Ten Unbearable Sins For Any Business Using Online Marketing
Assassin Marketing asked:
You are probably very excited about the idea of starting to market your business online. In fact, you may have a lot of things running through your mind right now. You may be thinking of your web page’s color, design and everything else. You simply cannot contain your excitement. But sometimes you may fail to realize the most important things about marketing your business online; thus committing some of the top ten sins in the world of online marketing of you business and the next thing you know you’ll wake up one day flat broke with nothing to show for your efforts.
It is therefore important that you educate yourself with these common mistakes that businesses often make when using online marketing so that you don’t loose your shirt.
1. Poor Planning
It is not enough that you have the resources and have the willingness to succeed when it comes to marketing your business online. The most important thing is actually your marketing strategy. How are you going to put your site in the limelight? How are you going to advertise what you have? How will you sustain your web page?
Basically, everything starts with planning. The reason why many businesses fail with online marketing is because they never planned. They’ve been too excited and they forgot to build the foundation of their online business plan. At first, everything went well, but when the point of frustrations came, they packed up and ran home ******* their thumb because they were never prepared for such circumstances.
2. A Lifeless Site
If you were a visitor and you came across a site that was dull, plain text and no life at all, would you even spend a minute to go over the page? Probably not. The design of your page is very crucial in attracting visitors to stay at your site. A common mistake of businesses is that they often cut costs so much that they neglect even the physical features of their site. Remember, people usually look at the appearance first before they delve into the content. You can also show pictures and videos just to make your site realistic. If you don’t capture visitors’ attention, how can you expect to capture their sales.
3. No Defined Product Services
Knowing your products’ edge from your competitor’s is very vital. You can never sell what you have when you can’t even compare its advantages to other similar products from your competitors. Businesses fail because they are very general when they market their creations. What happens is, visitors feel that what you have is the same as what other businesses offer and so, you lose sale.
4. No Identity
As much as possible, most businesses always want to save money. So we choose to have our business in a free web space rather than having our own domain. The result is, when buyers type in the keywords for the product or service they want, your site won’t even be recognized because you don’t have your own web address. The probability of online marketing failure is then very evident because without anyone visiting your site, how can you even sell your product or service ?
5. No Target Audience
Focus is very important in any business. When you lose your focus, you end up a loser. The common mistake of the business owners when it comes to online marketing is that they lack concentration and they cannot think of the most specific technique to get their consumers’ attention. In other words, if you sell women’s products, then focus your attention in reaching out to women. Don’t beat around the bush because it will do you nothing but loose you money. If you know your target audience and you know how to approach them, then get ready to fill up the money train!
6. Poor Customer Handling
Relationship with customers determines the life of any business. Many businesses assume that once a consumer buys from them, that’s the end of it, which is undoubtedly wrong. Many businesses die because they do not know how to keep their visitors coming back. Just by interactive communication, you can build your trust and have the favor of your customers. However, if your mindset is purely on profit, then you probably won’t survive.
7. Vintage Information
How would you like to read a newspaper article from six months ago? Online marketing doesn’t work well unless you continually update your website because no visitor wants to visit a site that is not updated and is stale with old news. People love to be a part of a trend, so if you have outdated content on your site, just don’t expect to gain many new visitors.
8. Wrong Marketing Strategy
We tend to think that if we have more advertisements, we win the game. We spend our money for ads, we hire a lot of people to optimize our site, and we do everything and spend everything we have too quickly. This is the reason why businesses often fail. Because we don’t know what a good strategy is. We keep on spending money without even thinking if it will be effective for our business. In the end, we will learn that if there’s no more money, there’s no more business. This can be very frustrating.
9. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Style
If you were a customer and you went to a website that you could view today but was gone tomorrow, would you close a deal with that site? Of course not. Online marketing is something that should be paid attention to by the business owner. It is not enough that you have your site; you must maintain it and you should not allow even a single day for your site to be unavailable for customers. If this happens, you will lose the trust of your buyers.
10. Spamming
This is the downfall of many businesses who use online marketing to build their business. Sometimes, we are in a hurry to generate income. Sometimes, we’re very eager to earn money that we opt to do business the wrong way. Many businesses are already banned by search engines such as Google simply because they spam using unverified email addresses they bought from brokers. When caught, kiss your online business goodbye!
So, there we have it. These are top ten sins that can lead your business’ online marketing into a dead end. Nobody would want to see his business bankrupt right? So it’s important that you heed these things as you start your online marketing, especially these ten. But, if you are able to do good job with your online marketing, then business success is within your reach!
Caffeinated Content for WordPress
You are probably very excited about the idea of starting to market your business online. In fact, you may have a lot of things running through your mind right now. You may be thinking of your web page’s color, design and everything else. You simply cannot contain your excitement. But sometimes you may fail to realize the most important things about marketing your business online; thus committing some of the top ten sins in the world of online marketing of you business and the next thing you know you’ll wake up one day flat broke with nothing to show for your efforts.
It is therefore important that you educate yourself with these common mistakes that businesses often make when using online marketing so that you don’t loose your shirt.
1. Poor Planning
It is not enough that you have the resources and have the willingness to succeed when it comes to marketing your business online. The most important thing is actually your marketing strategy. How are you going to put your site in the limelight? How are you going to advertise what you have? How will you sustain your web page?
Basically, everything starts with planning. The reason why many businesses fail with online marketing is because they never planned. They’ve been too excited and they forgot to build the foundation of their online business plan. At first, everything went well, but when the point of frustrations came, they packed up and ran home ******* their thumb because they were never prepared for such circumstances.
2. A Lifeless Site
If you were a visitor and you came across a site that was dull, plain text and no life at all, would you even spend a minute to go over the page? Probably not. The design of your page is very crucial in attracting visitors to stay at your site. A common mistake of businesses is that they often cut costs so much that they neglect even the physical features of their site. Remember, people usually look at the appearance first before they delve into the content. You can also show pictures and videos just to make your site realistic. If you don’t capture visitors’ attention, how can you expect to capture their sales.
3. No Defined Product Services
Knowing your products’ edge from your competitor’s is very vital. You can never sell what you have when you can’t even compare its advantages to other similar products from your competitors. Businesses fail because they are very general when they market their creations. What happens is, visitors feel that what you have is the same as what other businesses offer and so, you lose sale.
4. No Identity
As much as possible, most businesses always want to save money. So we choose to have our business in a free web space rather than having our own domain. The result is, when buyers type in the keywords for the product or service they want, your site won’t even be recognized because you don’t have your own web address. The probability of online marketing failure is then very evident because without anyone visiting your site, how can you even sell your product or service ?
5. No Target Audience
Focus is very important in any business. When you lose your focus, you end up a loser. The common mistake of the business owners when it comes to online marketing is that they lack concentration and they cannot think of the most specific technique to get their consumers’ attention. In other words, if you sell women’s products, then focus your attention in reaching out to women. Don’t beat around the bush because it will do you nothing but loose you money. If you know your target audience and you know how to approach them, then get ready to fill up the money train!
6. Poor Customer Handling
Relationship with customers determines the life of any business. Many businesses assume that once a consumer buys from them, that’s the end of it, which is undoubtedly wrong. Many businesses die because they do not know how to keep their visitors coming back. Just by interactive communication, you can build your trust and have the favor of your customers. However, if your mindset is purely on profit, then you probably won’t survive.
7. Vintage Information
How would you like to read a newspaper article from six months ago? Online marketing doesn’t work well unless you continually update your website because no visitor wants to visit a site that is not updated and is stale with old news. People love to be a part of a trend, so if you have outdated content on your site, just don’t expect to gain many new visitors.
8. Wrong Marketing Strategy
We tend to think that if we have more advertisements, we win the game. We spend our money for ads, we hire a lot of people to optimize our site, and we do everything and spend everything we have too quickly. This is the reason why businesses often fail. Because we don’t know what a good strategy is. We keep on spending money without even thinking if it will be effective for our business. In the end, we will learn that if there’s no more money, there’s no more business. This can be very frustrating.
9. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Style
If you were a customer and you went to a website that you could view today but was gone tomorrow, would you close a deal with that site? Of course not. Online marketing is something that should be paid attention to by the business owner. It is not enough that you have your site; you must maintain it and you should not allow even a single day for your site to be unavailable for customers. If this happens, you will lose the trust of your buyers.
10. Spamming
This is the downfall of many businesses who use online marketing to build their business. Sometimes, we are in a hurry to generate income. Sometimes, we’re very eager to earn money that we opt to do business the wrong way. Many businesses are already banned by search engines such as Google simply because they spam using unverified email addresses they bought from brokers. When caught, kiss your online business goodbye!
So, there we have it. These are top ten sins that can lead your business’ online marketing into a dead end. Nobody would want to see his business bankrupt right? So it’s important that you heed these things as you start your online marketing, especially these ten. But, if you are able to do good job with your online marketing, then business success is within your reach!
Caffeinated Content for WordPress
Signature Line: An Overlooked, Virtually Free Marketing Tool
November 16, 2009 by admin
Filed under Marketing Tips
Veronika Noize, The Marketing Coach asked:
Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles. But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their e-mail messages.
E-mail messages are the most frequently overlooked (and virtually free) marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. No, I’m not talking about electronic mail campaigns, or spamming, but using the messages you send out every day to your clients and colleagues as a subtle marketing tool. You can do this by adding more information to your signature line in all your e-mail.
How many times have you received a message from people who aren’t using a company domain name in their e-mail address, so you’re not sure who Bill or Sally @Hotmail.com is? Or what if you’re in that position yourself? Many low cost Web hosts will forward e-mail received to you@yourdomain.com, but don’t provide an e-mail address from your domain name. So how do you look professional when you’re dealing with a $35 a month Web site and free Internet e-mail? You use an annotated signature line.
Most e-mail programs allow users to create an individual signature line that is appended to all outgoing messages. If you’re not using one, you are missing an effective and virtually free way to market your business. And as an added bonus, your marketing message can be seen where paid advertising is forbidden such as on electronic bulletin boards, giving you a competitive edge is such circumstances.
So why bother to annotate your signature line? Here are some good reasons:
1. Annotating your signature line makes it easy for your clients to find your contact information when they want t o buy again. Sure you may have given them a business card, but what if business cards are lost or misfiled? Creating a situation in which your client has to look in the Yellow Pages for your phone number may be risky, especially if a competitor has a more compelling marketing message.
2. Annotating your signature line reminds and makes it easy for your clients to visit your web site. Of course that’s assuming you want your customers to visit your Web site. And why wouldn’t you? Your Web site is a great visibility tool that builds your relationship with your customers.
3. Annotating your signature line identifies the origin of your messages so that if they get forwarded, people who are interested in what you have to say or offer can find you easily. Evan if you know for sure that your customers have your address, your fax number or understand the full range of your products or services, that information does not forward with your e-mail unless you put it there. So if one of your loyal customers forwards an e-mail from you to a colleague and your contact information is not included, you’ve just closed the door to a new business opportunity that your customer opened for you by forwarding your message.
4. Annotating your signature line can be a gentle way to remind customers of upcoming events (”Sale end Friday, Dec 27th” or “Don’t miss our open house on Jan 17″) to buy again (”Call today for a free quote”), to promote a new product or service (”Ask me how our new widget will save you money”), to encourage forwarding and referrals (”Forward this newsletter to anyone you thing will find it valuable”) or to call for feedback (”If you like working with us, tell your friends. If you don’t, tell us and we’ll make it right”).
So what should you include in an annotated signature line? At the very least, your e-mail signature should include you full name, title, company name, web site link, plus you phone and fax numbers. Also consider a direct access phone line (if different than the company phone number), cell phone number, company tag line or motto, an offer, a reminder to buy, last call for a special deal, teaser for the future products or services, or even an inspirational quote, if it reinforces your marketing message.
It doesn’t have to be fancy to get read. You can make simple borders around your key messages or information by using your title key (~), a dash (-), and underline (_) or even a series of asterisks (*). Bottom line: Every professional needs a standard signature line in all business correspondence. Because that is exactly what e-mail is professional correspondence. Of course, we use it so casually and so frequently that it hardly seems like something professional at all. But bear in mind that all correspondence between you and your customers is an opportunity to enhance you business relationship, even if that communication happens only in cyberspace.
');
//]]>
Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles. But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their e-mail messages.
E-mail messages are the most frequently overlooked (and virtually free) marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. No, I’m not talking about electronic mail campaigns, or spamming, but using the messages you send out every day to your clients and colleagues as a subtle marketing tool. You can do this by adding more information to your signature line in all your e-mail.
How many times have you received a message from people who aren’t using a company domain name in their e-mail address, so you’re not sure who Bill or Sally @Hotmail.com is? Or what if you’re in that position yourself? Many low cost Web hosts will forward e-mail received to you@yourdomain.com, but don’t provide an e-mail address from your domain name. So how do you look professional when you’re dealing with a $35 a month Web site and free Internet e-mail? You use an annotated signature line.
Most e-mail programs allow users to create an individual signature line that is appended to all outgoing messages. If you’re not using one, you are missing an effective and virtually free way to market your business. And as an added bonus, your marketing message can be seen where paid advertising is forbidden such as on electronic bulletin boards, giving you a competitive edge is such circumstances.
So why bother to annotate your signature line? Here are some good reasons:
1. Annotating your signature line makes it easy for your clients to find your contact information when they want t o buy again. Sure you may have given them a business card, but what if business cards are lost or misfiled? Creating a situation in which your client has to look in the Yellow Pages for your phone number may be risky, especially if a competitor has a more compelling marketing message.
2. Annotating your signature line reminds and makes it easy for your clients to visit your web site. Of course that’s assuming you want your customers to visit your Web site. And why wouldn’t you? Your Web site is a great visibility tool that builds your relationship with your customers.
3. Annotating your signature line identifies the origin of your messages so that if they get forwarded, people who are interested in what you have to say or offer can find you easily. Evan if you know for sure that your customers have your address, your fax number or understand the full range of your products or services, that information does not forward with your e-mail unless you put it there. So if one of your loyal customers forwards an e-mail from you to a colleague and your contact information is not included, you’ve just closed the door to a new business opportunity that your customer opened for you by forwarding your message.
4. Annotating your signature line can be a gentle way to remind customers of upcoming events (”Sale end Friday, Dec 27th” or “Don’t miss our open house on Jan 17″) to buy again (”Call today for a free quote”), to promote a new product or service (”Ask me how our new widget will save you money”), to encourage forwarding and referrals (”Forward this newsletter to anyone you thing will find it valuable”) or to call for feedback (”If you like working with us, tell your friends. If you don’t, tell us and we’ll make it right”).
So what should you include in an annotated signature line? At the very least, your e-mail signature should include you full name, title, company name, web site link, plus you phone and fax numbers. Also consider a direct access phone line (if different than the company phone number), cell phone number, company tag line or motto, an offer, a reminder to buy, last call for a special deal, teaser for the future products or services, or even an inspirational quote, if it reinforces your marketing message.
It doesn’t have to be fancy to get read. You can make simple borders around your key messages or information by using your title key (~), a dash (-), and underline (_) or even a series of asterisks (*). Bottom line: Every professional needs a standard signature line in all business correspondence. Because that is exactly what e-mail is professional correspondence. Of course, we use it so casually and so frequently that it hardly seems like something professional at all. But bear in mind that all correspondence between you and your customers is an opportunity to enhance you business relationship, even if that communication happens only in cyberspace.
');
//]]>
Recent Posts
Featured Product
Featured Video
Follow Us