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In a practice known as the "baker's dozen" a baker throws in an extra muffin or cinnamon roll when you buy 12.
We all love to receive some kind of bonus when we buy a product. But we tend to underestimate how powerful this tool can be to increasing sales.
When my wife and I bought new windows for our living room last year, the contractor added a free window when we also purchased windows for the bedroom (which we hadn't even considered ordering).
A bonus can often both clinch the deal and increase the amount of the sale.
And yes, professional service businesses can offer bonuses and special offers, just as a product-based business can.
Here are a few examples.
Add a bonus for a larger sale
Let's say you have a 6-month coaching program with a fixed fee. If that is your only option, it's a yes or no proposition.
But what if you also offered a nine-month program for the same monthly fee but added a bonus? The bonus might be a virtual training program or access to an online forum.
This bonus might cost you very little but add substantial value to the client while also increasing your revenue.
In addition, by offering a second service package you then have a choice of 'yeses,' not a choice between yes and no. So, the chances of a prospect saying yes increases substantially.
Also, note that if you don't offer a higher-end service you will never sell that service.
Add a bonus for choosing you sooner
We're all faced with the situation where the prospective client says, "I need to think about it."
That is certainly valid, but it's also equally valid to reward a prospect for signing up for your service sooner rather than later.
I don't like any kind of high-pressure sales tactics, but have no objection to offering a little more incentive for taking action quickly.
"If you choose to work with me within one week of receiving the proposal I'll offer a complimentary one-day training session."
Whatever bonus or incentive you offer, it should be perceived as a significant value to the prospect. Just this little nudge will often get a prospect to make a decision faster than usual.
And the faster clients decide to work with you, the more income you tend to make.
When I ask people where most of their business comes from, a majority say, "word-of-mouth." But I have yet to meet anyone who has a plan to increase word-of-mouth other than offering exceptional service.
Why not reward word-of-mouth referrals by offering a bonus?
You could say something like this: "Because I build my business on word-of-mouth I offer a client bonus if you send someone my way who becomes a new client."
This bonus would vary, depending on the service you offer. It could be a free coaching session, a discount on services for a month or an additional service.
Some clients will do nothing, but others will introduce you to many new clients.
A little more value
Never underestimate the power of a special offer, a discount or bonus in return for buying more, buying sooner or giving you a referral.
And interestingly, when you offer more value in this way, you also tend to increase client loyalty and word-of-mouth. Everyone likes a good deal and will often share what a good deal they received with others.
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff.
I really admire successful people. And over the years, I've studied many of them, read their biographies and books and tried to emulate their strategies.
These books have helped me, but it wasn't their strategies that gave me the most valuable insights.
I discovered the one thing all successful people have in common, a trait that all of them have practiced without exception:
They try new things. Risky things. Innovative things.
Their progress and success is based on breaking the mold, and doing the things very few people are willing to do.
And I'm stating it so simply because it is that simple and that difficult.
Sure, we all try things in our business:
We read articles and books
We put together a website
We try new software and online tools
We participate in social media
We ask for referrals from existing clients
We get out there and network
But with most of these, we're just going through the motions. We're doing what everyone else does to just survive in business.
Most of these activities are safe and don't challenge us, let alone lead to breakthroughs in performance and results.
This article is an attempt to help you understand what it takes to successfully try new things.
Why do we settle for doing the safe things that everyone else is doing? Why do we hold back and play small more often than not?
It's very simple, really.
Trying new things is scary!
If it wasn't, we'd all be outrageously successful at everything we attempted to accomplish.
And clearly, we're not.
Instead of trying new things we delay and procrastinate. We get stuck in perfectionism. We judge and second-guess ourselves. We are paralyzed by analysis. Or we hope things will change.
The first thing we tend to do is make a whole lot of excuses. We convince ourselves that we're not ready yet.
We don't try new things because we believe...
we don't have good enough ideas
we're not smart enough
we don't have enough information
we are lazy
we're not committed
we don't know the right people
we don't have enough time
we are disorganized
we don't have the right resources
we don't have the experience
we are not creative
we are inherently weak
we don't know where to start
we have bad habits
we can't get a break
All of these are just delay tactics. And none of them is legitimate.
The one and only reason we don't try new things is: FEAR.
Many people, much wiser than me, have a few words to say on the subject:
"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration." - Frank Herbert
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." - Paul Coelho
"When we are afraid, we pull back from life." - John Lennon.
"Fear cuts deeper than swords." - George R.R. Martin.
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato
"Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire." - Dan Brown
"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. - Yann Martel
"Fear kills everything, your mind, your heart, your imagination." - Corenlius Funke
"Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end." - Krishnamurti
Yes, the only thing that stops us from trying new things, from success, from living our dreams, is fear.
Therefore the only way to succeed is to face our fears and try something new anyway.
And this is a lifelong process, an everyday process.
Thankfully, many wise people have even more to say about going beyond your fears.
"Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me." - Isabel Allende
"I believe that every single event in life happens as an opportunity to choose love over fear."- Oprah Winfrey
"We meet fear. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen." - Leigh Bardugo
"Find out what you're afraid of and go live there." - Chuck Palahniuk
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - Rosa Parks
"There's no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it." - George R.R. Martin
"It's better to die laughing than to live each moment in fear - Michael Crichton
"Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail." - Bruce Lee
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." - Marie Curie
"He who has overcome his fears will truly be free." - Aristotle
"Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear. - Roy T. Bennett
Face your fears. Find your inner courage. Take action.
This is really the only strategy we need to remember and come back to over and over again, no matter what we want in life.
Don't be distracted by a million strategies that everyone tells you are the answer to success:
- Develop a perfect 10-step morning routine
- Read one book every week
- Exercise 30 minutes every day
- Write down your goals and look at them daily
- Meditate before you take on a big challenge
- Write a step-by-step action plan before you start
- Make sure your goals are aligned with your purpose
- Keep lists of every task and project important to you
- Write down all the things you're grateful for
- Pursue excellence in everything you do
Forget about all that stuff. It only clutters your mind.
There's nothing wrong with any of these, except that we think they hold the key to our success.
Instead, they just distract us from taking action now on that new idea or project that's important to us.
We don't need to be perfect or make things perfect and organized before we take action.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, trumps trying something new that we fear. And then simply doing our best.
Everything in our lives neatly falls into place when we make that our primary success habit.
All the ideas, strategies, tips, people, and resources that we need will come to us naturally and easily when we face our fears and take action.
If you don't believe me, believe these people:
"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt "Everything you want waits on the other side of fear." - Lisa Wingate "On the other side of fear is your breakthrough." - Jeanette Coron "Feel the fear and do it anyway." - Susan Jeffers
Cheers, Robert
P.S. You'll find some wonderful quotes (more than 6,000 of them) about overcoming your fears on Goodreads.
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff. Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Middleton/374949 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10116798
In my Fast Track Marketing System I divide marketing into seven very specific modules:
1. The Game of Marketing
2. The Mindset of Marketing
3. Marketing Messages (Your Value Proposition)
4. Marketing and Selling Conversations
5. Written Marketing Materials
6. Marketing Strategies
7. Marketing Action Plans
All of these have their particular challenges. But in my experience in working with thousands of Independent Professionals, it's #7 that seems to be the hardest for most people.
After all, most of the other 6 modules are all about preparation to market yourself.
You learn the basics of the game of marketing, you work on your marketing mindset, you develop marketing messages, conversations, and written marketing materials, and ultimately choose the marketing strategies to get the word out.
And then the rubber hits the road. You have to actually get out there and connect with potential clients through networking, speaking, an eZine, social media, emails, etc.
For most, the bottom falls out of their marketing at this point. It simply goes nowhere, or more specifically it goes into the infamous "Random Zone" where things are done haphazardly and inconsistently.
If people have worked to develop the whole foundation of their marketing first, know who their target market is, have put together a web site and have practiced their marketing and selling conversations, they are going to have more success.
But even the well-prepared struggle with implementation.
Why is putting action plans into action so hard? Here are three of the most common ones. Are they familiar to you?
1. As soon as you start reaching out, you face possible rejection. What if your message, your talk, your emails fall on deaf ears? What if your potential clients could care less? What if they outright rejected your promotional efforts?
We conjure painful mental images in our mind that stop us cold.
For this one we need to work again on our mindset, on our thinking, realizing that if we reach out and people aren't interested, that it's not personal. They don't hate us; either they are simply not good prospects right now or our message doesn't have the impact it could.
So reach out to new prospects and keep improving your messages.
2. It takes way more time and effort than you ever thought it would. We think of marketing as a few promotional things we do here and there. This should be easy, we think. But it's not.
Time to do a reality check. Any marketing activity takes time, effort and commitment to make it work. Marketing is a bit of an art and nothing works perfectly on the first draft.
You need to make detailed and realistic plans based on strategies that others have used successfully in the past. If you just make it up as you go along, your chances of success are very slim.
3. It's never good enough and although you might even know what you're doing, you put off your marketing launches until everything is perfect... but it never is.
What underlies this are beliefs about perfection, not being good enough and being judged by others. It's not so much rejection you fear, but disapproval. What will others think of you?
Well, if your marketing campaign isn't relevant to those you are targeting, it's not a big deal. They'll just ignore it. They won't think much about it at all. But for the ones that are looking for what you offer, they'll not only be interested, they'll respond.
Your prospects are not looking for perfection from you; they're looking for assistance and value. If you've got that, perfection is virtually irrelevant.
I've done a whole lot of marketing action plans that were rejected by most people, took me a long time to implement, and were far from perfect. And most of them have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Marketing success is about know-how, value, commitment, and persistence. Everything else is just a distraction.
The Fearless Marketer Bottom Line: There could be a lot of other things stopping you from following through with your marketing plan as well. The question is, where are you going to focus - on your fears and worries about rejection, time, and perfection - or are you going to focus on the value and difference you make and give your marketing plans a real chance?
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff. Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Middleton/374949 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10123107
In 2005, Stephen Colbert, in his TV show, the Colbert Report, coined the word, "truthiness."
Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.
Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions. - Wikipedia
We know that truthiness is rampant in politics.
But it's also rampant in marketing.
Many of us think that marketing is mostly truthiness, not real truth in any way, shape or form.
We expect hype and exaggeration, if not downright deception, when it comes to promoting products and services.
Because of this, many of us become almost immune to the majority of marketing messages.
We assume that whatever someone says about their business, product, or service must be a form of truthiness, a veiled lie that hides the real facts.
So, as an independent professional wanting to attract more clients, you are faced with a real dilemma.
You are puzzled about how you can persuasively communicate the value of your professional services given that most prospective clients will doubt almost everything you say.
Because of this, I've noticed that many independent professionals shy away from marketing completely.
While others chose to go to the truthiness dark side, hoping an excess of hype will carry the day.
A recent email promotion I received contained a number of over-the-top marketing promises about an online marketing program:
"You will witness a revolutionary new technology being released that will allow you as a small business owner (regardless of skill level or experience level) to... generate as many new clients as you can possibly handle."
Would you believe that? No, it's truthiness and hype incarnate!
And anyone who does believe it is likely a naïve, gullible person looking for miracles with little work on their part.
So how can you eschew truthiness and still market your professional services effectively?
That, as they say, is the million-dollar question!
Well, the opposite of truthiness is honesty.
And yes, it is possible to communicate the value of your services truthfully, honestly, and with integrity.
But to do that you need to watch out for certain things that can become a slippery slope in your marketing. Truthiness Insight #1
You must realize that what you feel about something is not the same as facts about something.
"I feel that my consulting services dramatically increase my clients' productivity."
OK, that's nice, but by what objective measure are you determining the actual effectiveness of your professional services?
How about doing some measuring instead, such as before and after metrics?
When you have actual proof of what happens before and after, your credibility increases, as does your own confidence in your services.
The best marketing outlines real benefits and advantages based on facts, not hope. Truthiness Insight #2
It's not unusual to see client testimonials about how great it was to work with someone.
That's nice and it's certainly positive, but it's not as powerful as reports of real changes.
"I lost 20 pounds in four months working with Ralph on both my diet and exercise program. He really supported me during the challenging times and helped me develop positive new habits that have stuck with me for the past year."
This certainly trumps something like: "Ralph is a wonderful health coach who I trust with my life. You should definitely consider working with him."
We often hear about the importance of getting testimonials. However, better to focus on getting solid results for your clients and then getting the testimonials will be easy. Truthiness Insight #3
When you always speak in superlatives about your services, you again undermine your credibility.
Remember, people are skeptical and understandably so. So many promises made by marketers end in disappointment.
Better to actually talk about some of the drawbacks of your services than paint a completely unrealistic picture of "success without effort."
I make it a point of telling all my prospective clients that if they engage me it will take a lot of work on their part to get out there and attract new clients.
They appreciate that I'm realistic and don't sugarcoat things.
But believe me, in the past I've been less than realistic and it hasn't turned out well for me!
We need to turn off the hype and get real. When we do, we tend to build more trust and confidence with our clients. Truthiness Insight #4
We live in a sound-bite world.
Sound bites are important, as they are effective at getting attention and interest for our services.
But is there depth beyond the sound-bite? If not, you're going to come across as shallow and insubstantial.
I once attended a public speaking course that stated: "You should know 30 times more than what you say in your presentation."
That's what real professionalism is about: deep knowledge, understanding, and experience in your field.
As they say, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."
This is the motto of the truthiness practitioner and ultimately won't bode well for your long-term success.
Truthiness Insight #5
One of the hallmarks of truthiness and hype is ever-changing marketing messages.
You think, "Heck, if one message isn't working, I'll try another until something sticks." But you pay little attention to the validity and authenticity of the message.
A message that is clever, catchy, or over-the-top may get attention, but undermine your professional image.
Your message needs to be interesting and believable.
It should make people think, not insult their intelligence.
Take some serious time to work on your marketing messages. Run them past your current clients and get their reaction.
Others will notice truthiness and hype before you do.
But you'll know you're on track if they say, "yes, that really hits the nail on the head; that's the reason I decided to work with you." Start banishing truthiness and hype from your marketing.
Not only will you build trust with your clients, you'll start to attract more of the right clients, clients who are looking for a professional who walks their talk.
Cheers, Robert
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff.
Almost every week I'm telling a client that there's a big problem with their marketing content.
It's not the subject matter, their writing style, their grammar, or even typos.
The problem is that their content is simply hard to read because of the way it's formatted.
Def: Format: "the way in which something is arranged or set out."
I've seen web pages with wonderful content that is simply unreadable because of poor formatting.
You've taken all that time to write a blog post or service description and nobody is reading it.
You, the writer, probably don't even notice, because you're too close to it; you have no objectivity.
The good news is that fixing readability is easy-peasy.
And once you understand the mistakes you're making, you'll never make them again.
Here are seven formatting mistakes that make it hard for readers to read your content.
I'm going to concentrate on the formatting of content on web pages and blogs as these are where we read most online marketing content.
1. Text that is too small.
This is the number one text formatting error. If someone has to squint to read your text, you're in trouble.
And did you know that more than 50% of people now browse the web on mobile devices? This makes small text even harder to read.
These days, with web pages moving to WordPress, page widths are wider than ever, so small text gets lost in the vast expanse of your screen.
How big should your text be? My recommendation is no smaller than 16px, however 20px is becoming more common. Bigger IS better.
2. Text that is too light.
I blame designers for this. Lighter text looks cool. I don't know why, but it just does.
And even worse is text that's both small and light!
But after you've made that cool impression on your website, can anyone read your text?
No, they can't!
Your poor readers! They can't read what you've written.
How dark should your text be? I recommend no lighter than 85% black. This will make your text a tad lighter, and less stark (hence, more cool) than 100% black.
3. Text that is too wide on the page
Now that you have a big, wide page to write on, why not format your text from edge-to-edge!
Please don't.
Adding wide text blocks to already small, light text and you have a major reading catastrophe.
Instead, you want some white space to narrow the text blocks on the page.
On a site such as Medium.com (which gets millions of readers) the font size is 21px and the margins of each side of the text take up about 50% of the screen real estate.
Another way to narrow your text block is to have a narrower left or right margin and then on the opposite side have a wider margin with graphic content or side-menus.
You'll see this on my blog pages.
I recommend that your main text block take no more than 60% of your screen's width.
4. Paragraphs that are too long
Long paragraphs are just as problematic as small, light or wide text. Huge paragraphs are simply hard to read online.
A web page is not read like a book. And the same paragraph rules don't apply.
It's OK to have short paragraphs.
Even one-sentence paragraphs.
Get it?
I recommend that paragraphs be no deeper than five lines. If you put just one key idea into each paragraph, readership will soar.
5. Poor font choice
This one is trickier as there are a zillion fonts available these days.
I generally suggest a very readable serif font such a "Georgia" or a sans-serif font such as "Open Sans."
But be careful about mixing fonts. You don't want your website to look like a ransom note.
It's common to use a bold serif or sans-serif font for headings, and then the opposite for body content.
This is where a designer can come in handy and help give a unified, professional look to your web pages.
6. Failure to use bolding
This is my secret weapon to increase readability. You don't see this enough online.
If your text is all black/gray text with no variation, there is no focal point to draw the eye.
Here's what happens:
A reader comes to your page and sees nothing but monochromatic text. Nothing attracts the eye.
The subconscious mind says, "Where's the good stuff? Do I have to wade through all of that text to find it? Shoot, that's too hard, let me go someplace else!"
But if you bold first sentences (sometimes initial clauses), the eye is attracted and there's an immediate payoff.
The reader is focused and understands what you're content is about in an instant and is encouraged to keep reading.
If you have lots of bolding throughout your text, then the reader can quickly scan for meaning. And even if they don't read your whole page, they'll get the general gist.
One mistake to avoid with bolding: You should almost never bold words or sentences in the middle of a paragraph. That just makes it harder to read.
If you want to add emphasis in the middle of a paragraph, use italics instead.
7. Not using sub-heads
Another great way to increase readability is to break up pages with sub-heads.
This is simply text in a larger font, often colored and/or bold text, as I've done in this article.
Subheads serve to organize the most important sections of your content.
Again, all of this increases readability which is what you want when a visitor comes to your website, right?
Cheers, Robert
P.S. To check the type of font and font size on any web page you can get a free Google Extension called WhatFont.
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff.
My Fourth Law of Attracting Clients states that you must be visible.
Imagine that you woke up one morning and discovered you were completely invisible. And nobody could hear you either. If you sent an email, nobody would even see it.
Not such a great circumstance if you wanted to attract clients to your business!
But as absurd as this situation might seem, it's pretty close to reality for many independent professionals. They are rarely seen or noticed by their prospective clients.
If your business is not growing and you need to attract more clients, the very first thing you need to do is gain more visibility.
In my business, my efforts to become visible followed this progression: networking - speaking - keep-in-touch marketing - publishing.
I joined my local Chamber of Commerce, professional groups, and networking clubs and I started to meet a lot of new people, many prospective clients.
Then I contacted organizations and started to give talks on marketing for professionals. I met even more people and added them to my mailing list.
I then mailed a newsletter every other month to those on this list, and I sent postcard mailings inviting people to various introductory marketing events.
In 1997, I transitioned to an email list that reached 50,000 people at its peak. These people received this eZine once a week and I also promoted various
products and services to those on the list. Twenty years later the eZine still goes out weekly.
Finally, I published my InfoGuru Marketing Manual that developed more credibility and led to more clients and participants in my marketing groups.
I may be a lot of things, but one is not being invisible!
The hard truth you have to face is that very few people wake up in the morning with your name on their lips. You cannot remain relatively invisible and expect your business to grow magically.
You need to remedy this with a "Visibility Plan." Here are nine ways to do it:
1. Start slow, with patience. You can't get in front of 50,000 people overnight. Get clear on who your ideal clients are and where you can connect with them.
2. Focus on as many in-person meetings as possible through professional organizations. Really get to know people and their needs.
3. Reach out to make connections with those you've met who could be possible clients or refer you to clients. Real connections are more powerful than virtual connections.
4. With permission, add people to your e-list and send some valuable information at least monthly. This kind of keep-in-touch marketing is essential to stay visible.
5. Set up your website to get opt-ins in return for a report or article. Make it a practice to give away lots of value and demonstrate your expertise.
6. Establish a presence on social media such as Facebook and Linked In. But don't make this your primary visibility method, as it can be hard to stand out in this crowded arena.
7. Submit articles to online publications that your ideal clients visit and read. This is a great way to build credibility to a very targeted audience.
8. Seek out opportunities to give presentations - everything from speaking at professional groups to giving a TED talk. Nothing is more powerful than highlighting your expertise on stage.
9. Publish a book or e-book that establishes your expertise. A book is a powerful door-opener that provides a platform for the services and programs you offer.
I've done all of these things to one degree or another and I've also helped my clients do them as well, with great success.
These are all opportunities to communicate the value of your business and build credibility and trust over the long haul.
Remember, nobody is going to do business with someone who is invisible!
Cheers, Robert
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff.
83% of SMBs (small businesses) believe digital marketing (DM) is crucial for their businesses. Can you beat that? A simple "No". The modern world is increasingly driven by digital media. We are constantly hooked to the Internet for something or the other. Such a digitally-influenced space makes a digital presence more than compulsory for every business to reach the customers. Boosting sales figures is the prime goal for SMEs taking to DM today. Added to it, SMEs are also counting on online marketing for enhancing brand awareness, lead conversion, and improvement of website traffic.
The post below shares 4 significant benefits of digital marketing for small businesses.
Customers are online
80% of potential consumers take to online media for information. When we come across a new business or company, the immediate reflex is to search for digital marketing in the web world. Gone are the days when we used to visit a store physically or call it up to know about it. Thus, it's extremely crucial for a small business to have a strong presence online and digital marketing is the tool for it. Put simply, if your potential customer can't find you online, she will immediately go to your competitor.
To connect to the modern "smart" world
Mobile phones are no longer used for mere calling or texting. In fact, smartphones are one of the most important tools to browse the web world today. 91% American adults are in constant touch with their smartphones. When it comes to searching for a product or service, they will naturally prefer to make queries from their smartphone only. If your business is not present online, just imagine the huge chunk of potential leads you are going to lose!
More economical
Capital crisis is a major problem for most of the small businesses. And this is where digital marketing comes as a savior. Online marketing is any day cheaper compared to traditional marketing. In fact, some of the channels are even free of cost. For example, it costs you nothing to make your business page on social media and stay connected to your customers online.
Digital marketing also helps you to save money. There are many online marketing tools that are available for free like free website builder, free email marketing management tools and so on.
Better ROI
On one hand, DM helps you to reach your customers while keeping the costs low. On another hand, it helps you to save money for your business. The end result is better ROI for your business over time.
When are you going digital? If you need to learn digital marketing, probably can start with digital marketing course first.
The digital economy is booming, and there's never been a better time to learn how to shift your income from trading time for money, to automating sales online to generate an income.
Many people simply aren't aware that this opportunity exists. Then there's the question of "how is this done?", and of course "can I do this?"
Some of the main resistances to change are mental in nature and overcoming scepticism is one of the main difficulties many face when presented with this idea.
It's far easier to shut down the possibility, than to have to make changes in your lifestyle and belief system in order to make it happen. But all belief systems and habits aside, how does anyone make a living on the internet, and over what timescale are we talking about?
A business model known as affiliate marketing lets anyone promote someone's product and earn a commission from it. You don't need to own a product yourself, talk to any customers or even handle any products. That's all done for you. All affiliates do is send website traffic to products and services they recommend.
Imagine you recommend a nice restaurant to a friend. Well, affiliate marketing is the same thing, only if your friend visits the restaurant and buys a meal, you'll receive a commission. The concept itself is fairly simple, it's the 'how' which is a little more tricky.
Putting that aside for a moment, just imagine how many people are on the internet looking for a particular product or service. There are millions! Just a small slice of those purchases is enough to get you out of a difficult working environment and working for yourself, from your laptop, from anywhere.
What's great about affiliate marketing is that you can compound your efforts over time. You can get adverts or content 'working for you' running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What's even better is the power of scalability. Once you've found a strategy which works, you can scale up to a global audience. With digital products, postage and storage isn't an issue. And you can earn up to 40% commission on digital products.
Let's back up a little and look again at the title of this article "How to set yourself free in the digital economy". What is freedom semantics aside, for many, it's the ability to create income without a boss, job or employer. It's the ability to earn money without feeling miserable or trapped.
Being free can mean many things. For the purposes of this article, it means being financially free and freedom to choose who you spend time with and how you spend your time. That's real freedom for many. It's often the opposite of working in a job you don't enjoy for the sake of financial gain, or, worse still, just to keep your head above the water.
But what does it take to build a life of freedom? Can you do it too? Not everyone can achieve this kind of freedom. The reason for most is a crippling belief system which keeps them chained to a 9 to 5 job, in a situation which doesn't serve them, because it meets some other needs. Security, ambition, status, duty or simply meeting your immediate needs are some reasons people don't venture out of what they believe is possible.
Of course an internet business can be built alongside a normal job too. That's one of it's most appealing benefits for many. But it's often someone's beliefs which stops them from even attempting to change their situation and circumstances.
So, an internet business is a means to set yourself free using the digital economy. By setting up small 'trickles' of income, by promoting and selling affiliate products, anyone can, over time, build an income which is completely independent of their time. Most people are trapped in the equation of trading their time for money. Affiliate marketing is a means to escape this trap and 'leverage' the internet to make sales, even while you sleep.
This doesn't happen overnight of course. It's a business like any other. However, an internet business can offer the ability to use automation and digital products to earn commissions. This has a two-fold benefit. Automation means your business can run without you. Digital products can be sold globally without needing postage or handling. Owners of affiliate products can afford therefore to pay affiliates more for the selling of these products.
Put all that together and you've got a huge robotic income machine - potentially. Once it's up and running, you simply need to 'tweak' it and scale it up. There's a lot involved in this process too. It's not easy and most people don't have a strong enough reason to make it happen.
But if your life is not working for you, you feel trapped or unfulfilled, an internet business can allow dramatic changes to happen in your life. Providing you work hard on your business, an on yourself.
Tim Halloran is a stuntman, martial artist and online entrepreneur. To learn how to build your own online business see his site here: tim-halloran.com
If set up well, online marketing can help you generate a consistent passive income. There are many stories of how first-time entrepreneurs have made lots of money selling their products and services through online marketing. But there are hundreds if not thousands of times more stories of how folks failed bad. Investing their money and losing it or recovering little.
In its simplistic model, online marketing has three phases. In phase one, you get traffic to opt-in to your system. In phase two, you convert your opt-in leads into customers. Then in phase three, you retain these customers by getting them to buy from you again.
Yet each of these stages have inherent risks. And if you were to commit just one sin of online marketing, it could kill your entire business.
Here are 7 fatal sins of online marketing. Why you should avoid them. Plus, what you should do instead to be more successful.
Fatal Marketing Sin #1: Sending Traffic to Your Homepage
The money you invest in traffic is a sunk cost. The only way to get a return on your investment is by selling products and services. So if you were to get someone to click on your advertisement, you would want the best opportunity to sell them.
Yet 92 percent of consumers that visit a brand's website for the first time are NOT there to buy. And only 32 percent of those who visited the site with the intention to buy rarely or never make the purchase. This per a study of 1,112 consumers in the United States by Episerver.
That's why it's vital you first get your prospect to opt-in and give you permission to send them email messages. Then you can establish a relationship with them. Plus, nurture them with educational information to establish trust and credibility. All which can lead to sales conversion.
The best place to send traffic is to a landing page solely focused on getting visitors to opt-in. But a homepage is the wrong place to send traffic. That's because most home pages have a menu and too much information to distract visitors from opting in, even if you include an opt-in form. Fatal Marketing Sin #2: Sending Cold Traffic to Your Sales Page
Sending cold traffic to your sales page before they opt in can be worse than sending them to your home page. Less than one-third of prospects who otherwise would buy from you, buy on their first visit.
By sending traffic to your sales page, you risk losing them forever by revealing your price, without first establishing a relationship with them. If they leave without buying, you have no way to follow-up. So you waste your advertising investment.
Fatal Marketing Sin #3: Investing in Traffic Before Investing in Your Sales Funnel
Why spend on website traffic you cannot convert into sales. Don't put the cart before the horse, because you may not get where you want to go.
The key to making sales is to have a good sales funnel. So you can generate sales conversion. A good sales funnel includes a series of email letters with links to content to establish trust and credibility. Plus one or more landing pages with persuasive content and strong offer. And an order page confirming the offer with a fast and easy way for buyers to complete and submit it.
Fatal Marketing Sin #4: Not Knowing Your Target Market
All too often marketers make the sin of having too broad of a target audience. Yet targeting a broad audience will not only cost you more, it will also lead to lower sales conversion.
The best first step before you invest in traffic, is to conduct market research. An in-depth survey to help you find the demographic, psychographic and buying behavior characteristics of your true target market. The results can help you identify the most appropriate marketing messaging.
Fatal Marketing Sin #5: Not Segmenting Your Contacts
The era of one message fits all is dead. The advantage of online marketing is you can segment your contacts and give each a personalized experience.
Two common ways to segment your contacts is through custom fields and tags. Then you can group your contacts according to those who have a certain tag or custom field data. And you can personalize the marketing message based on this criterion. That can lead to both increased sales conversion and greater customer satisfaction.
Fatal Marketing Sin #6: Not Split Testing Your Campaigns
Split testing enables you to compare results between 2 and 4 versions of your landing pages. So you can improve your results. For either higher opt-in rates. Or greater sales conversion.
The key to split testing is to focus on just one variable at a time. This variable can be to compare headlines, pricing, offer, or even design of the landing page. You simply designate the current version as the control and send a certain percent of contacts in your funnel to the "test page(s)". When one "test page" results beat out the control, then it becomes the new control.
Fatal Marketing Sin #7: Not Investing in a Downsell Campaign
As much as 67% or more may abandon their shopping cart. Yet you can recapture over one-fourth of these lost sales with a downsell campaign.
A downsell campaign involves a series of messages to contacts who abandon the shopping cart. Each message contains a persuasive message with a link to a dedicated landing page with a special offer. What once was sales-lost, now becomes increased sales conversion.
In summary, executing any one of the above online marketing sins can kill your business. But when instead, you execute the strategies suggested, you can help your business grow. To help you achieve higher opt-in rates, increased sales conversion and greater ROI.
Marketing services by Jeff Traister can help you increase your sales conversion through automation and persuasive copywriting. He is a certified Internet marketing automation consultant and direct response copywriter.
To learn more and get tips on how you can increase your sales conversion of leads and get customers to buy more from you, go to Your Digital-Marketing-Automation-Superhero
Digital marketing consists of a lot of strategies. In fact, it's a holistic approach to do different types of marketing activities across different online platforms. These methods get upgraded on a regular basis as new technologies emerge across the globe. Therefore, digital marketing has grown significantly over the past few years. If you are new to this field, you may want to read the basics of digital marketing explained below.
1. Invest in machine Learning and Artificial intelligence (AI)
First of all, the artificial intelligence (AI) will be quite popular in the coming years. Machine learning is another important part of digital marketing.
In the near future, social media bots will play a great role as far as connecting with potential customers is concerned. So, you may want to give more importance to social media if you want to communicate with your customers in an effective manner. According to experts, about 85% of customers will interact with bots to get the information they need.
2. Share your videos on Social Media
In 2019, make sure you share your business videos across different social media platforms. Unlike the images or written content, a good video is more effective as far as grabbing the eyes of the visitors is concerned. This is really important if you are going to market on the leading platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.
According to the latest research, 80% of people like to watch videos on the internet. They don't want to read articles or blog posts that much.
3. Optimize your sites for Mobile Devices
In 2019, your marketing strategies should be focused on mobile technology as well. According to the latest Google algorithm, your site should be optimized for mobile phones or you may get a penalty from Google.
Nowadays, mobile phones are one of the most popular devices across the globe. The new year will grow the mobile video consumption by up to 30%. On the other hand, the demand for desktop computers and laptops will continue to decline.
4. Consider Mobile apps
In the world of digital marketing, mobile technology is the latest innovation. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most effective digital marketing tools in the here and now.
With the help of this cellular technology, you can compete with your competitors to stay ahead in the field. Without any doubt, if you have a mobile responsive website, you can grow your business to a large extent.
So, you may want to tap into the mobile apps as well. One such app is Whatsapp business. According to a source, mobile apps have generated $88 billion, give or take, in recent years.
5. Focus on the Customer Experience
For your business, customers play the same role your blood plays in your body. Therefore, it's important that you work on the consumer experience. This will help you increase your sales over time.
If your customers are satisfied with your products or service, they will keep coming back for more.
So, these are the tips that you may want to consider to improve your digital marketing campaigns in 2019.
DSDM is an ideal resource if you are interested in digital marketing training in West Delhi. You can check out their courses on DSDM.in.
