The Proven Science of e-Marketing...
A Must Read For ALL Business Owners!
Hi %%First Name%%
I know you are busy and don’t really feel you have time to read many things. Yet if you plan to read one thing this year, read ‘50 Shades of Grey’…. But if you plan to read Two things this year?... then I have really put the time and effort into this article to make it really valuable & worthwhile.
As a business owner you need to really understand eMarketing and how it  can exponentially Boom your business. So please, don’t ignore this one, take a few moments, now or as soon as you can, to read this fully.
And iIf you can even let me know what you think and/or any questions, is always appreciated?!
We are all in business to make money yes?! (Via helping our clients of course.)
And why do we all have a company website?... To make money?!
So tell me?… Are you actually making money from your website??
If you are not making money from your website there is just ONE simple reason! (Of course assuming you having a professionally designed and functional website and made in accordance to web standards.)
So what is that one reason your website isn’t making your money?!...
e-Marketing Works!
In this article I simply want to take a step back to the basics and talk about how you can make money using online!
The One thing that can make or break your business, is Marketing. But it really is one of the simplest parts of business, if you follow a few simple steps and rules. Done correctly, it can dramatically impact your business. Done incorrectly or even worse, not done at all, your business WILL SUFFER!
It is an now an online world, so embrace this, use this, for now the smallest to the largest business can take full control of their marketing and use this powerful tool to get more leads, more sales and more referral business than ever possible before.
Most business owners are good or even great at what they do, but being a great business owner does not automatically make you a great Marketer! Yet without good marketing your business can cease to exist!
Here is a simple overview that if you follow this you are guaranteed to increase sales. How do I know that? Because it is a PROVEN SCIENCE, not an ideal or a hope. It works and if you simply follow the guides, it will work for you.
eMarketing is 2 Parts:
- Website
- Email
There can be a Part 3 involving off-page marketing; such as SMM (Social Media Marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC (Pay Per Click – Adwords) - but get Part 1 & 2 right first or you will simply be wasting your SEO/SMM/PPC dollars!
Part 1 – Your Website:
Your email campaigns (and your SEO/SMM) should be designed to drive people to your website. So if your website is still just a kind of information brochure or company flag waving style entity, then your efforts are a thousand times harder and much less effective.
As I ask most business owners when I meet to talk marketing, “How many visitors did you have to your site last month?” They may proudly answer a nice number like 3,000 or 5,000. I say “that’s great! So can you tell me the name of at least 3 of those visitors?”
Of course I am always get a blank face response.
So can I ask you, “How often, if ever, do you buy from a website the first time you visit it?!”
Never!! No-one does. (Of course there are exceptions, especially if you are an Amazon, eBay and so on.)
The main use of the internet is still ‘Research’. Business people forget this and are expecting people to simply buy/enquire/contact you when they visit your site. The truth is people don’t and that once they leave your site, they are as good as gone, unless by chance they stumble upon you again and again and you are the only one who can satisfy their need.
And what do you think are the chances of that in this online competitive world??
If someone is visiting your website, that means they are interested – now or at some time in the future – in your products/service. So they are practically a ‘warm lead’. Can you imagine if you could talk 1 to 1 with these warm leads and tell them about your products/services, why they should deal with you and how you can help?! What impact would that have on your sales?!! Huge I am certain!
Well you can!
The key is to try encouraging each visitor to give you their details and any other relevant information that will help you help them.
So you now have the name, email and the problem each visitor is researching, now what do you do? Cold call?? Noooooo!
I know I am going to ruffle a lot of feathers here, but Cold Calling is dead! It is antiquated and is no longer received or accepted by the general public.
Instead, all your marketing/advertising today should be geared toward drawing people to you via your website and focused on creating prospects, not customers. (Remember this with your SMM also. Do not use Facebook, Twitter, etc., to try ‘sell’. Use it to drive people to your website.) You need to educate and build a certain rapport before you can sell. Your market needs to learn how you provide value in a way that makes them want to buy/use/enquire about your services or products. Your marketing must get viewers to want to ask for more information. Then you can start to put special offers, discounts, and promotions to them to start the Selling process.
So how do you encourage people to give you their details?... Offer them something of value in return. Have Marketing Tools in your website, such as “Win $xxxx of product” or white papers such as “7 ways we will save you thousands”, 10 things Facebook doesn’t want businesses to know”, or “Join our VIP club to 25% discount on all purchases”, and heaps more ideas. Use your knowledge of your market to create great value incentives that will appeal to only your target market. (Giving away a laptop or a case of wine will get a lot of entries, but most aren’t going to be your target market.)
The greater the value of your marketing tool, the more information you can ask of your visitors.
Now with these tools on your website you will start to build a solid list of self-qualified, warm leads. The potential is huge!
Part 2 – Email:
You have this list of qualified leads that have indicated they will want your services at various time in the future. Many companies may get this step correct, but stop there?! They think the visitor will return when they are ready, but in fact you are unfortunately probably already forgotten. Getting their details is just half the process.
Now you need to start to communicate with your database, educate them on who you are, what you can offer them, why you are different and how you can give them more value/better experience.
Example: You have a Wedding Car Hire website and of course only people interested in wedding car hire will go to your site, so straight away you know any visitor is a warm lead. On the site, one of your tools is “Win a Free wedding care hire”. What visitor in the market for Wedding Car Hire isn’t going to want to participate in that?! And as it is a prize of good value, you could ask when the event is, how many people and so on.
As we know, most likely at this stage all your visitors are doing their Research for the future event. So with their details, you can now start to email to your database Regularly, educating them on your services, why they should deal with you. You know they want to use a service/product as yours, so having a special offer in each email would in time start to create a flood of new customers.
It is that simple and this is the real power of the internet and eMarketing!
So with your web site ready, you now need to make a professional looking e-newsletter style email that has the right ‘look and feel’ for your business and the messages you want to get across to your market. You can try this yourself if you have the skill, but mostly it would be best to employ a web company to make this for you or even better, use a professional emarketing program where you can so easily create/edit templates with simple click and drag, such as our Impact eMarketer which has a complete library of different industry templates you can use and edit, plus so many additional features to make your marketing easier and more effective.
Within the email you want a worthwhile message that your readers (in this case brides/grooms to be), will find interesting and hopefully even share with others. If possible don’t have every part of the email directed back to you, but rather relative information that is helpful to your market. You need to be perceived as ‘giving’, not just trying to taking/selling, especially when it is the first few communication with your database.
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