I’m settling into my “new morning routine” of waking up early (tough to do when you’re a lone ranger internet marketer) and getting crap done early in the morning… it makes me feel better when I get up early… but it’s tough to create a new routine for pretty much anything in your life.

Anyhow, as I’m writing this this morning… I’m getting work done on my business… without actually having to do the things myself.  My Virtual Assistant is taking care of things for me.

You see… three months ago I had a breaking point in my online business.  I was spinning my wheels and pretty much getting nothing done everyday… but I was working hard as heck at it.  You know the gig.  You do EVERYTHING in your business… you find yourself buried in your computer for hours on end hacking your way through html, submitting articles and social bookmarks, etc.

The “busy work”.

Then… once I started to actually make some good money online (away from my offline marketing consulting)… I decided that something had to change… and what had to change was TAKING ME out of MY BUSINESS.

I Was Hurting My Own Business and Progress

So, here’s what I did.

Nothing special… crazy new… nothing like that.

I just took the advice that people were giving me for months on end and buckled up and finally hired my first virtual assistant.

Just like with anything… the first month is pretty much a wash as far as having the work my VA did for me actually take time off my hands.  The first month you have to train your VA, write up the processes for things you want them to do, and on and on.

But…

Once you get past that first month or two… and your VA passes the test… you’re on your way to being a REAL ENTREPRENEUR and having that entrepreneur lifestyle.

What I Outsource Right Now

Right now, I admit that I still suck at really handing off everything I should to my Virtual Assistant… just haven’t cut the umbilical cord on everything yet.

But, here’s what I have my own VA doing for me:

• Article posting
• Social bookmarking
• Editing videos
• Submitting videos to video sharing sites
• Creating podcasts and editing the podcasts
• etc.

Really… I want to start handing off even more tasks… I guess I just need to buckle down and really think of the things in my business that AREN’T FUN.  Truly… if you’re an entrepreneur you should be doing it because you enjoy doing it.  So, anything you don’t think is fun should be outsourced.  Period.

How To Know What To Outsource Yourself

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Write down the tasks that you’re currently doing yourself in your business throughout the day/week.
2. Write down how many hours you spend on each task every week/month.
3. Write down what you hope to make in income in the next 12 months… then divide that by 12… then by 30… then by 8 (basically compute your hourly income based on what you hope to make in the next 12 months).  For instance, if you hope to make $100,000 over the next 12 months… your hourly worth (figuring 8 hours a day… which is WAAAYYY to many hours to work a day is $34/hr.That’s the number that you value your own ti

   me at.  Anything that you can hire someone for less than that # should seriously be considered to be outsourced (for like $5 $10 an hour to a VA).

4. Then, take the 2 tasks that are taking up a ton of your time but worth the least to you as far as your time value.  Find a virtual assistant, draw up a process map for them to follow to complete those two tasks for you… and hire the VA for a couple weeks as a “trial run”.
5. IF you like the VA, stay with them and increase the hours as needed
6. If you don’t like the VA, keep looking until you find one that is great!

It’s really that simple.

Here Are Some Websites To Find Great Virtual Assistants

• www.elance.com  (bid type site)
• www.guru.com   (bid type site)
• www.agentsofvalue.com  (great company according to a friend of mine.  They’re based in the Philippines and charge about $5-$8 an hour)
• www.teamdoubleclick.com  (mostly based in the U.S… charge between $15-$30 an hour)

I found my current virtual assistant simply by typing in the type of VA I was looking for in Google.

At the time I was looking for a virtual assistant to do audio/video type stuff.  So I went to google and typed in “multimedia virtual assistants”… scrolled through a few sites… interviewed a few people… and went with the one that I felt the most comfortable with.

Really there’s no science to this. You just need to buckle down and make the decision that you’re going to find a virtual assistant for x number of hours a week and run a week or two trial until you find a VA you like.  Spend the $100 it takes to hire a VA for a few projects and get after it.

Do what you love to do and what you think is fun… have someone else do the other stuff… that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about… it’s not about doing everything you can in your biz.  Sound good?

Let me know your thoughts and questions.

When I was pounding the books in college and “learning” about marketing at OIT (I like to say it’s the “MIT” of Oregon I learnerd all kinds of great marketing stuff.

You know the stuff…

• Talk about what separates you from the other competition
• Breaking down your customers objections
• How to do market research when you create a product or business
• How to write up nice looking and fancy fliers and ads

… the stuff that really pulls in the customers in droves… right?

Well… not really.

Marketing To Customers Versus Talking With Customers

The other day I was chatting with my little bro who’s in his sophomore year in college right now working on a marketing/business degree.  When I was talking to him about his damn economics test he was working on I had flashes in my brain of what I “learned” in college about running a business and marketing for THE REAL WORLD.

This is what I came up with after remembering what college taught me…

What I learned in college about marketing was more about BRANDING and ADVERTISING… not MARKETING.

I had no clue back when I was in college… I thought I was a friggin’ marketing expert when I graduated.

Little Did I Know…

When I finally got out into the real world and started my own business… as a “Marketing consultant” of all things… it took me a little while to learn what marketing really is… direct response marketing that is.

Marketing TO customers and prospects (as I learned in college to do) is WAY different than direct response marketing and talking WITH customers and prospects…

… and I can tell you with 100% confidence that you build stronger customer loyalty, increase response rates, have happier customers, and have WAY MORE FUN talking with customers and helping them solve their problems than marketing TO customers. But maybe that’s just me.

People Like Conversations…

People are social creatures and like to feel like they’re in a conversation… no one likes to be talked AT all day… they like to be talked WITH.

So, in your marketing here’s a few tips to try out next time:

• Talk or write in conversational tones… like you would to your friends.  Rather than sending out an email to your email list looking like a complete ad or pitch… write as if you were writing to tell your best friend about this “thing” you are telling them about.  Keep it short and personal.
• Provide value even in your marketing… don’t push for the sale before you’ve provided value and built trust… you’ll end up far better in the end.  So, next time when you get someone in your store or on your email list… how about trying to give them a bunch of value BEFORE you ask for the sale.  Give people a ton of great actionable tips, information, etc… then AFTER you’ve done that use the law of reciprocity and say, “now that I’ve helped you do x (or solve x), check this out… it’ll help you solve y (or solve another part of x).”.  That’ll close way higher than pushing for the sale upfront without providing value first. (isn’t that what friends do anyhow? )
• Ask people what they want… then give that to them.  Don’t underestimate the “smartness” of your market.  They know way more than you do (most of the time) on what the heck it is they want… or what problems they need solved.  So, ask your prospects what problems they have… then you need to go out and create something to solve their problem.  Don’t create a product then go out and try to find the market for it… that’s backwards… start with the market, then the problem, then the product.

That’s really about all you need to do in virtually any market and you’ll be better off than 90% of your competitors.

Build A Following… Not A List…

All in all, what I’m trying to say here is what I learned in college is great for building brands and building lists.  But when it comes to truly selling and being successful… you need to build followings and that isn’t easily done unless you can make a connection with your prospects… a personal connection.

So, stop building lists… start building followings… and start talking WITH your prospects rather than marketing TO them… you’ll be far better off in the long run and you’ll be wondering why your college professors didn’t teach you that way back when.  I did.

For those of you who market affiliate products online… and have had any type of success… you know how awesome it is to hit those milestones you set for yourself.

• First you hope to make just that first dollar...

• Next you look for making just $100 a day…

• Then you hope that someday you’ll actually start to make real money and make $1,000 in a day…

• Then that $1,000 hour is the next goal…

I can tell you from first hand experience… setting and hitting your goals for affiliate marketing is a great feeling… even if you’re only making enough to pay your cell phone bill every month.

Here’s How I Have Hit My Affiliate Marketing Goals…

I didn’t even know what the heck affiliate marketing was until a little over a year ago.  Ya, I knew people made a crap load of money doing it… but I didn’t know where to start.

Anyhow, fast forward to today (a little over a year later) and I’m starting to make it look like I know what I’m doing a little bit (I’m definitely not big time… but things are heading in the right direction).

Here’s my affiliate marketing timeline:

• Made my first dollar using Adsense on my real estate investing tips website:I think it took me weeks and weeks to make that first dollar… but I made it and got my first Google Adsense check about 4 months later (ya… it took me that long to build up to $100).
• Saw that Adsense wasn’t going to make me rich (at least the way I was using it) so I started to look into affiliate products in mid ‘07:I made my first affiliate sale of Mark Joyners Simpleology in the summer of ‘07.  Simpleology was something that I was personally using and really felt it was worthy of sharing with other people.  The commission from each sale is $24.95.
• I noticed Simpleology starting to make a few bucks a month (like $75-$100) so I knew there were other products out there I could share with my readers at The REI Brain:Rather than making just $25 a sale… I wanted to make more per sale so I started searching for higher dollar products that I felt were great products at a great value.  So, I joined a few affiliate programs that had great products and began to send out emails to my email list… and write blog posts on the subjects.  A really cool thing that I soon found out was that people are willing to send you their product for free just so you can review it… even products that are selling for more than $1,000… free.  Pretty cool huh?  Anyhow, I made my first “higher dollar” commission in the fall of ‘07… it was a $148 commission on a $297 at home study course.That was my first $100 day (and I didn’t have another for several months).
• In early 2008 I just knew there was more out there to be had… and that making $100 in a day was only the tip of the iceberg:So, I started looking for new niches and products for my websites that I could try to rank really well in the search engines… and create recurring revenue.  I actually stumbled on a niche from an email I received from one of my readers at The REI Brain.com.  Long story short, I began reviewing property management software and started to hit $100 days more consistently… and even hit my first $500 weekend (profit… not revenues) in the spring of 2008.   Pretty cool I thought.  Work maybe 2-3 hours a week on these projects and turn that into the low 4 figures a month.
• Now, come up to a month or two ago when things really started to get consistent:Sales were coming daily, adsense earnings were well over $100 a month (really, I know that’s not a whole lot), and I had began to do CPA (cost per action) affiliate programs with Hydra Networks (and some others), promote more than 50 affiliate products, drive traffic with PPC (pay per click), use social media a lot more, and write content almost daily.In March of ‘08 I hit my first $2,000 month for profits from affiliate products.

Then I hit a big affiliate marketing goal of mine…

For quite a while I’ve had a goal to make $1,000 in affiliate profits in 1 day.  Ya, sounds like it’s pretty tough… and for some reason I had been making it actually a lot harder than it really was.

Yesterday (8/13) I finally hit my first $1,000 day (actually, I almost hit that in just 1 hour… and did hit it in just 2 hours yesterday morning) in affiliate profits.

Actually… let me rephrase…

I hit my first $1,596.70 day in affiliate PROFITS.  Not in sales… in affiliate profits (and it cost me absolutely ZERO in advertising costs… all through SEO, social media, and my blog readership).

Since it’s all the craze nowadays to post screenshots (even though a ton of them are fake and photoshopped)… above is a quick screenshot of the 1shoppingcart affiliate reporting area for this particular affiliate account that I promoted yesterday… which is where most of my sales came from.

Once again, I know… this is peanuts compared to what a lot of other affiliates are making online right now… but this kind of income can really add up and change someones lifestyle.

What would an instant $1,596.70 in 1 day (that you didn’t otherwise have) do for you?  It would be pretty cool huh?  And this $1,596.70 is for one day… it doesn’t include the profits from the rest of the month.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t make this much everyday… this was because of a small launch that was going on that I promoted to my real estate blog and real estate investing newsletter readers… and some sales from other affiliate products that day.  But, I’m confident that things will be at that level pretty soon once I systematize my online business a bit better… and get into the swing of things with my new VA (virtual assistant).

The “secret” to making thousands a day online…

I know, that heading sounds pretty hypey… doesn’t it?  It sounds like some late night infomercial trying to pitch you a $39.97 product that is tied to a $97 a month “forced continuity” product.

Well… this advice is free and is something that it has taken me over a year to figure out (and I’m still trying to figure it out).

1. There is no “secret” to making money online... follow a simple formula, systematize it, and don’t give up.
2. Be real, honest, informative, and provide a huge amount of value to your prospects… that’s the ONLY WAY you’ll make it online.  If you look at everything in the “how will I benefit” mindset… you’ll lose out on a lot of money and opportunities.  Take the “how can I benefit my customer/prospect/reader more today”… “what true value can I provide my prospect today?”.  I can promise you that your results will be 1000x times better when you take the focus off of how you’ll make money… but rather on how you can help your prospect benefit.
3. Find something that you enjoy to do and build something around that first… This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but start by focusing on a topic you are passionate about and really enjoy.  You’ll be able to stick with it longer.  I chose real estate investing because I am a real estate investor and love it… then I figured out how to provide a huge amount of value to my readers and separate myself from the competition.
4. Success won’t happen overnight… maybe not even in 6 months or a year…  If you want to build something really worthwhile it won’t happen overnight.  It took me over a year before my first website started to produce an income that a person can live off of (but, I’m pouring a lot of the profits back into the site and hiring Virtual Assistants to take the load off of me).  I’m not saying that you can’t build something more quickly… actually you should be able to if you become educated and take action a bit more quickly than I did… but too many people think it’ll happen quickly… then they give up too easily and never see their true potential.Find a niche, committ to it for at least 6 months… and spend at least 2 hours on your business EVERYDAY for the 6 months.  (I only spend about 2 hours a week now… but starting out it was a ton of work because I didn’t know the shortcuts I know now).
5. Network with people and DON’T be afraid to invest... Networking is huge.  95% of my current successes came after I went to Rich Schefren’s (yep, that’s an affiliate link event in Orlando earlier this year.  I got to know some really cool people… many of them who are way more successful than I am… and have stayed in contact with them to this day.  Huge… huge… huge.Also, up until March of this year I was almost afraid to really invest in myself.  The only education I bought up until March was a $50 ebook from an unnamed “guru” (which turned out to be a pile of crap).  I probably feel the same way you do… but I felt that if I bought anything I would be one of those guys who is an info product junkie and never takes action… I didn’t want to be that guy.So, I put in some hard work… won a trip to Orlando to go to Rich’s event in March (I still had to pony up about $700 for airfare and hotel… so it wasn’t free by any means)… and invested in myself and changed my outlook on my business.  After that event I’ve slowly started to outsource a lot more things that I was banging my head against the wall to complete myself… and the money started to come in a lot more frequently (in bigger amounts).

What are your online goals?

So, that’s my “cliffnotes” story of my affiliate marketing venture over the last year.

I hit my first $1,000 day (actually over $1,500… and did most of it in just under 2 hours)… am systematizing my business more… and can’t wait to see what happens the rest of this year and into 2009.

Whether you’re a newbie online still working to make that first $10… or you’re already making thousands a month… what are your next goals for your online business?

I’d love to hear them and help ya out if I can in any way.

Chat soon,

- Trevor

Recently Mark Joyner shot all of his affiliates (which I’m one) an email that he’s launching a thing similar to simpleology … but to teach integration marketing to help people grow their businesses.  If you used Simpleology… you know that Mark provides huge value (especially since most of Simpleology and this new Integration Marketing thing are free!). 

Anyhow, I was watching Mark’s videos for the Integration Marketing re-realized just how important it is to use integration marketing in today’s business (both online and offline)… but too many people still don’t do it!

If you have an online (or offline for that matter) business… and are looking for the quickest way to instantly add new revenues to your business in less time than it takes to make a PB & J sandwich (maybe a bit longer than this… but not much)… you need to learn about “integration marketing”. 

I’ve heard the term integration marketing a few times but really didn’t understand it fully until I met Mike Filsaime and heard him speak in Orlando at Rich Schefren’s event this past February.  When you hear about integration marketing you’ll be wondering why you hadn’t been doing it already… and be counting up the bucks you could have earned if you had implemented it just even a bit.

What Is Integration Marketing?

In simple terms, integration marketing is simply where you take your current business and integrate other products/services/offers, etc. (yours or someone elses) into your current sales and marketing funnels. 

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that you own an online dog toy store and your current sales process looks like this.

1. Person lands on website and browses through products
2. Person finds a product they like, add it to their cart, and click “check out” to purchase
3. Person fills out the purchase form, clicks submit, and are taken to a nice thank you page where you say how much you appreciate their business and hope to see them again

That’s a pretty standard online sales process for most businesses… don’t you think?  Let’s say your average sale in this process is $25. 

Now, how about a little bit of integration marketing infused in the process:

You have the same dog toy store. Here’s the new and improved sales process.

1. Person lands on your website and you offer a newsletter to get discounts, free products, and an informational package on “how to train your dog to be smarter than Lassie”. 
2. Person opts into the newsletter and gets a thank you page that says something like, “Thank you for subscribing!  To show our appreciation, we’d like to give you a one-time coupon for $10 off of a purchase of $40 or more… but this coupon expires in 24 hours.”  Then give them a link to browse the popular products.
3. Person browses the products (w/ this coupon in hand) and finds the products they want… but it only adds up to $25.  So, naturally… they realize that for only $5 more they can get $40 worth of stuff.  No brainer.
4. Person goes to check out with their $40 in products (of course they have the $10 off coupon), enters their coupon code, and completes the purchase.
5. Person is taken to a one time offer page (thank you + another offer) for an in-depth ebook and 60 minute DVD that normally sells for $37… but is on sale “this one time only” for $19… on “How To Train Your Dog To Do Tricks In 3 Days Or Less” (not your product… it’s someone elses!)
6. Person sees how great of a deal it is… and with one click… they upgrade their order to include the training product.
7. Persons order is now complete and they are taken to a thank you page with a message that says, “Thank you for your order!  It will be in your hands in no time flat.  Since you love dogs, we thought you’d also like these websites and products.  Check them out!”.

Okay, that was actually a pretty simple integration marketing strategy.  Did you see what happened?

Here it is…

Right off the bat the prospect was funneled to your newsletter (so you can keep in touch with them more easily) and given an incentive to order today… and to increase the overall order over your average order.

Then, the prospect did end up increasing their order a bit because “it’s a no brainer”… which gives them more value and gives you a higher average sale.

Then, the customer isn’t just taken to a plain ol’ thank you page… but instead to a “one time offer” that let’s them grab a highly related product (not your product… it’s an affiliate product) for a big discount. 

Last, they are taken to a thank you page that nicely shows them more resources that they would probably be interested in anyway… and of course… you have found a way to monetize these resources by joining the affiliate programs for each company in case your customer goes through to purchase a product from their site.

The Integration Marketing Results…

In this case… of course this is an example… but you added several new revenue streams to your sales process… without hardly any extra effort or cost.

1. You made an extra $5 (of course you have product costs involved) on the initial purchase and gained goodwill
2. You made a 50% commission on the ebook and DVD sale, so that’s another $9.95.
3. Then, let’s say 1 out of every 25 customers clicks through the thank you page and buys something generating an average revenue for you of $5.

Following this example, you would have increased your average revenue per order from just $25 to between $35 and $45.  That’s an increase of about 40% to 75% in revenues with no extra costs involved other than the cost to pay someone to add in that extra page or two (which shouldn’t be more than $100 in total). 

Can You Use An Increase Of Revenues Of Mid To High Double Digits??

That’s kind of a stupid question isn’t it? 

Well… it really is a no brainer… and the process of integration marketing is pretty simple.

1. Instead of having a plain ol’ thank you page for your purchases and email list opt ins… make the thank you page a “one time offer” or something that provides something to your customer that is very high value for the price… and that they can only get that ONE TIME (there has to be scarcity involved or it won’t work very well).
2. Look for products and services that are complimentary to yours.  Talk to the product/service owners and strike up a deal with them where you show their product on your thank you pages… and you split the revenues.  Who would say no to that?
3. Always give your customer/prospect a chance to “upgrade” to something a bit better... for small price difference.  If you offer a service that costs $500 a month… create an extra bonus or two (30 minutes of time w/ you, etc.) and create a platinum version of the service for just $699… then give them the option of upgrading for that small price difference. 

Really, it doesn’t matter how you choose to integrate your other products… or products from other people… into your sales process.  But, the important thing is that you DO IT. 

Here’s Your Action Plan

1. Look at your current sales process and find out where you can offer people something complimentary (or an upgrade).
2. Find products that people would be likely to use before or after purchasing your product… and see if you can strike a deal with them where you show their product on your thank you page (preferably for a small discount or w/ an extra bonus involved)… and have them show your product on their thank you page (or offline equivalent such as an insert into the shipping package, etc.).
3. Rinse and repeat

Enjoy!

I’ll go over some more specific examples of how integration marketing is used on some real world websites here in the next few weeks. 

——————-

One quick note… Mark Joyner (one of the top online and offline entrepreneurs I know) just put out a great free “Integration Marketing” tutorial and business package for you to use in your business.  I’ve signed up for a free account and love the info in there including the free Integration Marketing ebook he has in the free members portal.

Check it out… it’s well worth it!

"Mr. Mauch, now please click the ‘upgrade account’ button on the left side of your account page ", the polite gal says in a slight Indian accent.

"Well… I truly wish I could but it’s not there… but I do know where it is. Let me go there and click it ", I said in a mildly perturbed tone.

"Okay Mr. Mauch, please do. Then, click the ‘upgrade my account to a business account’ link on the right side and complete the short form and click ’submit ‘", explained Remzi who is very good at doing exactly what she was trained to do as a Paypal customer service rep.

"Alrighty, I’ve done this same thing about 16 times in the last 24 hours and it takes me to an error page (actually a ‘Page Not Found’ page) every time… I’ve followed the 4 responses from email support with no success… changed computers… changed internet networks… but I’ll try it again for one last college try ", I said in a quasi-sarcastic way that I tend to do.

As I filled out the form once again as I had already done 16 times, I got to the bottom of the page and that corny movie suspense filled music crept into my mind as I hovered my mouse pointer over the "submit" button praying that this ordeal would finally be over.

Click…

"Yep, same thing. Big fat error. Is there anyway you can upgrade me over the phone rather than me wasting another 2 hours of my time trying to do a 5 minute task on your website? ", I pleaded to Remzi.

"No Mr. Mauch, that is ALL I can do for you from here… that sounds like a technical problem to me. Here’s the technical support number… they SHOULD be able to help you. "

And the saga continues…

Customer Service Isn’t Customer Service… It’s Marketing In Disguise

As I type this, the ordeal I just played out (by the way, that is a real situation) is still in mid plot.

• My problem hasn’t been solved
• I’ve already wasted more than 2 hours on this stupid little task hoping the solution would be one click away
• I’ve now worked with no less than 4 different customer service people
• Now instead of "putting up" with this company’s lackluster customer service in the past… I’m actively searching for another option that isn’t such a pain in the ass

I’m not going to spend a ton more time on this issue… but in the time I’ve spent with these very nice and polite… and well scripted outsourced customer "service" reps from Paypal… I’ve really been reminded of a very important fact that many companies completely forget about.

Customer service = Marketing

Customer service isn’t a task that should be put off as merely a "support" task. Customer service truly plays an active role in retaining current customers… and attracting new ones.

Sounds like marketing to me… how about you?

Take my situation for instance, I’ve never really regarded Paypal as a company who has award winning customer service… but the products/services Paypal offers are pretty darn good and really the best option for many situations. So, I’ve happily used them.

However, this is the first time I’ve had an issue with Paypal… and it’s not even a very complicated or all that important issue when you really get down to it. It’s an issue with a link not taking me to the page I need to go to… should be simple huh?

So, Here’s My Question…

What would be easier (for me and them), save more time (for me and them), save more money (for me and them), and result in an all around positive experience for both me and Paypal?

Simple really.

When a current customer calls in to support after dealing with email support (multiple times) with no avail… why can’t customer support act like a marketer and take care of the problem FOR ME over the phone… instead of walking me through the SAME steps I’ve already taken (that didn’t work)… then asking me to call another department (not even forwarding the call for me)??

Not sure. Pretty simple business answer to me… and I’m sure Ebay’s(owns Paypal) shareholders would be asking the same question.

Customer Service = Marketing

Bad customer service (this company had great reps, responded quickly, but has never solved the problem) can harm your business… and provide negative PR like this article.

Why not turn that into a positive experience and create a raving fan… which can actually attract new clients?

Last Thought…

Too many companies out there focus so much on getting customer service reps technically proficient and polished rather than empowering them to solve the customers problem at all reasonable cost .

What’s reasonable? That’s for the company to decide.

But, I’m pretty sure Paypal (Ebay) can agree that allowing a customer service rep to upgrade my personal account to a business account (when their website isn’t working) on the phone for me is not unreasonable… therefore making that an excellent opportunity to further "market" their great company to me to solidify it’s already strong position in my mind.

In all reality… the internet is still a pretty new marketing channel (less than 15 years old) and most small businesses haven’t quite mastered (or even tried) the art of marketing their business on the internet.

I hear it all of the time from small business owners (businesses from $250k to $5 million) that they don’t know "how to market a business on the internet ". The answer I give time and time again is that marketing your small business on the internet is NO DIFFERENT than marketing your business offline… you are just using the same marketing techniques on a new medium.

After successfully taking over the internet marketing (in other words, direct response marketing on the internet) strategies for many small businesses I’ve come to realize that really there are just a few simple steps that all small businesses need to take to get the most bang for their buck on the internet.

And yes, ALL small businesses can benefit from the right internet marketing and brand building strategy if done correctly… which I’m about to show you how. This article is the first of 3 articles in this series where I will walk you through the process of getting more traffic to your website and converting the traffic better into customers.

Keep in mind, some of these steps seem kind of in-depth and cumbersome… but in reality… when you dig into it and create systems to support each step… it’s much easier than it looks.

Step #1: Figure Out What You Want Out Of Your Web Presence… and Why

The first step small businesses (or any business for that matter) need to take before you dump too much money into your website and internet marketing strategy is to figure out what the heck you really want your website to do for you.

Websites can serve all kinds of functions including:

• To act as a simple business card (not recommended)
• To actually make the sale of your product to your customer (also called e-commerce) – Think Amazon.com here
• To generate leads for your business
• To act as a brochure for your business/product
• To be the communication channel between you and your customer

… and on and on. You get the idea. Different businesses have different needs for a website… but ALL businesses SHOULD have a website of some sort.

Retail Businesses -

If you are a retail business and want to extend your sales funnel to include online sales… you’ll of course need to center your website and internet marketing strategy around getting people to your site to purchase products right then and there. This includes having a shopping cart and ecommerce platform to take orders, show your products, etc.

Your goal is to make direct sales online and every aspect of your website should be geared toward educating prospects on the benefits they’ll receive from your products and converting them into buyers both now and later.

Service Businesses -

If you have a service business such as a consulting practice, professional practice (dentist, attorney, insurance, doctor, CPA, etc.), hard service (carpet cleaner, maid, plumber, etc.), or any other type of service business… you really need to have your website and internet marketing strategy focus on educating your target market on the benefits they’ll receive from your services… and converting them to take an action such as calling you, giving you their contact info/email address, requesting a white paper, etc.

Your goal is to gain new clients and your website should be geared toward educating prospects on the benefits your service will provide them and converting them into somehow giving you their information or making a direct contact with you.

Too many small businesses throw up a website that is a glorified business card and expect people to just start calling. Odds are, you won’t get any calls no matter how nice your site looks or how much you paid the web designer to build it. Figure out what you want your site to do for your business and make sure your site follows through with that goal.

Really get down to the core of what your business does and think of how you want your website to fit into your overall marketing strategy. Your website should be an extension of your offline marketing efforts… not in addition to.

Step #2: Create and Optimize Your Website and Integrate It With Your Offline Marketing

All websites are NOT created equal… and are often 180 degrees from what you would expect.

The most visually appealing website in the world that cost $9,000 for a graphic artist to create may result in ZERO sales (which is what happened with one of my clients)… while an "ugly" website that has the right focus and sales copy might be a profit machine. Your goal is to get a good balance of visual appeal and great salesmanship.

Create Your Website -

A website doesn’t need to be elaborate or filled with great graphics… it just needs to get your message across in a way that converts the site visitor to take the desired action.

If you want to tackle the website yourself there are some simple programs that will enable you to make a great website like:

• Microsoft Frontpage (not my favorite, but it’s the easiest to use)
• Adobe Dreamweaver (expensive, not all that easy to learn, but very very powerful… I use it for some projects)
• Wordpress (what I use for this site. Free, great templates available, easy to use once you get the design finished, difficult to make design changes if you don’t know php)

There are more but those three are my favorite. I prefer Wordpress and use it for most of my own websites and my clients websites because it is so flexible, search engine friendly, and has a great community of developers who do great work.

Or, you can hire out the web work to a web design firm who knows how to create a search engine optimized website (WARNING: most will tell you they do… but really have no clue).

Whichever way you go, you can expect between $500 and $7,000 for a decent website. Finding great web guys is very difficult… so if you need a web designer shoot me an email and I can refer you to great companies I have worked with in the past (FYI, I’m not a web designer… I’m a marketer).

Optimize Your Website -

SEO

Part of the process of creating your website is optimizing it for the search engines and for better conversion. I won’t go into depth too much in this article about how to optimize your website for the search engines (I could write a whole book on just that topic) but I’ll go over the very basics.

1. Determine which search phrases your target market likely types into the search engines and create content around those phrases
2. Edit your "title tags" so they include the target phrase for that page. i.e. – If you are a personal injury attorney in San Diego… the title tag for your home page might be something like "San diego injury attorney" or for the page on brain injuries it could be something like "San diego brain injury attorney". Those are just quick examples… but you get the idea.
3. Include information, links (internal and external), headings, etc. that are related to your business and phrases that your market is likely to type into search engines.
4. Gather links from related websites that point back to your website. The best way to do this is to just create valuable, usable, and great content that people will want to link to anyway.

Really, there’s so much more to SEO… but that’s enough to get you started. If you don’t want to mess with doing the SEO yourself, shoot me an email and I’d be glad to do a free review of your website (as time permits).

In basic terms, create great content that will truly help your target market solve whatever problems you will help them solve. If the content is valuable, people will link to it and search engines will see that and reward you with better search rankings.

Conversion

As far as optimizing your website for conversion , it’s pretty simple (simple sounding… sometimes a bit more difficult in practice).

Make sure your website guides the prospect along in the "sales" process in a logical flow to compel them to do what you want them to do. If you are a retail business, Amazon.com has the conversion thing down. Study their website and their sales process to see what is working great (study everything about it… it converts at something like 12% which is crazy).

If you are in a service business, make it easy for people find the information they are looking for ("how to" information is great), create benefit oriented copy, have "calls to action" that request the reader to take a specific action, and gather leads. That’s pretty simplified but gives you a great idea of what your website should do.

Integrate Your Website and Internet Marketing With Your Offline Strategy -

Too often small businesses think that the internet is an "addition" to their offline marketing… when in actuality it should be treated as an extension of your offline marketing strategy.

Be sure to align your offline and online marketing message so your prospect finds a congruent message across all mediums and is guided along in the sales process seamlessly from offline to online and vice versa.

Here are some ways to integrate your website with your offiline marketing strategy:

• At the least, place your website on your business cards … preferably place a call to action on your business cards such as, "Download Your Free 60 Minute Audio ‘7 Costly Mistakes To Avoid When Planning Your Next Vacation’ at www.yourtravelsitehere.com". This drives offline people online and further qualifies them as an interested prospect.
• Include your website on all marketing materials (a printed book, banners, brochures, letterhead, yellow page ads, handouts at networking meetings, etc.)
• Ask offline customers to go online to take a survey in exchange for something of value
• Create contests, giveaways, etc. that require people to go to your website to participate
• Sign customers and prospects up for a free newsletter which gives them great information, discounts, etc.

There are a ton of ways to integrate your online presence with your offline presence… but virtually all businesses should at least include their website on your offline marketing materials in some way shape or form. The more you can get people to engage in your marketing message the more apt they are to use you for solutions to their problem.

The Business Card Syndrome -

Most small businesses still have what I like to call the "business card syndrome ". This is where small businesses fall in the trap of putting up a website that is just a glorified business card. You know what I mean… the site tells about you and what you do, has your contact info, and that’s about it. A glorified business card.

We all get so used to handing out business cards to hopefully evoke an action from a prospect (the action is to get them to call me back). So, many people think that doing the same thing with their website will be a good idea.

WRONG.

Your website should act as a salesman that never sleeps and should educate your prospect, show your credibility, provide value to them before they ever buy, help them to realize their problem, and compel them to contact you for the solution. A simple business card approach just leaves too many potential customers on the table and does not provide your company with a very good ROI.

Large corporate companies with many representatives are famous for the business card syndrome . They provide their reps with their own "website" which amounts to little more than a business card… and most reps think this is the only "website" they need.

Your small business website should educate your target market on solutions to their problems… the solutions that you can help them achieve.

(This is Part 1 in a 3 Part Series Called "Marketing Your Small Business On The Internet – 6 Easy Steps". Subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified when Parts 2 and 3 are posted)

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Up Next:

Part 2:

• Step #3: Research Your Market and Create A Content Plan That Gives HUGE Value
• Step #4 : Create Solid Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Strategies and Implement Them Faithfully

Part 3:

• Step #5 : Get Consistently and Persistently Active In The Conversation With Your Target Market… and Become The Expert
• Step #6: Continue To Look For New Opportunities To Reach Your Target Market

A couple months ago I was presented with an opportunity that many people would think I’m absolutely crazy not to take.

A very high leadership position at a $26 million (will likely surpass $40 million this year) company that is at the top of their industry and has some of the best marketing minds around right there in the office. If you are in the internet marketing space… you have most definitely heard of this company.

The position was pretty darn good pay (six figures w/ benefits, bonuses, etc.) … a great work atmosphere… a great location… and would have been world class networking and learning.

This opportunity came at me through a reference from a close contact (and friend) of mine in the internet marketing industry… and I’m completely flattered that he has the confidence in me to put his reputation on the line by recommending me for the position… and that the CEO of the company had the confidence in me to go the length with me through the interview process.

You know what, opportunities are funny.

Right off the bat the word "opportunity" is a positive word to most people. Most people look at opportunities as something for the taking… if it’s an opportunity it must be something that you desire… otherwise it wouldn’t be an opportunity. Right?

Up until this opportunity I only had one definition of opportunity in my mind. If an opportunity is awesome… you take it. If you don’t take it… it fades away and doesn’t have the chance to benefit you a whole lot in the future.

The Struggle…

However, when I was pondering about taking this opportunity and moving my wife and I across the country I really had a struggle.

I mean… this is a once in a lifetime job offer (at least that’s what my 25 year old mind told me) that would give me great experience, excellent connections, and possibly a head start in my career. On the other hand, I’m an entrepreneur and am seeing my businesses steadily grow toward my goals… and that of course would be put on the back burner if I were to take the position.

To help get some perspective on this life changing opportunity I called on someone in my network that I trust… and that has a ton of life experience in his pocket. While we chatted outside of a Starbucks about the opportunity and life… he said something that was so simple… but so powerful.

While we were chatting he could sense it in my voice that I was definitely struggling with a decision that really would be much easier for most people. Give up my business (or at least put them on hold) that is growing the way I had envisioned it would and stay in Oregon which I love… or head to sunny Florida and take this awesome position as the head of this company’s largest marketing division… that was my struggle.

But what he said was this:

"Sometimes opportunities are meant to not be taken. Sometimes they come about to force you to really evaluate where you are… where you want to be… and where your priorities are."

So simple… and pretty darn powerful. To me, this was huge because instead of putting pressure on me to make the decision I thought was "right"… I dug deep and figured out whether the opportunity would help me get where I truly wanted to be in life, my career, and everything else. That’s it.

Long story short. .. I ended up not taking that opportunity (I know… crazy huh?). Deep down inside there was something that just didn’t feel right… and I knew my heart really was in growing my business and leveraging the connections I’ve made here in the Northwest. In the end… it really was a simple decision that I analyzed way too much.

So, next time you’re faced with an opportunity… just remember… some opportunities are meant to NOT be taken… they merely are there so you can evaluate your life and find where your priorities really lay.

Are you an email marketing ninja?

Well, take a look at how your email open rates stack up against industry averages for the month of April (and how they stack up against my own open rates for myself and my clients). No matter what people say… email marketing is NOT DEAD.

For spammers and people who cram offers down subscribers throats everyday… ya, maybe email marketing ain’t what it used to be.

But, for us marketers who focus on building relationships with our subscribers… email marketing is still one of the best ways to communicate with your audience and compel them to take certain actions.

Here Are Email Open Rate Averages for April 2008

According to Aweber (one of the top subscription email/autoresponder services… and yes, that is an affiliate link , Thursdays between 2 and 3 pm were the time when the open rates were the best across their network.

In their article , Aweber shows these open rate statistics for April 2008.

• Average Open Rate in April = 13.6%
• Highest Open Rate Day was Thursday with 14.52%
• Lowest Open Rate Day was Saturday with 12.09%
• The Highest Hour Open Rate was Thursday between 2-3pm with 19.1%

Anyhow, this backs up the stance that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to send email according to open rate stats. That’s when I sent my own emails and when I send my clients email newsletters. Those two days have always produced a higher open rate for me and my clients.

Consistently Beating the Email Open Rate Averages…

As I wrote in an earlier article about email open rates , I’ve consistently boosted open rates in my own email newsletters and newsletters for my clients to around 19 – 24% every time (almost every time . In fact, we just sent out a newsletter on Wednesday this week just to retest the results… and so far we are already at an almost 18% open rate and the email went out less than 24 hours ago. So, I think this one will get right around the 20% rate once everyone on the list has a chance to check out the email.

The internet is becoming overloaded with information and people are having a tough time deciding where they should get their information from… so they go where they trust and where they feel they have a bond.

If you use your newsletter more as a relationship builder than a pitch fest, I can guarantee you that people will actually look forward to your emails.

Mix your emails with unexpected elements, humor, high quality content with no strings attached… and watch your open rates climb.

Use email newsletters to build relationships and you’ll see the results paid out in higher reader interactivity and more profits in the end.

Hey, let me know how your email open rates are going. I’m always curious to see what other people are doing find out why their results are the way they are (whether good or bad).

Hmmm…

I was doing a bit of research today and submitted to "get on" a newsletter about Writing White Papers from a very reputable guy… and best selling author.

When…

I came across this interesting (and compelling??) Captcha phrase hosted by the icebase server… which I’ve known to be from Cooleremail (could be other email providers on that domain, but not that I know of).

Here ya go.

Well… lol, the picture speaks for itself.

I actually chuckled when I saw it and really had no problem with it at all. But, what about the site visitors who stumble on a captcha phrase that says "orgasm "… and they have to physically type in "orgasm" to get to the next page??

To me, that could be a place where potential new newsletter readers jump off because they are either offended or think they were forwarded to some kind of x rated site.

It’s all about user experience … and to me, for the professional market that this guy’s website serves… this could damage his image in some peoples eyes.

Once again, I had no problem with it and thought it was funny enough to pass along… but I can guarantee you that there are some people that this could offend and "turn off" (like my play on word there?) to the site’s services.

Just something to think about.

But, the question does need to be asked:

What does happen when I press the button?

I’ve heard it a time or two… “In the end, the best product will win out every time“.

Hmmm… while this sounds all warm and fuzzy… and when looking it at completely logically it SHOULD be true…

Does the best product REALLY win out in the end??

In a perfect world where everyone gets the same chances, all variables are the same, you can predict successes and failures of products, and people only take into account their own personal beliefs and needs when deciding to buy a product or to do something… I think that the best product would win out pretty darn near every time.

But…

What happens when it’s not a perfect world?

• What happens if people not only listen to their own beliefs… but they listen to the beliefs and actions of others too?
• What happens when variables are different and even the slightest change in variables can have huge effects on entire markets, product successes, and the direction of an entire culture?
• What happens when a product/person/ or company somehow gets an edge (because of a variable) even though their competitors have a superior (or even identical) product to offer?
• What happens when the exact same product (or very similar) is a huge success today… and the company uses the same criteria and formula to launch another product… and it’s a complete failure?

What happens is that the superior products don’t always rise to the top… and often we can’t predict with a whole lot of certainty that something will be successful or not.

Now, I know… I’m going to have some critics reading this saying “when I launch a product, I know pretty darn well that it will be a success“. Okay, some products and markets can be launched with a degree of certainty; however, let’s look at mass markets and huge successes that generate millions of customers (i.e. – Record albums, social media websites, the next “clapper”, real estate, software, etc.).

Where’s the certainty now?

Do People Really Buy What They Want… or What Is Best For Them?

In marketing we’ve all heard that “the consumer doesn’t really know what they want… we have to tell them what they want and why they need it to solve their problems”.

When you really look at that statement, it’s pretty damn true.

Do you think that millions of people thought that they needed Facebook, while at the same time Myspace had tens (maybe hundreds) of millions of users already?

I’m thinking not. So, why did Facebook become a hit? Really there’s no real solid and quantifiable reason why Facebook has done so well and the hundreds of other social networking sites have absolutely flopped.

Yes, Facebook has some unique features and it’s much different than Myspace… but so are a bunch of other social networking sites that have failed miserably (some that are just as good or better than Facebook).

Many people joined Facebook because it was a great way for them to solve some of THEIR problems with staying in touch with their friends…

… but, the vast majority of people have joined Facebook not necessarily because it is truly the single best use of their time… but because they saw the craze about this “Facebook thing” (myself included) and thought… “Facebook must be the best social networking site for me because ALL OF THESE PEOPLE have already joined, therefore… it’s gotta be the best“.

Enter… The Network Effect

First of all, I didn’t coin the term “Network Effect”. It’s been written about many times and is a pretty well known philosophy in the marketing and sociology world.

In essence, the Network Effect is simply:

“The phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters. “

In simpler terms that even I can understand, people like to do things that a bunch of other people have already done (the majority of us think this way anyhow).

Your brain reasons that if something is used by more people than something else… it must be the best… therefore it is a prudent to go with that service.

The Network Effect On Products/Services/Brands

Today’s world is a complex and ever changing world. It’s pretty damn tough keeping up with everything and having the time to fully research every buying decision we make.

Can you imagine the time and effort it would take to do OUR OWN full research based ONLY off of OUR OWN personal experience and opinion about whether or not that product is really best for us? I would go insane.

So, to help streamline things for us, our brains have developed a clever little thought process that makes us feel safe when we are confronted with decisions.

Here is the thought process according to my brain:

1. First, find out what I “think” I want or need
2. Find products/services that look like they might fit the bill
3. See if anyone else has used this product and what they think about it
4. Usually go w/ the highest rated and most popular
5. Find the best place to buy it for the best overall offer (price and everything else that goes with it)

That’s it for me anyway.

Notice #3 in my thought process? “See if anyone else has used it and what they think“(the Network Effect at work).

General intuition should say that the more people using something, the better the product must be. Right? I mean, when I go to download a song or piece of freeware software… if there’s a “download” counter on the page for each product… I’ll usually pick the one with the most downloads. I’d be willing to venture a guess that most people act this way.

I know, you’re way ahead of me here... but that statement isn’t always right. Let’s think of a few very popular products right off the top of my head that challenge this statement:

• Microsoft Windows (is it REALLY the best operating system in the world? Hmmm…)
• Is Justin Timberlake really the best singer and entertainer out there? Not likely. Or, even better… Britney Spears?
• McAfee Anti-Virus… please, do I need to go into this one?

All of these products have huge followings… but are they really the best at what they do? So, why did the crowd say it is?

The Network Effect and First Adopters or Promoters

Yes, we’ve already determined that people like to make it easier on themselves when making decisions… and a lot of the time will place trust in the crowd that the crowd has picked the best product.

But, also as we’ve determined… the crowd isn’t always technically correct on judging the “best”… and this still often leads to inferior products/services ending up on top.

The reason for this is simple (or so it seems

If people like to trust the “crowd” this means that people are at the whym of the crowd… and the person or people who started the crowd in the first place.

So, if the person that “started the crowd” is absolutely correct on which product is truly the best (the best for them anyway), the people joining the crowd with similar likes and dislikes will also be correct in choosing that product.

However, if the person who “started the crowd”:

• Chose randomly and made the wrong choice
• Has unique likes/dislikes and is actually part of the minority
• Is an influencer and helps the product/service/brand along in the early stages (this one is important)

… the crowd may not necessarily be choosing the truly best product to fit their needs. But, they are choosing a product based off of the likes/needs of the early adopters/influencers and the crowd of people before them who have also followed that initial jump start.

Okay… where am I going with this?

How does this directly relate to marketing and the success of a product/service/brand?

After you finish this article, head over to read this great article on the subject. It goes in-depth on actual scientific studies on the Network Effect and shows mind-blowing results that are extremely simple when you really drill down to the core of the Network Effect.

In essence, the article goes to show that in mass market products (software, music, movies, Web 2.0 websites (social media), etc.)… the success of these products are really at the whim of the Network Effect and how well the products/services grab hold with a core of influential users. Even though some products may not be the best… they are still a huge success because “their number was called” and the market happened to go their way.

If we were to replay the past over again, a completely different set of companies, people, and products would dominate our culture depending on how the Network Effect took hold in the beginning stages of the product.

Here’s a great passage from that article:

“…while in some sense these markets do reflect what people want, that is true only of what they want right now. If markets not only reveal our preferences but also modify them, then the relation between what we want now and what we wanted before — or what we will want in the future — becomes deeply ambiguous.“

So, long story short (way longer than I was planning , we can’t always predict the success of a product/service/brand when you look at the past… or even when you look at the quality of the product.

We as marketers need to utilize the tools available to us including:

• Advertising
• PR (huge one)
• Social Media and Web 2.0 (and beyond)
• The blogosphere
• and on and on…

… to give our products and brands the best chance of capitalizing on the Network Effect to propel its success.

Yes, quality is hugely important and will play a big factor in the success of the Network Effect. However, if we don’t do a good job of getting our products to the influential early adopters in our markets (and across other markets), someone else will and our companies will be the one that was lost in history as a result of the Network Effect at work.

How Do We Do This?

There is no real formula for ensuring the Network Effect goes your way. However, with the tools we now have… it’s important that we do a few things:

• Build a community around your brand/product/service
• Enable your users to be evangelists for your product and spread the word to everyone else
• Create a solid offering that speaks to the core of the user… from your own core… basically, be who/what you are… don’t try to be something you’re not
• Make it easy for users to share their experiences and questions with you and the rest of the world (online communities, company blogs, community outreach, etc.)
• Find the influential early adopters in your market and make them a user of your product/service… then promote the hell out of that
• Whenever you can, use social proof and social proof by numbers during the marketing and sales processes

And more than anything… create your own luck and just make sure you utilize every tool you can to get your message, product, and offer to the people who can benefit from it the MOST.

Finally, Think About This…

Next time you go out and buy a CD (download on Itunes), sign up for a new social media website, or even go to a movie… think about how the Network Effect has affected the product… and how you can apply that to your business.

Question:

Have you been able to capitalize on the Network Effect? If so, how much easier was it for you to spread your brand once it took hold? My guess is waaaaayyyy easier.

Let me know.