The process of running an online business is well-known and well documented. There are occasional personal variations but the general consensus is that there are 3 steps to internet marketing. There are certainly different ways to apply this but the fundamentals remain unchanged.
All the presentations I have seen on how to put together an internet business were very clear and invariably reinforced most of the issues generally accepted. There are always new skills to learn but the fact is that all skills are learnable and that there is nothing to fear in internet marketing if, that is, you are prepared to accept that fact and work to learn the new skill set required. It can be quite daunting to be faced with setting up an online business and realising just what you don’t know and what you are going to need to learn. I remember all too well that feeling myself. I was fired up by the obvious potential of the business but rather overwhelmed by what I was going to need to do in order to make it work for me.
“So, what are the 3 steps to internet marketing?” They are:
- Finding a profitable Niche
- Building a mailing list of people interested in this profitable niche
- Marketing related products to your List
The first step is to know how to find a profitable niche. It has been suggested that you should pick on something which gets you fired up, so you can share your enthusiasm and knowledge with others. That can be a good idea so long as your chosen topic is a profitable one. The issue with finding a niche is to settle on one which raises real desire in people. When dealing in information products we are selling to what people want rather than what they need. Trying to sell to merely interested people will not give you the profit you are looking for. We need to promote our products to people who are almost obsessed by their particular topic. It also helps to have a niche where those obsessed people are likely to have money to spend.
The second point is, yet again, a crucial part of internet marketing. You will probably have heard the saying, “The money is in the List”, so building and maintaining a list of customers is at the very heart of what we do as internet marketers. Your targeted mailing lists are maintained by the regular release of useful free information, relevant web links, videos, newsletters, etc. to that list so those on our list look forward to receiving emails from us. They will identify us by our email address and subject line and, therefore, open our mail.
Point three follows neatly on from this as you will periodically inform your list of any new products that you have available. The take up will far, far outstrip any cold selling you might do. However, never treat your list simply as ‘punters’ who exist purely to prise money from as often as possible. If subscribers to your list feel that they are being taken for granted they will be up and gone before you can say Jack Robinson.
There is nothing new in the concept of these internet marketing steps. These have been around since the very beginnings of online business. Acquire the skills, apply those 3 steps to internet marketing and you will have a profitable business. To discover more about running an internet business please go to www.internetmarkeingmanual.com.