The Internet will create new winners and burry the laggards.
The Internet will create new
winners and burry the laggards.
A smart marketer once said, "The Internet will create new winners and burry the laggards."
Today marketers need hard thinking about how to
operate and compete. Internet is full of resources, you read lot of resources on
marketing and online business. Most of what appears on internet about marketing
is made to help you market products and services sold and delivered on internet.
How does it affect an independent professional who only comes on internet for
selling his/her own personal services. You know old style services delivered
face to face. At best he is going to be swamped by internet advice available or
at worst he will be seriously mislead by it.
The problem is that marketing professional services is not same as marketing a
product or an unknown business service.
A professional can't sell consultancy services as you sell a cell phone, nor can
you up sell coaching like an e-book. If you try to market your services by
advice meant for internet services and products, you are going to commit some
mistakes. There are given below some points of internet marketing that may be
harmful to health of your business.
1. It is good to have a grand website. Actually it starts with a well
defined service. If you are not clear in your mind as to what you are marketing
and to whom the best website will get you nothing. Before, building a website,
you should know what your audience is, how your services are described what
special gain your clients can get from you.
The content of your site should be clear. The site should be professional
looking but design and graphics won’t pay off, as well as why your client should
work with you.
2. More traffic does not mean more business. Before you spend money on
banners, pay per click listing to bring more visitors to your site, you ought to
be sure that they will give you business once they get there. Ask your friends
and present clients to give critical appraised. Do they see definite benefits
for audience you are aiming at? Remodel your site on their observations. After
this you can personally invite them to your site. Are they inclined to do
business with you after visiting your site? If the answer is yes then you are on
right track. If they do not agree to do business with you then you still have to
improve your site.
3. There can be no doubt that a big mailing
list is a valuable marketable asset. But it is the quality which is
important not quantity acquiring names through various means does not provide
genuine buyer who are interested in your services.
Ask your site visitor to join your mailing list and offer them something
valuable in return. A well written report or informative audio are effective
premiums. But your premium should be directly related to services provided by
you and build your reputation. Acquired names don’t turn out to be paying
clients.
4. Much hyped web copy may help in selling certain info-products it does
not make the customer trust you. If you offer discounts like ones offered on
goods people are not going to hire your services. Your internet marketing should
reflect same professional touch, as your work does. If you can’t write yourself,
hire a professional writer. But make sure you hire one who has experience of
writing for people like you. The website copy should invoke feeling of
confidence in you and your qualification and reliability.
5. There is one certain recipe. There are always buyers for every get rich quick
scheme but very few people ever made money on them.
The internet may be a different medium for selling professional services, but
marketing rules are same. There is no shortcut. The secret is same as always –
build relationship make people trust you. If you are able to build long term
relationship with would be clients you will get business on the web.
But if you blast your message to anyone who will listen, the internet will not
losing you business.
The google search engine lists 411,000,000 web pages for internet marketing. But
irony is that all information is not correct. There is a lot of wrong
information which has created misconceptions which are as follows:
1. The need for flashy website:
Most people have the wrong notion that a flashy website is good for marketing.
It is only partly true. Website is naturally a main component of internet
marketing, but not flashy ones. It should be simple and informative. Your
website should be designed keeping in mind the audience, it should elaborate
your professional capability and how the customer is going to benefit from it.
Be professional but not flashy.
2. Larger traffic means larger profit:
Larger traffic on your site does not translate in to bigger profits. Only target
audience will buy, so focus on them and on ways to attract them. The content of
your site should be compelling because unless targeted audience is convinced
they won’t spend a penny.
3. All email address lists will work:
Keep away from email lists borrowed from friends and colleagues. Such lists are
invitation for trouble, even your site may be banned. Therefore, you should work
for getting genuine mailing lists. A genuine address is where the recipient has
agreed to receive your advertisement material.
4. A hyper copy will mean increased sales:
Hype loaded copies might induce a few customers, but they don’t develop trust in
your company. Therefore, it is always advisable to write a simple to the point
copy giving details of your professionalism to target audience. If you yourself
cannot write it then get it written by a professional writer. The pin is that
your audience is getting the correct message. Once this happens, your internet
marketing campaign is successful.
Ever since internet became widespread the people’s dreams of easy money have
multiplied. People are dreaming that they are windsurfing the day long and money
pours in making them millionaires.
Most of it is not true but some of it is. You can become rich on the internet
but not as it is made out to be.
There are internet marketers who have become very rich selling everything from
AX to ZX. The internet is a vast market. Money changes hands on it everyday.
Now, if you can divert that stream of money towards yourself you can indeed
become rich.
Though its true you can start business on internet with little capital but you
will have to invest something either money or hard work. The good thing is that
once the hard work has been done then you can relax and money will literally
flow. Though you still will have to do work but it is work well done.
You may write an e-book or create a video one time, set up a sales site and you
can watch it earn money for you. Like in every business, you cannot expect to
become rich overnight. You can earn well on internet faster then on other
businesses.
You will need time to start up, create or find products, build websites and set
up a way to collect payments and deliver goods. All this cannot be done
overnight. But on internet you do have opportunity to make it all possible
within few months.
Another plus is you can work anytime and from anywhere where you have
internet. For a business on internet you have the freedom. All you need is a
laptop and internet connection. Then you can do it from anywhere. A business on
internet like the information publishing business is a global business. Your
customers are from all over world and you can serve them from anywhere.
The business of selling information products gives you the freedom to work as
you like it. In this business of selling information products gives you the
freedom to work as you like it. In this business you spend some time in creating
it and then it sells for a long time, giving a steady income. You can work a few
months a year and collect the rewards throughout the year.
So you can see that all the stories about getting rich on internet are not just
stores. Some people do really make money on internet in large amounts.
The six untruths about internet
1. Everyday people all over globe spend thousands of dollars on building
websites only to learn that they have no business. The reason is simple without
traffic there is no business.
2. Lot of people thinks you can make lots of money on internet in a short time which is not true. Like in every business you have to put in hard work on internet too. The more you learn on internet, the easier it becomes for you to make money.
3. “It is never too late”. It is an old saying and it is applicable on internet also. If you wish to start a regular business on internet now is the time. It is now easier and more cost effective to build and market your own website.
4. If you have an email account, you may also receive a spam message. You can wonder how with such heavy traffic of email there are no sales. The answer is simple the traffic is not targeted. These people are usually scamsters. The email addresses they provide are false. If you have no knowledge of people on the list you are not going to buy from them. These sites are closed by web Hosts in the end.
5. You may complement your message with graphics but they can’t replace content. Another point to remember is loading time. The bigger page takes longer time to load up and users don’t have time to wait.
6. Just searching the internet you will come across many gurus with secret formula for making money. Nothing is farther from truth. The real truth is that if you make small improvements in course of time they will load to improved business.
