Posts Tagged ‘web business’

Step-by-Step Process to STOP Wasting Money On Your Online Marketing

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

So it’s been a touch over two months since I posted my rant on the “posers” in the online marketing world.

Believe it or not I am still fired up over the “hacks” that swindle business owners out of their money for services they are less than qualified to provide.  I am quite sure I’ll continue to be irritated because this type of junk will never stop.

Rather than go off on another tangent, I want to provide some value and equip you with a step-by-step process I promised to post if enough of you asked for it.

Well, I received several requests and although it’s been awhile … here you go!
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Support Your Website Visitors through Empowerment

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

It’s amazing how many sites I end up on these days that have still not embraced the interactivity available online.

Wake up people!!!!  It’s 2009 and we’ve already been through web 1.0, web 2.0, and web 3.0 seems to be taking shape.

Ditch your boring, one dimensional website and your “company focused” content and get with the times!

The people who are visiting your website are only looking for “what’s in it for them.”

Sooo…..  What does your site offer?

I understand that you are  an expert in the area of YOUR business and not necessarily in web marketing.  You may not even have an idea of what is possible online.

Alright, enough of the reality check.  :)

The following are some examples of what you could have on your website if your business was a health club.

Don’t stop reading this just because you don’t own a health club.  Put on your thinking cap and see if you can come up with at least two or three ways to modify these tactics to fit your own business.

Create a Community

People who join health clubs are typically looking to either lose weight, gain strength, or just live a healthier lifestyle.  Just joining the club doesn’t mean any of these goals will be hit.  In fact a high percentage of people who join health clubs never go.

Once someone gets in the habit of NOT GOING it’s only a matter of time before the procrastination ends and they cancel their membership.

I don’t think there could possibly be a better retention strategy than using your website to create a community which will help put them in touch with ACTIVE members.

The easiest way to begin this community is to create an intranet on your website.  An intranet is a special section of your website where people cannot access the information unless they enter a username and password.  You should use this section of the website to provide valuable information and tools that ONLY a member can receive.

Educate Your Community

Knowledge is power right?  If that’s the case … make sure you provide valuable information for your community members.  I know it might go against everything your club is about, but what about using video to show your community exercises they can do at home or while they are traveling?

The purpose of running your health club should not only be about collecting membership dues.  Chances are you got into the business because you are passionate about your healthy lifestyle and would like to share that passion.  If your community can tell you care about them and their well being, you will help improve your retention numbers and ultimately create more healthy members.

Provide Tools for Goal Setting / Tracking

Most people don’t just wake up one day and say, “Hmmmm, I think I’ll join a health club today.”  They typically think about it until some life event happens, like a new year or bad news from the doctor helps persuade them.

One fact ALWAYS remains true.  The better you can engage them within the first few days of joining, the better the chance they’ll become an active member.

The best way to get them off and running is to provide a way for them to store their starting weight, measurements, and most importantly their goals.  Additionally you can provide a calendar for them to easily schedule their workout plan.

Providing a personal blog so they could write about how they are feeling will force them to realize how much added benefits they are receiving from their new health plan.

The bottom line is it is your job to make sure your community grows and you provide as much interaction between like minded members as possible.  The universal law of association is real.  The more people you associate with who are in the type of physical shape you’d like to be, the better the chances are that you’ll change your behaviors to reach that point.

Opportunity + Planned Consistency = HUGE SUCCESS!

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

I figured since we are in the early stages and focusing on developing the proper mindset for your online success, I’d bring up a couple things I like to focus on that get me extremely motivated. When you are first beginning to focus your attention on your Internet initiative it is exciting, and at times can seem a bit overwhelming. There are so many ways you can attack your share of the market online, it’s easy to stall out trying to decide the best way to do it.

My advice is just do something!

The amount of people online that buy your products or services grows every single day! Not only that…those people are going to the Internet and letting you know EXACTLY what they are looking for and how often. With this information, and a little work, you can identify markets which your competitors aren’t even catering to!

The beauty is there are very few companies that take the time to focus on these facts and therefore overlook the HUGE opportunity in front of them.

DON’T BE ONE OF THOSE COMPANIES!!

Doing something will put you ahead of 95% of your competitors. Putting forth consistent effort towards a well thought out Internet Marketing plan and you can elevate your company amongst the elite in your industry. You may think this is hype, but it isn’t. You have access to an unlimited, world wide market and an extremely cost effective medium to interact with them as if they are right next door!

Keep these points in mind if you ever begin to get frustrated. The price you’ll pay will be minuscule compared to the return you’ll receive from putting forth planned, consistent effort for the next year and beyond!

Let your passion fuel your new Internet business initiative

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Alright! Now you have taken the time to determine exactly what you want with no boundaries and you’ve also taken the time to figure out what results you’ll need to produce to attain this goal. Personally I believe you should feel more excited than ever since these two foundational steps are typically skipped right over by most companies which leads to their next experience in the process…FAILURE!

Well, you know what you want, you know what it will take to get there, and you’ve given yourself ONE FULL YEAR to get there. Now what? This time can be scary since there is so much to be done. At times you’ll feel as though you have a million things to get completed and not enough time to get it done. Other times you’ll feel as if you’ve been working so hard and you don’t have much to show for it.

Know this: IT IS NORMAL to have these feelings.

Remember this: Continuous, consistent effort will get you where you want to be EVERY TIME!

It certainly matters if you are continuously, consistently doing the correct things but you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll make sure you are doing EXACTLY what you need to do.

I mentioned at times you’ll feel overwhelmed and you might even feel like quitting since “there is no way you can find the time to accomplish your goal.” These are the times you need to look back at what you are shooting for and let your passion for the attainment of those goals fuel your business.

What’s that? You aren’t passionate about succeeding on the Internet?

Come on now… for the past few years all you’ve been saying is how you wished you were making what all those other companies are making on the Web!

The real question you should be asking yourself is: Do I have what it takes? The answer to that question is: Absolutely!

You’ve already taken the most important steps in the process and you are getting ready to take off in your new Internet intiative. Don’t focus on where you are in the process, continue to focus on the end result you are looking to achieve. I know this stuff sounds basic and fundamental. It is! Some of the simplest things we need to do require the most reminders.

You are not going to be doing this on your own! We will be here for you every step of the way. If you have questions about anything you read in this blog, simply leave a comment and we’ll answer it for you. We also encourage you to leave any comments regarding successes you’ve experienced. We really enjoy hearing those.

We have helped over 400 companies with their online businesses in the past 8 years and are very excited to reach out and help hundreds more over the next 12 – 18 months. Make sure to click the link in the right hand column so you can be emailed each time we update this blog with the next steps in the process.

Developing the proper mindset to maximize your online revenue (PART 2)

Friday, March 28th, 2008

I am hopeful you’ve recognized the value in brainstorming and coming up with a “no holds barred” version of what you want to accomplish on the Internet. Over the years we all become conditioned to settle on our goals due to the obstacles which appear in our path. After numerous failures and rough spots we begin to arrive at the point where we think, “If I could just make enough to get by I’d be happy.” Arriving at this point isn’t a bad thing as long as you don’t reside there for long. You would never tell your kids to make sure their expectations and hopes aren’t too high, so why should you think that way about your future? Why shouldn’t you be allowed to accomplish everything you dream of? The only way you won’t is if YOU stop yourself from doing it.

Ok, ok let me get down from my soapbox for a minute. :) Now that you’ve taken the time and written down what it is you’d like to accomplish, it’s time to begin to take action towards the accomplishment of this goal.

The next step is to determine what it is going to take to make this goal a reality. There are a few different ingredients which will be necessary to make this goal a reality and all of these will be crucial for you to possess the proper mindset to maximize your online revenue.

TIME ALOTMENT

Alright, in this “microwave world” everyone wants everything immediately and without much effort. If you happen to be searching through Google to find the latest, greatest GET RICH QUICK scheme…you’ve come to the wrong place. Success is arrived at by paying a price and there is no true way to avoid paying the price. The Internet certainly presents an opportunity to arrive at success much quicker than any other medium in existence, but it still takes time.

I will assume you followed the instructions of PART ONE thoroughly and your goal is fairly lofty. If that is the case let’s approach PART TWO accordingly. I want you to plan on investing the next one year towards accomplishing this goal. I am not saying you’ll need to invest every waking hour of the next year into the accomplishment of this goal. I am simply saying you will need to commit to taking steady actions over the course of the next twelve months towards the attainment of this goal. You may find yourself doubting whether it will happen or not (especially in the beginning), but I believe if you do these first two steps properly, and truly develop the proper mindset, you WILL MAKE IT! This simple process is absolutely 100% tried and true and has helped thousands of people succeed on the web. The only way you won’t join the ranks of the thousands of successful companies, is if you give up.

Now that you’ve committed to work toward attaining this goal for a minimum of ONE FULL YEAR, let’s look at what it is going to take. This is simply a math equation and once you complete it, you’ll have the basic foundation set and you can begin to take steps towards making it a reality. Let’s, for the purpose of this post, choose a goal of generating an additional $500,000 of revenue through the website. I am sure for some of you, this isn’t a very lofty goal and for others this may seem like an overly aggressive goal. If you are thinking this is “overly aggressive,” please go back to PART ONE and start over. :) Remember you are supposed to suspend disbelief and determine what you truly want, not what you think is realistic.

Ok, back to ingredient two. Now that we’ve determined the goal to be $500,000 of additional revenue let’s break that down based on incremental goals.

Monthly Goal – $41,666

Weekly Goal – $9,615.38

Daily Goal – $1,369.86

Hourly Goal – $57.07

I am sure now that you’ve broken those numbers down they don’t look nearly intimidating as the initial number of $500,000. Better yet, you get to use every day of the year to establish these numbers. Unlike your normal business, the Internet not only doesn’t take a day off, it doesn’t take a minute off. It is easy to take the stance of, “come on now…hourly income goals? That seems a bit silly.” REMEMBER: This is a process and right now we are only on the planning phase where we are getting in the correct frame of mind. Not only that, we haven’t even completely determined how we are going to use the Internet to generate this revenue.

Alright. Now that we’ve decided what our goal is and broken it down to very manageable, measurable goals based on the next twelve months, let’s look at how your current product offerings come into play. The best way to do this is to figure out how much annual revenue each of your clients is worth. This is a simple math equation and can be figured out by using the following formula.

Total company revenue in past 12 months (divided by) Total clients billed in same time period (equals) average client value

This formula needs to be based on total sales and not simply what you’ve done on the Internet. It doesn’t matter if you don’t even have a website, this information needs to be established. Let’s say, for example, you generated $500,000 within the past twelve months and you billed a total of 120 clients over that time period.

$500,000 / 120 = $4,166 average annual client revenue

I am sure you’ll find some clients that generate close to zero revenue and others that account for a large portion of your total revenue. The 80 / 20 rule always applies. The important thing is to figure out how many clients it will take to hit your goal. Once you’ve determined this number you can break it down in the same way we did for the the revenue.

Monthly goal – 10 customers

Weekly goal – 2.3 customers

You’ll see we didn’t go as far as we did with the revenue, but I am sure it looks very manageable! Remember this, we’ve done this exercise based only on your CURRENT company product offerings! As we work through this process we’ll soon uncover some additional revenue generators which you may have never thought of.

First things first though….

YOU NEED TO HAVE THE PROPER MINDSET or you’ll never make it anywhere. If you’ve done these steps for your own company and now feel as though you are ready for the next step…let’s go. If you are feeling even one bit of “doubt,” go back to PART ONE and start over. I cannot put enough emphasis on how important it is to begin in the right spot mentally to avoid many frustrations and the temptation to quit.