If your goal is to generate passive income, then you might well be hoping to accomplish that by selling a product. This could be a product you've made, or it might be a product that you are promoting as an affiliate marketer. Either way, you'll likely have set up a sales page, creating an ad campaign to send visitors there and then hopefully begun to rake in the profits!
The problem is that it can be tough trying to convince people who visit your page to buy. Your success in this endeavor comes down almost entirely to your conversions and the percentage of visitors that end up buying from you.
And to this end, many marketers will jump straight in with the hard sell. That means that they'll heavily push all the positives of their product and try to get the visitor to click buy as soon as they get there.
This doesn't tend to work. Although you probably want to make your sales process as simple and automated as possible, it's absolutely essential that you don't try to go straight in for the kill. Far more effective is to try to capture leads first instead. Here's why.
Why Cold Sales Don't Work
Just because you're making money passively, that does not mean that you should be impatient about how you are collecting your sales.
If you try to convert your visitors as soon as they land on your page, then this is the equivalent of walking up to someone you like in a bar and asking them for their number, without saying hello or even introducing themselves first. Or it's a little like walking up to someone in the street and offering to sell them a watch for $500. Would you be receptive to that sales technique?
Of course not! And the reason is that you know nothing about the person selling, you know nothing about the product and you have no reason to trust that what they're offering is as good as they say it is.
If someone lands on your page and you try to sell to them right away, then they'll think your site is essentially spam and they'll be frustrated at the lack of value. Chances are they'll leave.
How to Convert
So instead, talk to them about how they can get free information by signing up to your mailing list, or provide them with an article and then offer to share more through your Facebook.
Now you have the opportunity to build that relationship and to build trust and eventually, you'll find that this puts you in a position where they are more likely to want to buy from you!
You might be wondering how this model is still passive. In fact, though, it still can be: there's no reason you can't use automated emails for example through an auto-responder. Or you can write a ton of blog posts and then schedule them to post over time.
You can still make your model passive. Just don't go straight in for the kill!
Download FREE Passive Income Guide
http://TalkingFalcon.com
Building an email list is important for many reasons. One reason is that your marketing database tends to degrade over time, and the rate of degradation is 22.5%, according to experts. A person may change their email address once they get hired by another company. Some may opt out or stop using their AOL address. So, it's important that you keep building your email list. For this, you can use the tips given below.
Put together quality email content
If you don't want your subscribers to opt out, make sure you put together high quality newsletters. This will also encourage them to forward your emails to others.
Spur on your subscribers to share
If you include social media buttons in your emails in order to encourage your subscribers to share your content. This will help you get access to more people who may choose to sign up as well.
Hold a contest
You can also hold a contest on the internet, such as a free giveaway. This will encourage others to sign up with their email addresses.
Offer several types of email subscriptions
It's better to create different types of subscription types based on the segments of market you are targeting. Email recipients tend to click on customized emails. So, if you want to increase click through rate, we suggest that you have different subscription types. Have an opt-in campaign
You can rejuvenate your email list by running an opt-in campaign. For instance, if you have an old list, you can create an interesting opt-in message for these subscribers. In this message, you should clearly state that you would remove the contacts who won't respond.
Adding links to the signatures of your employees
You may want to add a link to the signatures of your employees. It should take people to a home page so that they could sign up for a mailing list. Put together a fresh lead generation offer
For instance, you can offer a free of charge whitepaper or eBook, thus requiring visitors to offer their email address if they want to download it.
Offer a free tool or resource
You can offer a free tool or resource provided the users choose to sign up on your site. This can be a marketing or keyword research tool for instance.
Promote your offers on social media
You can promote your lead generation offers on social media platforms, such as Twitter. All you need to do is run a Twitter campaign in order to promote your offer like an eBook or a tool. However, make sure you offer the tool only when the visitors sign up with their email address.
Make use of your Facebook page
You can also make use of your Facebook page for promoting an offer. You can do the promotion on your Timeline. On your landing pages, don't forget to place the social media buttons. This will make it easier for your visitors to share your content on social media websites.
Long story short, these are a few methods that you can use in order to build your email list.
Do you need an email verifier for email verification? If so, Never Bounce can be a great tool to verify email addresses for you so you can build a valid email list.
Recently, Australian clothing brand YP Threads sent an email that seemed like they were blackmailing customers. In it, they "threatened" to expose incriminating photos of them to the public if they didn't buy from their brand. The email ended with the lines, "We know where you live. Time starts now."
The tactic proved to be a bad judgment call, ending with YP Threads apologizing for the email. Some may argue the strategy raised publicity for YP Threads. In the end, their approach still served as an example of bad marketing practices.
Coming up with an effective strategy can be difficult. Firms specializing in email marketing campaign services would gladly tell you. Marketers sometimes forget what might work isn't always what might be best. It's time to review which email practices you should avoid.
1. Having an extensive list with people who have never heard of your company
Nobody cares about how many people you have on your email list. The point is that you get your message across to the people whom you want to sell to. Having an email list longer than the Great Wall of China doesn't assure you email opens or conversions. It's all about reaching the people who are most likely to care about your business.
Think about it. How many times have you received an email from a company whose services you had no interest in? Maybe it was an email about car repairs, and you don't even have a car.
Trimming down your email list to a fewer number may make you think twice, but it actually guarantees better results. Try it.
2. Making it hard for subscribers to opt-out
They're called "opt out" for a reason. Give your subscribers the choice to refuse being sent future emails, and don't give them a hard time about it! Sometimes email marketers do it to retain subscribers, but that just means you're more likely to be identified as an annoying brand.
It's not personal-it's marketing. While there are people who don't want to hear from you, there are people who still do. Either way, respect people enough to give them the option to unsubscribe.
3. Incorporating spammy content in your emails
Emails that only contain words like "free" or "buy now" aren't exactly timeless. Sure, it works for your CTAs, but when people receive emails, they want to be engaged. Emails are an outlet for you to get creative with content to drive your customers' attention. Your customers are in the 21st century as you are and they're smart enough to get tired of the same word usage.
Give your users quality content. That way, they'll enjoy opening your emails and even look forward to receiving more. US-based makeup brand Glossier sends their customers updates, promos, and even random content that's aligned with their brand personality, such as wallpapers for customers and a photo of a baby goat smiling.
4. Writing misleading subject lines
You could get in trouble for your subject lines. Sometimes, marketers want a quick way to get customers to open their emails, and a way to do that is to engage them through the subject lines.
When marketers have a chance to do this, sometimes they cause panic for their customers. One furniture store emailed their customers a "receipt from the future" with the subject line "Thanks for your order!" as part of their April Fools ' Day campaign. Some of their customers ended up panicking over a false order before realizing it was a marketing ploy.
The last thing you want to do is strip off the trust your customers have with your brand. After all, gaining trust is more important than grabbing their attention. Find other creative ways to engage them with your email campaign.
Sometimes people get caught up in their marketing that they don't realize their methods carry consequences. So whether you're setting up your own strategies or hiring email marketing campaign services, take note of these practices and avoid them.
In some ways, we can consider email revolutionary. It even predates the internet's ancestor, the ARPANET. In 1965, the first version of email was found in computers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a program dubbed "MAILBOX". In a little over ten years, people saw the potential of marketing in email, but because such method was non-existent at this point, Gary Thuerk ended up pioneering the first spam message when he sent the same email to 400 people in 1978.
Today, we know there's a clear distinction between spam and email marketing. But usually when people think of spam, the first thing that comes to mind are messages that tell you one million dollars is waiting for you and all you have to do is click the button. By this standard, almost everyone is able to identify what messages are considered spam.
Since nobody falls for that anymore, spam senders have gotten more cultured with their techniques. And sometimes, this means even your techniques can get lost in the strategies of spam. So if you're constructing your own email marketing campaign strategy, here are a few pointers for you to distinguish legitimate email marketing from spam. Spam is sent with no permission, email marketing asks
If you'll notice, legitimate campaigns begin with an opt-in form on websites. As entrepreneurs, you have to respect your customers enough to let them decide if they want to receive weekly updates from you via email.
Spam messages are intrusive, and there's almost never a way for you to opt-out of their mailing list. But one takeaway from spam is that they offer their readers something (not real but it's the thought that counts). Mention what you can offer to your readers, like a free trial or free PDF, to let them know what they can get from subscribing to your emails.
Spam enters deceptive subject lines, email marketing sends specific ones
Spam messages usually promise something big in their subject lines. But even legitimate email marketers get carried away with using subject lines such as "Your invitation from us" or "Your gift is waiting". Studies show, the click-through rate of emails with deceptive subject lines is next to zero. Why even bother?
Everyone knows this tactic, too. Admit it; you'd never open an email that says, "your gift is waiting for you".
At this point, one of the best methods to get users to open your emails is to use open loops, or incomplete ideas. For example, you could use "The one thing I wish I learned from college is... " to make recipients want to find out more.
Spam makes it impossible for users to opt-out of mailing lists, email marketing honors opt-outs
As email marketers, you should make it a point to give your recipients choices to opt out of getting your emails. Along with this, not only does good email marketing allow users to opt out, they present clear and concise explanations on how users can opt out. Make sure to give your recipients a return email address, too.
It's worth noting that some email marketers still act intrusively, still sending certain types of emails to people who have already opted out. You must honor recipients requesting to opt out of all commercial messages. Remember, at its core, spam is a bulk of unsolicited messages.
When you follow guidelines on email marketing and respect your customers, you know your campaign can and will succeed. It all boils down to your strategy. With the help of some experts on email campaign management, your company can deliver the best email campaign without bordering on spam. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Donald_Smithon/2139064 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9925636
Digital marketing is great hype today. New methods and techniques to conduct the marketing are being devised every day. Amidst all this, it is easy to assume that email marketing is an obsolete process.
We may consider it as it is no longer being used or isn't fetching desirable results.
However, you couldn't be more wrong.
Email marketing is still widespread today. It is, in fact, becoming more successful with time. But what makes it such an appealing marketing technique, despite being so old?
Well, let's find out.
Here are the reasons why people are still in love with email marketing:
1. Low Cost
The biggest reasons why emailing continues to remain one of the favorites is the cost factor. It has a very low cost involved. All you require is an operational email ID, and you are ready to start working on the email marketing tactics.
Sometimes, people start buying bulk email addresses. However, it is quite rare. Mostly they send emails only to people who genuinely subscribe to the site themselves.
An emerging practice is to use software for automating the generation and sending of emails. However, this cost is often less compared to other modes of marketing.
There are neither any print charges involved, nor do you need to pay fees for the advertisements space like space on television and newspapers. Overall, email marketing remains one of the cheapest modes of marketing.
2. Only for the customers
Most marketing techniques involve users who may have never interacted with the brand. Some types of digital marketing tactics target users who have shown similar interests in their actions, as seen on Facebook and Google.
However, email marketing is the only marketing mode where the users themselves ask to be part of the company's subscribers.
Companies get email addresses of the users either when they subscribe to the newsletters or when they register to their website.
Taking advance approval from customers ensures that emailing effort is more visible and effective compared to other marketing methods.
3. Target your audience
One of the big merits of the email marketing is that it allows you to target a particular segment of your audience.
Since companies usually obtain email addresses by subscription or registration, they also capture their basic information about the customer like name, gender, age, location etc.
This information could be utilized in creating targeting emails.
For instance, if your company has a great offer for students, you can send emails to users who are less than 24 years of age. And, if your company is offering discounted prices on women apparels, then you may consider targeting females instead of men.
Users can also notice the pattern that they receive only those emails that are relevant to them. Thus, apart from saving a lot of resources, the company is also able to create a trust factor between the customer and the brand. 4. Ask them to make a move
One-way marketing despite having a broader reach suffers from a very critical drawback, i.e., lack of interaction. Even if you pitch the best of your marketing ideas, yet the user is free to ignore them.
In simpler words, you just cannot compel users to make an effort for paying heed to your offer. However, small efforts can definitely pay off.
Email marketing allows you to put in those efforts. By introducing a simple "call-to-action", you can ask the users to visit your website and see what you have to offer.
Having call-to-action also saves you from the trouble of giving too much information in the mail itself. Thus, in the email body, you can simply include the most-appealing content. 5. Saves you the effort
Apart from being cost-effective, it is one of the simplest marketing methods around. One does not require any high-end software, no huge team or a separate department.
All you need is the required hardware and a few professionals who know the job.
There is always a scope for better software and tools to be used in email marketing.
However, people mostly prefer the simple format, since it is majorly the content that decides the effectiveness of an email. The lack of complexity allows you to focus completely on creating an appealing email content.
6. See your score
A salient feature that makes the email marketing technique a desirable one is the metrics. Most traditional marketing methods have no or poor metrics, like radio, television, and newspapers.
However, in email marketing, despite being decades old, you can get all the measurements you need.
Also note, to identify the performance metrics, you would require appropriate email software.
A right software will tell you everything correctly, right from the number of emails that were actually opened to the ones that redirected the user to your website.
These results could give you insights into what is and isn't working for your campaign.
7. See instant results
One great benefits of using email marketing is that it allows you to perceive instant results. As soon as you send an email, the user would either receive it or be notified about it. Most people check their emails within 24 hours.
Thus, whether or not the user decides to take your offer, you get to see the real results the next day.
Most other marketing methods require some days or even weeks to bear results. But email marketing can get you the results before the date changes.
Some people argue that such hasty marketing is counterproductive, but that is utterly false.
8. No boundaries
Email marketing being a prominent part of the internet marketing, it does not have any boundaries set by geography.
While this is true for any digital marketing method, the email marketing is the true alternative to the traditional marketing methods like print and television.
The difference is you can target customers globally belonging to various countries, genders, age groups, professions etc.
The more range of customers you choose, the bigger will your potential customer base would be.
Conclusion
Email marketing, despite the negative stereotype, is both alive and productive even today. As discussed above, there are loads of speculations that make people fall in love with it.
Though there are other marketing methods may beat the email method in one or two ways, overall, it is still one of the most effective and accessible marketing methods across the globe.
Nisha Garg is an affiliate marketer cum blogger. She believes each day as a learning day and presently exploring facts about email marketing. To know more about her visit: http://nishagarg.com/
In this article, I'm going to share with you 6 ways to make email marketing more effective so that you can use it to increase your sales and at the same time increase your customer base.
B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumers) are way different writing styles when it comes to emails.
In this article, we will focus on B2C since that's what I do.
Here are 6 ways you need to consider focusing on if you want to create a more effective email marketing campaign.
1. You need to know what kind of a campaign you are going to be sending
This could be a promotion or it could be just a content series. Whatever you choose will depend on what you have going on in your business at the time.
Just remember a rule of thumb is to make sure you are not just sending out promotion after promotion day after day. Make sure you throw in some valuable content at least once or twice a week to break up the promotions and to provide value to your list.
2. Use curiosity subject lines
If you want to get more opens on your emails then you need to play it smart. Write subject lines that get attention and make them want to read more. If you tell them what the email is in the subject line do you think they will open it? Use just enough curiosity to make them take action to see what it's all about.
3. Be friendly to build relationships faster
Remember to write as if you are writing to a good friend, be friendly and casual. The friendlier you sound the faster you will build a relationship with your subscriber.
Tell them stories about what you are doing that day or something you might do later after you finish writing them the email. Give them valuable advice of something that happened to you that they can benefit from.
4. Leave a clear call to action
Believe it or not your subscribers want you to tell them what to do so don't beat around the bush. Say what you need to say and tell them what you want them to do such as:
Click here to do this, or Click here to watch this video.
Remember that they got on your list because they were interested in something that you are good at. And they are looking up to you for guidance and advice, so don't let them down.
5. Keep them engaged
When sending out your campaigns be sure to segment your list so that they get on the right list. This will help make better sales and get better conversion rates from your products.
If you are sending the right promotions to the right list of people you can see how your business will benefit.
To do this simply create a new list for each type of product you promote. Let's say for instance list building. When you send out your warming email series for your new list building product you want to have a list set up with an opt-in page (squeeze page) where you are giving something away about list building.
That way all the subs from your regular list will not be put on your "list building" list and when you're ready to sell that product you will have a hungry list of people ready to buy it. Make sense?
6. Track your results
A lot of email marketer that are just starting out make the big mistake of not tracking their open rates, click through rates, and they don't keep their list clean.
Most autoresponders these days have all the tracking you need, all you have to do is go in the "statistics" section and see how many opens you got and how many clicks.
I'm not going to tell you how to manage your list, but my rule of thumb is if no one opens any of my emails in 60 days, I delete them. Because chances are if they didn't click or open anything for that many days they never will.
Now you can also send out a win back campaign before you delete them just to see if they finally open something from you, but I'll leave that for another article.
If you would like more cool info on email marketing, here is 10 email marketing hacks I put together: http://ronnierokksmith.com/email-marketing-hacks-7-special/
The recent introduction of the general data protection regulation (GDPR) has had a direct impact on marketing practices, including email marketing. Is email marketing still one of the most effective marketing tools for your business?
The answer is yes, email marketing is still one of the most effective tools for driving sales in your business, but as with most forms of marketing, it rarely stands still.
Ensure You're Compliant
Personal privacy is a major concern today when it comes to email marketing. So is the way you use the data you collect. Read over your current privacy policy and terms of service for your website to ensure you are up to date.
Mobile-Friendly Emails
Your email should be readable on any device that your subscriber decides to read it on. You can check out how your emails and website look on free tools such as mobiletest.me and responsinator.com to view your content on a range of simulated screens.
Email Rendering
There's a similar problem with the way emails appear in different email services. Check the overall look of your emails at Yahoo! mail, Gmail, Hotmail etc to be sure it doesn't look wrong.
Coding Issues
Some marketers prefer HTML coded emails, while others opt for plain text. Any HTML coding mistakes could ruin the look and feel of the email, or even prevent some or all of it from being seen. Check your code at a site like Dirty Markup and clean any errors.
Check and Test
Be sure to carefully check any email before you send it. Look for typing errors and ensure that the link clicks through to the correct page. Make sure that things like the date and time of an event are correct. People are very busy and don't have time for you to send two or three emails on the same subject, trying to correct basic errors you should have found in the first place.
Send High-Quality Information, Not Just Sales Info
Be certain all your emails are relevant and interesting to your target audience. Do more than just try to sell them stuff, and odds are they will continue being on your list, look forward to your emails and open them, and even forward the emails to other people.
Make It Easy For People To Unsubscribe
If your subscriber makes a decision that they don't want to get any more emails from you, make it possible for them to easily unsubscribe. If you make it difficult, they will start to begrudge your emails and will certainly never buy from you. They may also report you as spam, which will cause you complications in the future.
Email marketing can achieve awesome results for the smart marketer. On average, a prospect needs to see your messages 7 to 8 times before they trust you enough to buy something. Email is the perfect way to deliver these messages with a structured marketing funnel. To learn more, download my free Marketing Funnel Checklist at https://jonallo.com/salesfunnel
Email marketing is becoming one of the best effective and affordable tools for online marketing.
As the Net has grown, e-mail marketing is becoming one of the best effective and affordable tools for online marketing. E-mail marketing significantly impacts businesses if they are B2B or B2C (business to business/business to consumer).
Marketing throughout e-mail raises your brand devotion and raises your customer service throughout the eyes of your buyers. When ever permission based e-mail marketing is carried out correct it can easily be even more good than any sort of other kind of web marketing technique. The point to bear in mind is that no one single element of website marketing may stand on its own.
For example, an e-mail newsletter must have a tremendous site to support it and also curiosity in your business to build your e-mail list in the first place. The quantity one activity on the web is e-mail. This is the reason e-mail can certainly be utilized as a superb internet marketing tool. Various Internet end users say that they would rather get marketing messages in their e-mail than be bothered by sales phone calls at home Permission Based E-mail.
One essential key element to a powerful e-mail marketing technique is to just concentrate on permission based mail. This involves that consumers have to select to get mail from you. This is known as "opt in". You should certainly by no means rent or purchase an e-mail list since this is regarded as to be spam.
No matter what precisely the person of the e-mail list will tell you, the absolute majority of the addresses on the list did not opt in to get e-mail or to have their exclusive info sold to you. Once you send e-mail to customers who don't desire it you're sending spam. Spam will grant your company image a cheap appearance and eliminates virtually any trust that clients have in you.
You need prospects that are top quality and not amount and this results in building up your personal e-mail list. You'll discover that the final effects will be huge to you and your business.
Not really an add-on of support services.
E-mail marketing will need to be viewed as a complement of the customer service that you offer. You want to be capable to connect with your buyers at every single point in the sales procedure. The moment you provide your consumers what they request, with out mistreating any authorization, you set up the foundation for a bond that is founded on value and leads to long-term customer devotion.
Learn Internet Marketing and start making money right now! Take my Free Internet Marketing Email Mini Course. Also make sure you visit my Internet Marketing Blog [http://blog.onlinemarketingcore.com] to read more similar articles of this topic.
In my previous article, I talked about how you can plan your business startup. I defined a business plan as a written description of the future of your business. This is a document that indicates what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. I further explained that if all you have is a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you have written a plan, or at least the beginning of a plan. I also said that a business plan consists of a narrative and several financial worksheets.
I mentioned that the 'writing of a business plan' as one of the pivotal steps involved in setting up a successful business. By now you should understand the need for writing a business plan. Writing a business plan, for a traditional brick and mortar business, will probably take a lot of time. It may take up to 100 hours or even more. For obvious reasons, a new business needs to carry out a lot of research before a business plan can even be developed.
For an online business, a detailed and in depth business plan is usually not necessary unless you are trying to combine your online business with a traditional business. For most online business startups, the detail involved with planning a traditional business is not required. However, it would still be beneficial to you if most of the topics were still covered, even if only briefly. Having a written plan in front of you will help you to focus on important aspects of the business.
You may not have thought much about your competition or outsourcing some of your work, but things like that will impact your ability to make a profit. And you will find this especially so in the beginning phases of your business. Even you are just opening a lemonade stand in the front yard, you will still need to know what Susie is selling her lemonade for on the next street over!
So, although a detailed business plan may not be required for an online business, I am going to include it here so you can at least look at and consider each section and determine yourself if it applies to your business.
Here I shall be discussing the basic steps involved in writing a business plan:
1. Executive Summary: The first step involved in writing a business plan is the executive summary. Here, include everything that you would cover in a five minute interview.
Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry?
Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise.
If you are applying for a loan, state clearly how much you need and be precise in how you are going to use it. Also include detail about how the money will make your business more profitable, thereby ensuring repayment of the loan. 2. Business Description: After the executive summary, you need to write a short description of the business you are going into. You need to give a general description of the industry your business belongs to. You will write about your company's mission statement, goals and objectives, business philosophy, as well as its legal form of ownership (sole proprietor, corporation, LLC, etc.).
Describe your most important company strengths and core competencies. What factors will make the company succeed? What do you think your major competitive strengths will be? What background, experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?
3. Marketing Analysis/Strategy: The next thing to write (after the general description) should be your marketing strategy. For new or existing businesses, market analysis is an important basis for the marketing plan and will help justify the sales forecast. Existing businesses will rely heavily on past performance as an indicator of the future. New businesses have a greater challenge - they will rely more on market research using libraries, trade associations, government statistics, surveys, competitor observations, etc. In all cases, make sure your market analysis is relevant to establishing the viability of your new business and the reasonableness of the sales forecast.
4. Location: Writing down the location of your business is very important. Locations with greater customer traffic usually cost more to buy or rent, but they require less spending for advertising to attract customers. This is especially true of retail businesses where traffic count and accessibility are critical.
If an online business, you need to go into detail how you will attract customers to your website. General statements like "I will use Face Book ads and email marketing" will contribute almost nothing to helping your cause unless you have detailed statistical analysis of tests you have conducted or of another similar business you have been associated with. If you do not have any data upon which you reference your estimates, it could show lack of proper thought to the remainder of your business plan.
5. Competitive Analysis: Business by nature is competitive, and few businesses are completely new. If there are no competitors, be careful; there may be no market for your products. Expand your concept of competition. If you plan to open the first roller skating rink in town, your competition will include movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, etc.
6. Management and Operations: Because management problems are the leading cause of business failures, it is important to discuss management qualifications and structure. Resumes of the Principals should be included in supporting data. If your business will have few employees and rely heavily on outside professionals, list these key people and their qualifications. If you are seeking financing, include personal financial statements for all of the principals in the supporting data section.
7. Personnel: The success of any company depends on their ability to recruit, train and retain quality employees. The amount of emphasis in your plan for this section will depend on the number and type of employees required.
8. Projected Financial Statements: These statements are usually helpful, but not necessary. You will develop and describe your strategies for the business throughout your Business Plan. In the financial section, you will need to estimate the financial impact of those strategies by developing projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements.
It is usually recommended that these projected statements be on a monthly basis for at least the first twelve months or until the business is projected to be profitable and stable. Activity displayed beyond the monthly detail may be in summary form (such as quarterly or annually). The forecast period for most business plans is two to four years.
9. Summary Section: This section is where you will be able to attach or explain any detail not applicable to the previous sections. This section should be used to provide the financial statements of the Principle's involved in the business and any other data you think an investor would be interested in seeing.
The main thing to remember in this section is not to provide new data, but to explain in detail data that has already been provided and to provide the support for that data.
When you sit down to compile all of the elements of your business plan, make sure you have each section able to stand on its own merits. This means you should not reference other sections sending the reader (your potential investor) back and forth between sections.
Do not try to write your business plan in one sitting. As I mentioned in the beginning, for a traditional brick and mortar business, it could take in excess of 100 hours to compile all of the information needed into a comprehensive but yet understandable document. For online businesses, probably not that long. But your final product should be well thought out, well documented and easily understandable.
On my website, http://www.bobthibodeau.com, I am helping those who are new to Internet Marketing not make the same mistakes I (and countless others) have made getting started. I also help those marketers who are struggling in an area of getting their business going. I offer no promises - just plain, straight forward training and assistance for those who are serious about making a serious, online income.
Instead of selling your own products, you can promote others’ products. Just be sure to “sell what sells”.
Pick products in “evergreen” niches. Those are niches that never go out of season or out of style.
Once you’ve decided on a niche, find its best-selling products on Clickbank and/or JVZoo.
Now, you’re basically going to want to promote those best-selling products via articles, Youtube videos and blog posts.
Your goal is to get as many clicks to your offers as possible. The more clicks you get, the more conversions you will get over time. Your goal is to get more efficient and more sophisticated in getting clicks as you go.
Email marketing
It’s still one of the best ways to make money online. You just have to do it right!
These days, it’s better to sync your email marketing efforts with social media and quality content.
Keep in mind that most consumers now read their emails on their smartphones or tablets. So be sure that your emails are cleanly readable on mobile devices!
Be prepared for the harsh realities about email marketing. Unsubscribe rates tend to be high, even if you’re providing quality content.
But if your unsubscribe rates are over 25% however, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Focus on providing value and quality content first, and making sales SECOND.
That should help keep click/open rates up, and unsubscribe rates down.
Content marketing
Good content brings quality leads, which then become sales. Creating good content, however, is a challenge. Not everyone is a natural-born writer or video producer.
Nonetheless, it’s important to produce quality content, especially in competitive niches.
If you can’t do it on your own, outsource as much as your budget will allow. It will only make you more money down the road.
If blogging or guest-posting, keep in mind that Google ranks content based on quality as well as backlinks. Focus on both elements when posting content to build authority, credibility, and trust.
Remember, it’s all about getting views. From there, you’ll get clicks to your offers or lead forms, where you can sell products or services to clients.
If you run a blog, you can also utilize advertising platforms such as Google Adsense to increase earnings. Always a good idea to build multiple revenue streams with your content.
Consider this: To earn over $1000 a week, you need to get your daily earnings over $142. On an 8-hour workday, 5 days a week, that’s about $25 per hour.
Reach that hourly rate, and boom - you’re earning $1000 a week. It’s all about setting goals, then meeting them!
The importance of List Building for online businesses can never be overemphasized!
List building defined:
List building is a marketing process that involves strategic gathering of limitless volume of followers for the sole reason to deliver vital news, messages, products info or events, etc. This ever-growing mailing list is created and developed by end-users who freely opt-in via subscription into an online business marketer's autoresponder facility. Whatever business you do online, you can compel your audience, prospects and clients to be part of your list for several reasons, such as: receiving newsletters, updates, discounts, etc. When you consider list building for your online business, it can be very lucrative and highly effective.
Below are some benefits of building and using a mailing list to help promote your online business:
For Pitching New Products/Services
When you choose to build a list for your business, it is actually people who trust in your products or services that will opt-in. A mailing list offers you the opportunity to market new products or services to potential customers. Whatever it is that you sell online, whether it is new software or some popular electronics, sales are almost guaranteed with your subscribers since they actually willingly opted into your mailing list. Once you are able to deliver effective sales pitch to your subscribers, making good profit becomes forthcoming and certain.
For Offering Exclusive Deals/Offers
When you are in the process of launching special offers, your mailing list will be most convenient to reach out to prospects that will quickly engage with the business. For example, if you sell a service or product at a list-price of $200 on your website you can sell the same service/product at $100 (providing special discount deal purchase link) to people who are subscribed to your mailing list. This can help you make loads of profit - especially if you have a large mailing list of subscribers.
For General Business Updates
When you need to inform your customers of very important product/service update your list will come in handy. Let's assume that your business social networking channel experiences a sudden technical disruption. You can quickly forward an email to your list informing them about the problem at hand.
Also, if you plan on having a live webinar or any event, subscribers on your mailing list would usually be among the first people to find out. With your list, you will be able to send emails at intervals inviting people to attend your live webinar or event.
With so many advantages of building a mailing list for your online business as mentioned above, it is clear that the Key to a successful online business is in the list. Start building your list today!
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As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Goethe wrote that, and let’s face it...that makes a lot of sense.
The problem is, it’s pretty hard to trust yourself when you are trying to do something new (like internet marketing) and you don’t even know where to start.
What makes it worse is that there are endless amounts of information written on the topic and every day more is being added to the stack...pretty much all of it conflicts with each other in one way or another.
So what is a person to do with a situation like that?
Well personally I say start with this:
Step 1. Do your best. Acknowledge that it won’t be perfect or maybe even good but your best is good enough and recognize that your best will get better every day.
Step 2. Commit yourself to the craft. Making a living online is a science and an artform. It takes practice to get good at it. Practice and experience. So make it a priority and dedicate a little bit of time to getting better at it every day.
Step 3. Understand that to make money online you need a steady stream of targeted traffic. By targeted I mean traffic that cares about what you are selling.
Step 4. Understand that the single most reliable and cheapest source for targeted traffic that converts highly into dollars is email.
Step 5. Commit to becoming great at effective list building and email marketing.
Step 6. Understand that there are many ways to be great online. Many ways to make money and many ways to do almost everything. However you only need to master one. Commit to your one path and let everything else fall away until you get your project to money.
That’s it. For now.
In my messages, I'm going to give you a valuable education on the world of digital marketing.
