong or you may find out that they’re right. Only proper research will help.

    9. Keep Up with New Technologies in Your Industry – Keeping up with market research will also help you learn about technology as it happens. Every day new technologies are being discovered that can help you with your business. Without research you won’t know about it. It’s easy to get trapped within your four walls and not realize what is happening.

    10. Identify New Trends – As you’re doing your research, you’ll start to be able to identify new trends that are happening right now. These trends are things that you need to jump on because as fast as they come, they change.

    11. Avoid Marketing Snafus – Business owners who avoid market research are prone to making horrible marketing mistakes. They are at risk of believing their own biases. If you want a laugh and a cringe or two, see Ad Week’s list of advertising and marketing fails.

    Link to Ad Week – http://www.adweek.com/topic/fail

    12. Track Your Own Brand – Many people don’t realize that during market research you’ll also be able to determine how you’re doing as a brand getting information out to the public. If you do not run into your own articles, interviews, blog posts and research while searching, then you need to start working harder.

    The fact is, without market research your success is in jeopardy. Some business owners will achieve accidental success but it will be hard to keep up. If you plan for success by conducting market research for your business, you will be set up for success from day one. If you started already, it’s not too late to conduct market research to ensure that you achieve and maintain success.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Common Market Research Mistakes

    Market research is an essential component of any business, large or small. It helps identify trends as well as gaps in products or services, and it keeps you up-to-date on anything going on within your industry that can affect sales. However, there are certainly some mistakes that you’ll want to avoid while doing market research. Here are nine of the most common ones.

    1. Setting an Unrealistic Budget – You don’t want to spend too much money or too little money. First, see what research is already available and whether or not you can use what exists. If you can use what’s already there, you can save a lot of money. But, if the things you want to know aren’t out there yet, get bids to get an idea of the cost. Alternatively, you can use software like SurveyMonkey.com to conduct some of the research and only hire someone to help you decide the questions.

    2. Not Having a Specific Plan of Action – Know what you want to research before starting. Devise some questions that you need answers to. Know why you want those answers and how it affects your business before even starting.

    3. Not Understanding What Constitutes Good Sources – You can find anything to support your assumptions on the internet. But, not every website is a good source. Check up on anything that someone else says and realize there is a huge difference between an opinion and a fact.

    4. Not Researching Your Competitors – It’s essential to know what your competitors are doing. You know the saying, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” No, your competitors are not enemies, but you do need to know what they are doing.

    5. Not Understanding in Advance Who Your Target Audience is – If you don’t know who your target audience is, it will be difficult to ask the right questions during your research. Make the first research you do learning about your audience.

    6. Spending too Little Time on Survey Creation – When developing questions for surveys, it’s important to understand how to come up with good questions in terms of phrasing, and the order of questions and the type of answers they’re allowed to provide.

    7. Not Spreading the Word about Your Research – When either conducting research or putting the research to work, you’ll need to spread the word about it. If you want a lot of participation, spreading the word is essential. If you want to be seen as an expert, you need to act like one.

    8. Not Getting More than One Source – One set of data is not enough to prove anything to you or anyone else. True scientific research requires multiple sets of data that prove your assumptions.

    9. Not Using Your Research – There is no point in doing all the research if you’re not going to put it to work for you. Some people do the research, don’t like the answers, and move forward with their original plans anyway. This is a huge mistake.

    Avoid these common market research mistakes if you want to have a long-term successful business. By simply educating yourself about the market you work in, it will pay big dividends by helping you avoid mistakes in marketing and stating ahead of the competition.

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    Should You Outsource Your Market Research?

    At some point, every business owner must assess the benefits and disadvantages of outsourcing. A small business owner cannot hope to grow a business without outsourcing some aspects, or else the entire point of having a business will be lost. Losing all your freedom and making tons of money isn’t what you want. You want to have freedom and a balance of life and a business. Therefore when you want to outsource something, it’s important to look the pros and cons of outsourcing that particular project or task.

    Cons of Outsourcing Your Market Research

    * You must give up control – For some people this might enter into the pros of outsourcing marketing research. However, for most people giving up control is very difficult. You will have some say over the research and what deliverables you want but other than that you’ll have to be hands off and let the experts do what they need to do.

    * It can be pricy – Hiring experts to conduct marketing research isn’t cheap. But, you don’t want to lowball it either by hiring people who aren’t really experts, because that can also be pricy. If you don’t have the right budget, you may as well do it yourself.

    * They may survey or reach the wrong people – Research companies often have huge databases of consumers that they use to conduct the research with. This may miss the mark as it might not be the right people.

    * They don’t know your business like you do – The fact is, no one knows as much about your business as you do, and you cannot expect them to. When letting go of control over the research you’ll also lose some of the personalization that you can offer.

    Pros of Outsourcing Your Market Research

    * You don’t need to spend the time – The saying that “time is money” is true. If you are busy doing what you do best, it’s going to be really difficult to find the time to conduct market research at all, much less appropriately.

    * You get an objective source – Another company isn’t going to be as emotionally attached to the outcome of research as you are. Therefore, they may be able to get more accurate results.

    * Professionals have the right tools – Some research tools are super expensive for one business to pay for. Research companies have to buy software and mailing lists and other services that would not be feasible for one business to buy for its own research.

    * You can get fast results – Since this is what they do for income, they will have a team of people on your project and be able to offer fast turnaround times.

    Once you write down the pros and cons that are unique to your situation, assess your budget and determine how you will go forward. But, whatever you choose, do not skip conducting market research. It is one of the main differences between businesses that succeed long term and those that do not.

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    Nine Types of Online Marketing

    If you want to be successful with marketing online, there are many different types of marketing that are important to understand. Each type of marketing requires specialized knowledge and understanding to ensure that it is effective. Below is an overview of the various types of online marketing that you need to know about.

    1. Search Engine Optimization – Often abbreviated as SEO, this type of marketing covers two types of SEO. First, there is on-page SEO which concerns optimizing each page of your website, social media profiles, blog sites, and so forth with the right terms, navigation, keywords, headlines and so forth. The other type is off-page SEO, which concerns itself with these same things off the pages you control. For example, guest blogging, forum commenting, and anything above board that you can do to get authoritative links back to your website and other online real estate are important for SEO.

    2. Pay-Per-Click Marketing – This is really an advertising concept but for these purposes we’re including it here. Often abbreviated PPC, this consists of any ads that you purchase that charges you for each click that a potential customer makes on the advertisement. The ad brings the lead to your sales page, or a landing page.

    3. Email Marketing – One of the most lucrative of all types of online marketing, email marketing is performed by using email marketing software like AWeber.com, or MailChimp.com. The software helps you follow the law when it comes to email marketing. Plus, you should also read the laws in your country regarding email marketing.

    4. Social Media Marketing – Any marketing completed on social media networks that brings members, likes and connections into your product funnel is social media marketing. Social media marketing works best when you’re committed to engaging with your audience.

    5. Networking Marketing – In some ways network marketing and social media marketing go hand-in-hand, but in this case we’ll separate them out to include local networking and more professional social professional networks online such as membership organizations and more buttoned-up social media like LinkedIn.

    6. Community and Relationship-Building Marketing – Thanks to forums, message boards, social media groups and more, you can now build an entire online community which enables you to get closer to them and build relationships with them. Relationships are very important when it comes to online marketing.

    7. Location Marketing – Today, you should also consider marketing in your local location but you don’t even have to book a flight to market in many locations using the right search terms and focused content. If your audience is located in a specific place, you can focus all your marketing online and offline to that location.

    8. Affiliate Marketing – This is a wonderful way to get a legion of fans doing a lot of your marketing for you. An affiliate signs up to use your tools to market your products and/or services to their audience, and for each completed sale they get a percentage. You’ll need affiliate software for this like aMember.com, JVZoo.com, or 1ShoppingCart.com.

    9. Content Marketing – This type of marketing consists of all forms of content such as videos, blogs, white papers, articles, eBooks, eCourses, email series… Anything that consist of content in all its forms is content marketing.

    Online marketing is a form of marketing that you do online, but sometimes it can carry off into offline if you meet up with people in person that you first met online. Online marketing is all-encompassing and very effective to helping the smallest to the largest businesses get more customers and increase their bottom line.

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    What’s Included in an Online Marketing Plan?

    When developing your online marketing plan, you have to take into account all your goals for it. You need to understand who your audience is, how to make them aware of you, and what their buying process is, so that you can create the best online marketing plan for them.

    Here’s what an online marketing plan will consist of.

    Website Management and Updates

    From the start, create a website that takes into consideration all the rules of SEO. Do this from the first page created, to every page that links in, and every article, blog post or image that you include. Everything should be something that you know will advance your marketing goals.

    SEO: On- and Off-Page

    Learn everything you can about SEO, because getting organic traffic that you don’t directly pay for via pay per click or other types of advertisements is worth even more than paid traffic. Why? Audience members who seek you out, rather than the other way around, will be more likely to convert to paying customers. They’re going to be much more likely to buy than someone who reads and responds to an advertisement.

    Link Building On and Off Your Website

    Link building helps search engines, but it also helps your audience find your information in a more organized fashion. Consider your link-building strategy and create a plan of action going forward that will provide links from outside your website to your content, plus links within your website to more of your content.

    Locally Optimize

    One way to ensure that people find you, especially if you have a locally focused business, is to ensure that you use keywords that help local people find and discover you. For example, if you’re a local dentist you want to use the name of your location as well as the name of your business within meta descriptions, headers, titles and tags.

    Press Releases

    Many people dismiss press releases as offline marketing, but today with PRWeb.com you can send out press releases online, too. This will provide information for your audience in numerous ways. You can put the press release on your website, as well as send it out to those who might want to pick up the story.

    Email Marketing

    No online marketing plan is complete without email marketing. Email marketing is the lifeblood of your online marketing plan, and will infuse your online marketing program. With email marketing you have a way to capture leads, turn them into customers, and more.

    Blogging

    Everything starts with your website or blog. All the content you create, all the products you promote, and all the services you provide, live on your blog or website. Even if you have a store front, the website or blog is the central hub of your online existence.

    Social Media

    Using social media to promote your content and information to your audience is a fabulous way to get the word out. Plus, it’s a great way to engage and build trust with your targeted audience. You can have conversations, share interesting things you read, share the information that others share with you, and more.

    Pay Per Click

    Using Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads and more, you can conduct pay-per-click campaigns that get great results and are a good addition to the other types of market that you do online.

    Reputation Management

    Use articles, eReports, white papers, posts, messages and more to boost and manage your online reputation. This is a useful aspect of online marketing that should not be ignored.

    You can make an online marketing plan in a page or two, or you can create a page for each aspect with a step-by-step to-do list of what you will do to ensure that each part of your plan is realized. The worst thing you can do is proceed without a plan.

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